“The great name of God was known from the earliest history of man to the time when Moses was called to deliver Israel from Egyptian bondage; but, like the name of the present day, it was to those early people only a word-sound, or an appellation referring to a certain deity. But when Moses was commissioned to deliver Israel, he was not given the name only, but he was given to know the meaning also, as we shall see further on.
The name Yahveh, translated Jehovah a few times, occurs many times throughout the Hebrew Scriptures and is translated Lord and God. But in order to distinguish this the name of God from the other names of God in the Authorized Version, the translators have nearly always put it in capitals. Concerning the name Yahveh, we give the following references:
“And God said unto Moses, I will be that I will be; and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I will be hath sent me unto you.” (Exodus iii, 14, Rabbi Leeser’s translation.)
“And God said unto Moses, I am that I am (Hebrew – ehyeh asher ehyeh); and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you. That this passage is intended to indicate the etymology of Jehovah as understood by the Hebrews, no one has ventured to doubt; it is in fact the key to the whole mystery. But though it certainly supplies the etymology, the interpretation must be determined from other considerations. Jehovah must be the third person, singular, masculine, future, of the substantive verb hayah, to be. We accept Yahveh as the more probable punctuation.” – Dictionary of the Bible, by Dr. William Smith.
“Although we may not be able to give with perfect certainty the literal meaning of this name, yet at least we will no longer designate it by the barbarous form ‘Jehovah’, (which was produced only three centuries ago through Christian aggravation of a Jewish superstition), but we will restore its real sound Hahvay, were it only as a sign that Hebrew antiquity is now springing up among us out of the grave of ages, endowed with fresh life.” — Heinrich Ewald, History of Israel, translated by Russell Martineau.
“So far as the interests of criticism are concerned all scholars are now agreed. Gesenius and Ewald on the side of Philologists; Hengstenberg, Tholuck, Lutz, etc., on the side of theologians, are united for once. They all agree in giving it the form Yahveh and the future tense, as its literal rendering.” — Yahveh Christ, by Alexander McWhorter.
These quotations show that scholars are to a great extent agreed as to the pronunciation of the name, that some have even discovered its true surface meaning, and that the name relates to the one God, the God of the universe, the all-pervading Spirit.”
Hiram Butler
The Mark Of God: Understanding Your "I AM Presence" 