Baruch Hashem Adonai - Messianic praise (with lyrics)

Comment

Comment by benelchi on April 17, 2011 at 8:18am

This is a wonderful song and I found this site while I was looking for different versions of this song. When I found this link, I noticed the Hebrew text in the comment included with this video post was incorrect. The Hebrew text (כבוד שם יהוה) is "kavod shem adonai" which means "honor the name of the Lord" and not "Blessed be the name of the Lord"

 

"Baruch Hashem Adonai" in Hebrew is (ברוך השם יהוה); however, while this reflects the actual Hebrew words in this song, it is grammatically incorrect. "Blessed is the name of the Lord" should be "ברוך שם יהוה/baruch shem adonai" in Hebrew; the difference is the "ha" prefix (that means "the") should not have  been included. In Hebrew nouns that are in the construct form cannot take the definite article; they are "made" definite because the noun on which the depend is definite. For example "אשת בית/ishet bayit" is translated as "woman of a house" because the noun (bayit/house) is indefinite, but "אשת הבית/ishet habayit" is translated as "the woman of the house" because the constructed noun (house) is definite.

 

One more interesting thing about this phrase is seen in the translation of "יהוה" (literally "Yahweh"); Adonai in Hebrew is actually written as "אדוני"; however, whenever the Name "Yahweh" is read by Jewish people in Hebrew they verbally substitute the word "Adonai" (or in more orthodox circles "Hashem"); this is a tradition that has its roots many centuries before Christ's incarnation. It was a means of providing a hedge against using the name of the Lord in vain. In Hebrew texts that include the nekkud (vowel pointings developed in the 4th-7th century AD) the word "Yahweh" is pointed with the vowels from "Adonai" as a reminder to the reader that one should make this verbal substitution when reading the text. When the word is read with the nekkud, the pronunciation is "Yehovah" (This is where the name Jehovah originated).