The Force of Hebrew Names for God

There is, I think, no difficulty in Ex. 6:3. If we compare Ex. 3:14, 15, we find there, "Jehovah, the God of your fathers." It was the personal name of God as having to do with men, and particularly with Israel - man in the flesh set in relationship with God. It is His abiding name as to this world, either who was, and is, and is to come, if we take Him historically, or more perfectly as in Revelation who is (ὁ ὤν), and was, and is to come, the ὁ ὤν, the existing one (atta hu), and past in time, and to come. But in Ex. 6:3 it is different. It speaks of the character in which He revealed Himself in order to their walking before Him. And note, when the revelation of Shaddai, as the name to be owned in walk took place, it is said Jehovah appeared unto Abram; and the word was, "I (Jehovah) am El Shaddai; walk before me." Hence, in Ex. 6:3, "I am Jehovah; and I appeared unto Abraham (ב) as El Shaddai: (in) my name Jehovah was I not (made) known to them." This refers to the appearing to put them according to the nature of that revelation in relationship with Himself: so to Jacob (Gen. 35:11), as soon as God revealed Himself to him. To Isaac, who stands connected with Rebekah, the risen head of the church, He is not revealed by any name.
The historical name is always Jehovah or Elohim. The One who appears is always Jehovah; but He appears to Abraham as El Shaddai, and so reveals Himself as the ground of, and that which gives its character to, his walk before Him. But it is always Jehovah who appears, as in chapter 12:7. In chapter 15:7 it is no appearing. The word of Jehovah came to Abraham and said, "I am Jehovah that brought thee out of Ur." And in Psa. 91, the title of Shaddai is used as the expression of almighty protection; the Messiah says as knowing the true secret of who the Most High is: "I will say of Jehovah," etc. And so He is kept by the power of Shaddai. Thus, I judge, that though Jehovah, as the expression of the constant being of God, was taken as the specific covenant name of Israel's God - the God of man in the flesh who had to say to God - yet it was, as the name of constant being, the abiding historical name of God. Almighty and Father are special names of character and relationship taken with those to whom God is so revealed. The name of the one true God, the name of the being, is His abiding name, in relationship with the earth - the name. The Israelite had "blasphemed the name." Most High is another relative name taken. Hence it is only in the millennium fully. But it is still Jehovah who is the Most High. Hence you would not have 'the angel of Shaddai' or of the Father, or Elion, because he represents His power as such, not a name of relationship; but he took His name, as the name of relationship with Israel.
It was not that the name of Jehovah was not known as the proper name of the true God, but that His making Himself known to them, as the One before whom they were to walk, was in another specific name. He did not take His name, His own name so to speak, as the name by which He was to be in relationship with them. It is a very important circumstance as to Israel that God's own name, what I may call His personal name, at least in connection with man on earth, "the name" became the name of relationship with that people. Hence in celebrating that name, even in the wide extent of the unopened glory, in the past which belongs to earth, we have (Psa. 8), " O Jehovah our Adon, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!" He had set in that His glory now above the heavens. Elohim is the One who stands in the position of the divine being. Jehovah is the personal name of Him who truly is so. He became the Elohim of the Jews as a nation who had been called out of the world to and by Him when idolatry had come in. (Josh. 24) Jehovah, He is Elohim. And now we say, Father, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent; but withal of the Son, He is the true God and eternal life. When it is said "then Jehovah shall be my Elohim" (Gen. 28:21), we must refer to verse 13, whence Jacob drew that which he then said, and so verse 16. But in Ex. 6:2, we have equally, "I am Jehovah." But in Gen. 35, when Elohim reveals Himself to Jacob as the present God with whom he had to do, it is again (ver. 11) El Shaddai. Jehovah is found in chapters 31:3; 32:9. In a word, Jehovah was not unknown to their own thoughts or in intercourse; but it was not the name He took in relationship to the patriarchs in their character as such: it was with Israel after the bush.
The Force of Hebrew Names for God
As to the divine names, Elohim, אלהים is the common name for God, Him with whom we have to do; hence for all who are viewed in this place by man, or represent Him who is rightly so viewed, as judges in Israel (Ex. 21), or angels. (Psa. 8) Of course there is but one true God, but gods many amongst men: but hence, in Elijah's history, "Jehovah is the Elohim, Jehovah, he is the Elohim." It is the word in universal use for God as such. But constantly, when Elohim is distinctly used for the one true God, the article is added Ha Elohim. Eloah is the singular of Elohim.
El (אל) is the strong or mighty one, who stands, so to speak, by His own power. Hence we have El-Elohe-Israel, El (God, the mighty one) אל, the God of Israel. El and Eloah are constantly used in Job. (אל chap. 5:8; 8:13, 20; 9:2; 12:6; 13:3, 7, 8; 15:4, 13, 25; 16:11, etc. אלוה 3:4, 23; 4:9; 5:17; 6:4, 8, 9; 9:13; 10:2; 11:5, 6, 7; 12:6; 15:8, etc.) It is said to be Aramean. So we have in Daniel El Elion (most high God).
I can say nothing satisfactory to my own mind as to Jah. That it is used as an ancient poetic name for Jehovah is clear, as in Hallelujah. So in Ex. 15 "my strength and my song is Jah." If you look into most dictionaries, you will find it stated to be a shortening of Jehovah. But then I find them used together, as Isa. 26:4, "In Jah Jehovah is everlasting strength." So Isa. 12:2, "My strength and my song is Jah Jehovah." It is found in Psa. 68 where a ב precedes, translated "by His name Jah" in English, but which may be doubted, though a name of holy song and praise at any rate.
Jehovah is God's name of dealing and relationship with men, specially with Israel, derived (I suppose) from חיח, to exist; and practically translated "who is and was and is to come," not, "who was, and is," which is true, but "is" (exists, that is, in Himself eternally) "and was and will be" in past and future true. Hence He is one who having spoken makes good. "Thou art the same and thy years shall not fail." Hence we have in Gen. 1, "Elohim," the Creator; in Gen. 2, "Jehovah Elohim," because the relationship of God with men is spoken of; for there it is not His place simply over creatures as such connected with God, but all His various relationships: how Adam was placed, warned, and dealt with, his wife's place with him, creatures' subjection, etc. These words, Elohim and Jehovah, are never confounded in scripture. The senseless scissors' distinction of rationalists shows only their want of looking intelligently into the written word of God. God is God as such; Jehovah, One who enters into relationship with His people and with men.
There is another name אלשךי by which God revealed Himself, that is to Abraham and the patriarchs, El Shaddai. See Ex. 6:3, where Elohim takes specially the name of Jehovah as the God of Israel. These two names are beautifully brought out in 2 Cor. 6:18 to take the name of Father with us. "I will be a Father and ye shall be my sons and daughters," says Jehovah Shaddai, the God who was the one to Israel, the other to Abraham. In Gen. 2:3 it was of all importance to connect Jehovah, Israel's national God, with the only one creator God. So in Ex. 9:30 the God of the Hebrews, whose name was Jehovah, is declared to be Elohim; Pharaoh would not yet fear Him. Otherwise Jehovah is a name, Elohim a being: only Jehovah is Elohim, but the former a personal name. אלעולם El Olam is the everlasting God. See Gen. 21:33.
Elion (אלעליון) is the Most High God. This is a fourth name God takes in connection with men; His millennial name above all idolatrous gods and demons and all power, and then said to be "possessor of heaven and earth." Hence, when Nebuchadnezzar is humbled, after being a beast till seven times had passed over him, he owns the God of the Jews to be the Most High God. So in Dan. 7; but not when connected with saints: there it is plural (Elionin) and refers, I believe, to the high or heavenly places. (Vers. 18, 22, 25, 27.)
אהיה Ehejeh in Ex. 3 is merely the abstract tense in Hebrew, and "I am that I am" I believe to be right enough. [Some take it as "I will be that I will be."]
Adonai (אדני) is simply "Lord" (in the plural of majesty as is said), but hence, I believe, is used for Christ, exalted as man, but Jehovah withal, as Psa. 110:5. It is also Adonai in Psa. 2:4; Isa. 6:1, 8; Dan. 9:17.
There is another word which, though it may be used as an attributive, can hardly be excluded from being a name of God. חוא Hu, Atta Hu, "thou art the same," the unchangeable One (see Deut. 32:39); "I am He, the same and besides me no god." I am He, חוא: Psa. 44:4; Isa. 41:4; 43:10, 13; Jer. 5:12. It is in the sense of the immutable existing One, which is true of God only, as Psa. 102:27 cited in Heb. 1, ὁ αὐτός.
Though the Psalms afford in the most interesting way the difference of the use of God and LORD, I just refer to Gen. 7:16. God commanded him, it was Elohim's order; and Jehovah, the personal God that cared for him, not merely the divine being, shut him in. The scissors must be very small and fine that cut this into two documents, while the Lords mind shines out with the deepest beauty and interest to those that have eyes to see. So in chapter 8:21 we have "Jehovah smelled a sweet savor," because it was a personal relationship and dealing with men. All the rest of this part is Elohim, God as God dealing with a subject world in the flood, and sparing, as such, Noah and his family. In chapter 9:26 Jehovah comes in again in evident relationship. As to all these, readers have only to take an "Englishman's Hebrew Concordance" and seek the passages where these various names occur, generic, personal, official, or compound. It will not be lost labor, nor anything which is an inlet to the divine mind - God's revelation of Himself.