If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD;
That thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name. It would have been better here, and in many other passages if our translators had preserved the original term, "Yahweh thy God." In the public contract which God made with the nation of Israel, the preface to the commandments promulgated ran thus: "I am Yahweh thy God, who have brought thee out of the land of Egypt" (Exodus 20:2).
This was a development of Noah's prophetic utterance to Shem. But Pharaoh had never heard of the name Yahweh (Exodus 5:1-2), and Moses knew nothing of it until, on being called to his divine legation, he was for the first time informed what was to be the name of God during the extraordinary theocracy (Exodus 3:13-15; Exodus 6:3).
From all this it appears that Yahweh was to be the name of God during the course of the theocracy. And it is very remarkable that, since the expiration of the theocracy, this national name of God has ceased among the Jews, who, through the influence of a blind superstition, dare not utter the name. This, therefore, which was to be "God's name and memorial unto all generations" - namely, of the Jewish nation-has ended with the theocracy.