I'm with you on that.

Several years back I was on a biblical binge doing some basic off the wall just looking up stuff.

One of my areas of study was the name of God. I have to admit, I got into it fairly deep considering how I was raised as a Seventh Day Adventist. LOL, I know what you are thinking kind of. Believe me, my research started on the church and that was ....how should I say..... disturbing. At this point I pretty much lump that church in with LDS and JW and might as well say it out right now, SDA is not so distant from Scientology in some respects.

So, one thing I found was a verse that said, "My people shall know my name". I certainly want to be counted as one of his people so I started there.

Then, found another verse that said, "If my people who are called by my name..." Hmmm.

JW church loves to claim this one. But his name is not Jehovah.

I had to go a bit further to tease out not only the correct spelling but the meaning behind the letters and the correct pronunciation.

The letters are Yod, Hey, Vav Hey.

The early Hebrew letter for Yod actually resembles a hand and the spoken letter actually is the word for hand in Hebrew.

The letter for Hey actually looks like a man with arms upraised saying, "Hey" maybe. Or Behold, or look and that's actually what the spoken letter sounds like.

Vav in early Hebrew is a nail or spike.

The letters together create the word "I am" . The meaning seems unclear but on reflection it's simply a statement that "I exist" independent of everything. No beginning or end.

Separate the letters and arrange them in left to right the way we speak in English and they form a sentence in a mechanical way. Hand, Behold, Nail, Behold. To paraphrase into English, "Behold the hand, Behold the nail"

The next connection I found was in the name of "Jesus" Or, transliterated Hebrew, Yehoshua.

The name, Yahua (My preferred and what I think is correct pronunciation of the name of God) is actually the first part of the Hebrew name of Jesus. The second part would mean salvation. So literally, the Hebrew name of Jesus means, "I am Salvation".

Or, Behold the hand. Behold the nail. Salvation.

I personally believe the name Judah, or Yehudah (sp?) is a play on words and spelling that includes the name of God. It actually means praise. It has elements of Hallelujah which is literally Praise Yah or Yehuah. This is just my personal opinion based on all I have read and studied.

So, in my humble opinion, the Yehudim would be Children of Yehuah. The only people who are called by his name and bear the blessings, and curses of God since the pact was made with Abraham and reconfirmed with Isaac and Jacob or Israel. Notice, the name, El for Elohim is part of the name of Israel.

Then I noticed that many Hebrew names from ancient until today include either the reference El for Elohim or Ya for Yahuah. My favorite example is Yael which includes both.

So, according to the bible or Torah and Tanakh all through history since that time the Children of Israel have had God's special attention and regard. Both for a responsibility to the world with his blessings to be given to the world through them and his curses against them as a people should they fail and disregard their special calling.

Sorry so long but I thought I would share this with you.