Thou art my hope, O Adonai Jehovah. Ps. lxxi. 5.
But do thou for me, O Jehovah Adonai, for thy name’s sake. Ps. cix. 21.
O Jehovah Adonai, the strength of my salvation. Ps. cxl. 7.
Mine eyes are unto thee, O Jehovah Adonai. Ps. cxli. 8.
The phrases “Thus saith Adonai Jehovah Zebaoth,” “Adonai Jehovah,” and “Adonai Zebaoth,” occur in very numerous instances in the prophets. Probably in all such formulas the sense would be more perfectly expressed by interposing the words who is, or who art: as, The Adon who is Jehovah of hosts; The Adon who is the Adonai of hosts; The ark of Adonai, who is Jehovah. It is evidently by way of explanation, illustration, and emphasis, that two or more designations are so conjoined.
Some critics, probably from regarding the terms Adonai and Adon as of inferior significance to Jehovah and Elohim, when employed as Divine designations, imagine that the Jewish copyists substituted the former in place of the latter, or in place of Jehovah, to avoid the enunciation of that sacred name. No supposition could well be more improbable than this, whether considered in relation to the subject-matter, or to the reason assigned for it. In relation to the subject, it would imply a general consent among copyists, Jewish readers, priests and rabbies, and Gentile proselytes, as to the instances in which such a surreptitious change should be made, received, and sanctioned. And as to the alleged reason, if it was a real and sufficient reason in a single instance, or in many instances, why not in all? Why suppress the fearful name, and substitute a term of inferior or doubtful import in some cases, and allow it to retain its place in a far greater number of cases? But the groundlessness of the supposition referred to is sufficiently shown by the fact that, in the passages above cited, and in many others, the several designations, Adonai, Adon, Jehovah, and Elohim, are employed conjointly in the same sentences, with reference to the same Person, and as of equivalent import as Divine designations.
The same Divine Person, the Messiah, the Administrator and Revealer, manifested himself to the inspired writers in various ways, and in different aspects of his person and relations: to their faith as the self-existent, omnipresent Jehovah; to their senses in his complex, official person, and delegated, covenant relations, the Messenger, visible in the likeness of man, Adonai, the Adon.
Thus Daniel, chap. x. 16, 17: “One like the similitude of the sons of men touched my lips; then I opened my mouth and spake, and said unto him that stood before me, O Adonai!... how can the servant of this Adonai talk with this Adonai?” And Amos, chap. vii., relates that he saw the Adonai standing on a wall, with a plumb-line in his hand, and that the Adonai spoke to and was answered by him. The context shows that, though appearing visibly as a man, he exercised Divine prerogatives. Again, chap. ix. 1: “I saw the Adonai standing upon the altar.” Afterwards he speaks as Jehovah, and, verse 16, utters the prediction, quoted Acts xv. 16, that, after the Gentile dispensation, “I will return and will build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen down, ... and I will set it up.”
In the first chapter of Zechariah the following Divine designations occur: Jehovah, Jehovah Zebaoth, Adonai, the Melach, and Melach Jehovah. The Person locally present and visible, who in the 9th verse is called Adonai and the Melach, in the 11th and 12th verses Melach Jehovah, and in the 13th, 14th, and 19th verses the Melach, is in the 8th and 10th verses called a man. I saw by night and behold, a man ... among the myrtle trees, v. 8. And the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered, v. 9. And they answered the Melach Jehovah that stood among the myrtle trees, v. 11.
But the prophet on seeing the man, v. 8, addresses him as Adonai. “Then said I, O Adonai! what are these?” And the Melach answered, &c. v. 9. In the progress of the ensuing colloquy, the visible Person, in the form of man, the Melach, the Melach who is Jehovah, speaks to and of Jehovah and Jehovah Zebaoth, as the Messiah did when visibly present incarnate in man’s nature on earth; and an audible response was in like manner given. See v. 10, 12, 13.