Removing the Divine Name as a Protection against Blasphemy

One of the Ten Commandments says: Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. KJV.

Or, as the American Standard Version has it: Thou shalt not take the name of Jehovah thy God in vain; for Jehovah will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

The wikipedia entry at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thou_shalt_not_take_the_name_of_the_Lord_thy_God_in_vain writes:

"Based on this commandment, Second Temple Judaism by the Hellenistic period developed a taboo of pronouncing the name of God at all, resulting in the replacement of the Tetragrammaton by "Adonai..."

To me, this is the same faulty logic as practising castration as a protection against adultery.

Perhaps we should also cut off our hands to avoid committing the other commandment of not stealing, or maybe we should pluck out our eyes to avoid coveting thy neighbors' wife.

This same idiocy gave us the evils of socialism/communism, the belief that we must abolish private property in order to save us from any negative effects of private property.

This same reasoning is what leads to anorexia...a deadly mental illness wherein someone stops eating for fear of gaining weight.

Now some of this might make sense if God kept his name concealed or hidden, but the contrary is true. When it came to His Name, God was a flagrant exhibitionist. His Name, YHWH/Jehovah is mentioned almost 7000 times in the Bible, more than any other name therein. God flaunted His Name with reckless abandon. When it came to His Name, Jehovah was certainly guilty of shameless self promotion.

Now, notice how God speaks of His Name:

"Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, Jehovah, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations." ASV

"Thy name, O Jehovah, endureth for ever; Thy memorial name, O Jehovah, throughout all generations." Psa_135:13 ASV

Now, when you crack open an English Standard Version Bible, do you get the sense that God's Name has been preserved "for ever"..."unto all generations?" No! Whereas the original had it 7000 times, the newer Bibles have completely removed it. This omission must be regarded as a sin of the highest order.

This is the equivalent of me writing an autobiography and every time I mentioned my name, a future editor would replace my name with the generic noun "man." Doing so would not distinguish me then from any other person. Removing God's name and replacing it with a generic "God" or "Lord" puts Jehovah on the same level as Baal, Dagon, Molech or even a human with divine authority.

The translators of the American Standard Version (1901) correctly stated: "the American Revisers, after a careful consideration, were brought to the unanimous conviction that a Jewish superstition, which regarded the Divine Name as too sacred to be uttered, ought no longer to dominate in the English or any other version of the Old Testament, as it fortunately does not in the numerous versions made by modern missionaries. This Memorial Name, explained in Ex. iii. 14, 15, and emphasized as such over and over in the original text of the Old Testament, designates God as the personal God, as the covenant God, the God of revelation, the Deliverer, the Friend of his people;-not merely the abstractly 'Eternal One' of many French translations, but the ever living Helper of those who are in trouble. This personal name [Jehovah], with its wealth of sacred associations, is now restored to the place in the sacred text to which it has an unquestionable claim."

See also 200 PDF Books on the Divine Name Jehovah/YHWH on DVDrom (Tetragrammaton)

and 145 Rare Divine Name Bibles on DVDrom (Jehovah, Yahweh, YHWH) PDF Format