Adonai El-roi

I recently did a quick study of the purported name of God “Adonai El-roi”. There were variations such as “Adon el-roi”, “Adoni el-roi” and “Adonay el-roi”. To my surprise I simply could not find it save in one place in my vast library of resources, the Complete Jewish Bible also known as CJB. No commentary I have even mentioned it.

So, here is the actual CJB of Genesis 16:13:

Genesis 16:13 (CJB)
13  So she named Adonai who had spoken with her El Ro’i [God of seeing], because she said, “Have I really seen the One who sees me [and stayed alive]?”

As you see above “Adonai” is not immediately before “El Roi” so in fairness it would be “Adonai…El Roi”.

The next question would be: How many versions of the Bible even use “Adonai” in this verse as you see above? The answer: 1 – CJB.

So it is safe to say “Adonai” here in this verse is incorrect.

So, what is used here in the first part of the verse? The most common is “YHWH” or Yahweh, Jehovah, LORD or Lord with the Strong’s number designation H3068.

So how about the second “God” reference? “El” or “God” was used in almost all translations with the Strong’s designation of H410.

Now for the third part: “Roi”, “roi”, “Ro’i” with a Strong’s designation as H7210. This is translated as “sees” or “who sees”, “seeing”, “beholder”, “seeth”, and in one interlenier “H7200” “to see”.

So now incorporating these we have: “the Yahweh/Jehovah…the God who sees.”

In conclusion: In my writings I tend to use the shortened name, “Jehovah/Yahweh roi”, meaning the actively participating God who interacts with His people who He sees and cares about.