In the famous oracle of Ps 110:1 David said: The LORD [i.e., YHWH] says to my lord [i.e., adoni].

The Hebrew word translated “my lord” is not Adonai (aka YHWH) but adoni, a word never used for Deity. Yet, some in what I call the Jesus-is-God Movement argue that the Hebrew name Adonijah shows that YHWH is called adoni. But here are some undeniable facts that are either missed or ignored.

Adonijah was the first of David’s sons to have what’s known as a theophoric name, i.e., names that include a shortened form of the Divine Hebrew Name Yahweh. For example, the name Elijah is a compound word that includes the singular of Elohim (El) and Jah (Yah). Similarly, Adoniyah includes the Hebrew word adon with the shortened form of the Divine Name, Yah. Hence, many notable dictionaries and commentaries translate the name as:

• “Yahweh is lord,” the Word Biblical Commentary;
• “Yah is Lord,” Holman and Hastings; The New Westminster Dictionary of the Bible; Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary;
• “Yahweh is the Lord,” Harper Collins Bible Dictionary.

The reason it looks like the word adoni is used in Adonijah is that the scribes add a hirek (the letter i) in order to facilitate a Hebrew pronunciation. You see, in Hebrew grammar the construction “Adonyah” is simply unpronounceable. The same is true for the aforementioned Elijah and many others, cp. Adoniram, 1 Kings 4:6; 5:14 and Adonikam in Ezra 2:13, 8:13; Neh. 7:18.

So, it remains true that in all of its 195 uses in the OT Adoni is only used for a human master or lord. The noted American scholar Frederick Dale Bruner in his commentary on Matthew is right to note that: “The devout Jew would read [Ps 110:1] by covering YHWH (Yahweh), saying instead, Adonai said to Adoni. Adonai (in distinction from adoni) means Yahweh, the God revealed to Israel.” And that “in the Greek translation, too, the first kyrios is assumed to be Yahweh-God and…. the second, apparently human “lord” in the Psalm’s second noun is distinguished from the deity of the first LORD, as strict exegesis suggests.”