It has been said that the Jewish sages associated the covenant name of God, Yahweh, with breath. The idea is that the name itself, when pronounced, is the sound of breathing: the two syllables of the name correspond to the intake and outtake of a single breath. In this way, the theory goes, our breaths evoke the name of God. A naturally voiced inhalation sounds like “Yah,” and a voiced exhalation sounds like “Weh.” Thus, with every breath we take, we are speaking God’s name. He breathed into us the breath of life (Genesis 2:7), and we still retain that breath.

According to the view that with every breath we say the name of Yahweh, we constantly have God’s name on our lips. Consciously or unconsciously, speaking the name of God is the one thing we do every minute of our lives. “In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind” (Job 12:10). “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).