12 days · About 9 minutes a day

Names of God: A 12-Day Bible Study for Women

This is a free 12-day Bible study on the names of God for women: one name a day, about nine minutes, read at the moment it was first given. I AM at the burning bush; Elohim, the Creator, in the first sentence of the Bible; El Shaddai, God Almighty, to a childless man of ninety-nine; Jehovah Jireh, the LORD will provide, on the mountain after the knife was raised; Jehovah Rapha, the LORD who heals, at a bitter well; Jehovah Nissi, the LORD my banner, over a man whose arms were too tired to hold up; Jehovah Shalom, the LORD is peace, to Gideon hiding in a winepress; Jehovah Rohi, the LORD my shepherd; Jehovah Tsidkenu, the LORD our righteousness; Abba, Father; Immanuel, God with us; and Alpha and Omega. Almost every one of these names was given at a specific moment, and usually a bad one. That's what this study is built on — not a vocabulary list, but the circumstances that make each name usable. Where scholars genuinely disagree about what a name means, the session says so.

Length: 12 days — start any time
Time per day: About 9 minutes
Passages: Exodus, Genesis, Judges, Psalms, Jeremiah, Romans, Matthew, Revelation
Translation: Berean Standard Bible (BSB)
Format: Read here, or listen in the app
Best for: Knowing who God says He is; small groups; beginners welcome

The 12 names of God, and where each was given

One name a day, in order. The plan opens with I AM and closes with Alpha and Omega, which turn out to say the same thing.

Day	Name & meaning	Passage	The moment it was given	Line to carry
1	I AM I am who I am	Exodus 3:13–15	Moses at the burning bush, told to go back to Egypt	I AM has sent me to you.
2	Elohim God, Creator	Genesis 1:1 · Psalm 19:1	The first sentence of the Bible	In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
3	El Shaddai God Almighty	Genesis 17:1–8	Abram at 99, childless after 24 years of promise	I am God Almighty.
4	Jehovah Jireh The LORD will provide	Genesis 22:1–14	Abraham on the mountain, the knife already raised	The LORD will provide.
5	Jehovah Rapha The LORD who heals	Exodus 15:22–26	Three days after the Red Sea, at a bitter well	I am the LORD who heals you.
6	Jehovah Nissi The LORD my banner	Exodus 17:8–16	Moses on a hill, arms held up by two others	The LORD Is My Banner.
7	Jehovah Shalom The LORD is peace	Judges 6:11–24	Gideon hiding in a winepress, before any battle	The LORD Is Peace.
8	Jehovah Rohi The LORD my shepherd	Psalm 23:1 · Ezekiel 34	David, naming a relationship rather than an altar	The LORD is my shepherd.
9	Jehovah Tsidkenu The LORD our righteousness	Jeremiah 23:5–6	Jeremiah, under a king whose name was a lie	The LORD Our Righteousness.
10	Abba Father	Romans 8:14–17	Gethsemane — the one time Jesus is recorded using it	Abba, Father.
11	Immanuel God with us	Matthew 1:18–23	An angel to Joseph; a name nobody ever used	God with us.
12	Alpha and Omega The beginning and the end	Revelation 22:12–13 · 1:8	The last chapter of the Bible	I am the Alpha and the Omega.

What this plan covers

The names of God in the Bible are almost never abstract titles. Most were given to one frightened person at one hard moment and written down afterwards, and this study reads each in that setting. I AM (Exodus 3) is God's answer when Moses asks for credentials — a verb in the present tense rather than a noun, later borrowed by Jesus in John 8. Elohim (Genesis 1, Psalm 19) is plural in form with a singular verb, and is first of all the one who makes and is pleased with what He made. El Shaddai (Genesis 17) is of disputed meaning but undisputed timing: given when a promise had become biologically impossible. Jehovah Jireh (Genesis 22), "the LORD will see to it", comes from the verb to see, and is named only after the ram appeared. Jehovah Rapha (Exodus 15) is a repairing word given at Marah, and not a promise that the faithful won't get ill. Jehovah Nissi (Exodus 17) is a banner — a rallying point, not a weapon — named after Moses's arms had to be held up by others. Jehovah Shalom (Judges 6) is wholeness given to Gideon before the battle, not after it. Jehovah Rohi (Psalm 23) is the one name proposed by a person rather than given by God, and it begins with "my". Jehovah Tsidkenu (Jeremiah 23) is a pun on a failing king's name, and a righteousness that belongs to someone else. Abba (Romans 8) is the adult's intimate word for a father, used by Jesus in Gethsemane. Immanuel (Matthew 1) is a name nobody ever used — what He is, rather than what He was called. And Alpha and Omega (Revelation) is the whole alphabet, with the present tense first. Every day follows the same seven movements — Arrive, Set out, Hear, Hear again, Consider, Pray, Carry — and ends with the name to carry into the day.

Day 1 in full: I AM (Exodus 3:13–15)

This is the complete first session, exactly as it's read in the app. Every day of the plan follows this shape.

Arrive

Welcome.

Take a moment to arrive properly — not just physically.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Let the morning wait outside the door for a few minutes.

Twelve mornings, twelve names. Today is the first one, and it is the one all the others grow out of.

Every name in this walk was given at a particular moment, usually a difficult one. That is what makes them usable.

Set out

Moses is standing in front of a bush that is on fire and is not burning up.

He has just been told to go back to Egypt — the country he fled from, with a price on his head — and lead an entire enslaved people out of it.

And he asks a very practical question. When they ask me who sent me, what do I say? What is Your name?

He is asking for credentials. Something to put on the letter, something he can say at a door.

And what he gets back is stranger than a name, and better.

Listen for what part of speech the answer is, because it is not a noun.

Hear: Exodus 3:13–15

Exodus, chapter three, from verse thirteen.

Then Moses asked God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is His name?' What should I tell them?"

God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'"

God also told Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers — the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob — has sent me to you.'

This is My name forever, and this is how I am to be remembered in every generation."

Hear again

I AM WHO I AM.

It is not a title, and it is not even a noun. It is a verb. Being itself.

I AM has sent me to you.

A question, and it is simpler than it sounds. There is nothing to work out.

Most of our praying is requests. This one is not.

Try saying it back to Him. You are. Just that. Notice what it is like to address somebody that way, without asking for anything.

Consider

Every other god in that world had a name that told you what it was in charge of.

The sun. The river. The harvest. The storm. You learned which one to approach for what, the way you learn which department to ring.

So Moses is asking, in effect: which one are You? What are You the god of?

And the answer is: I AM.

Not the god of something. The One who is. Before anything else existed, I was. When everything else has gone, I will be. And right now — I am.

Notice the tense, because it is the whole of it. He does not say I was, though He was. He does not only say I will be, though He will.

Present. Here. This morning.

For Moses, frightened and about to walk back into Egypt, that is exactly the point. Not: I was with your ancestors. I am with you, in this, today.

And then God does something tender, immediately. He gives His history — the God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob.

So the One who simply is turns out to be the same One who has been walking about with a particular family for three generations, learning their names and putting up with them.

Being itself has a story, and you are somewhere in it.

And centuries later a man from Nazareth said, in an argument about Abraham: before Abraham was born, I am. The people listening picked up stones, because they understood exactly which sentence He had just borrowed. The burning bush turned out to have a face.

Pray

You are. Before me, after me, and right now.

Where do you feel like Moses this morning? Asked to go somewhere you would rather not, or to do something you do not think you are the right person for. Tell Him about it.

I AM is with me. Say that back — You are with me, in this.

And He named three generations of one family, by name, as part of His own introduction. Ask Him to write your ordinary day into that same story.

Then be quiet for a moment. There is nothing to add to a name like that.

Amen.

Carry

The name to carry today.

I AM has sent me to you.

Say it once, and let it be enough on its own.

When something today feels like Egypt — a room you do not want to walk into — remember who sent you.

Tomorrow: the first name in the Bible, and a piece of grammar that has puzzled people for centuries.

For now — He is. And He is here. Go well.

Listen to Day 1 and the other eleven names in the app. Every session is read aloud, softly, over quiet music — about nine minutes a day.

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Days 2–12: one name each morning

Short summaries of the remaining sessions. Each full session is around 850 words and takes about nine minutes to listen to.

Day 2 · Elohim — God, Creator (Genesis 1:1 · Psalm 19:1)

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

Elohim is plural in form and takes a singular verb — usually read as a plural of majesty. This session notes the Christian reading and declines to push it harder than the text allows. The striking thing is what the name is attached to: before He is anything else to you, He is the one who makes, and the only character in the Bible described at the very start as pleased with His work. And Psalm 19's heavens declare without a sound. You can't debate a sky.

Day 3 · El Shaddai — God Almighty (Genesis 17:1–8)

“I am God Almighty.”

Nobody is certain what Shaddai means — overpowering, nourishing, or the God of the mountain — and this session says so. What isn't disputed is the timing. Abram is ninety-nine, childless after twenty-four years of promise, and the neighbours stopped asking long ago. At the point where it's biologically finished, God says I am God Almighty — and renames him Abraham, father of a multitude, a name he had to introduce himself by for a year with no children.

Day 4 · Jehovah Jireh — The LORD will provide (Genesis 22:1–14)

“The LORD will provide.”

The binding of Isaac. This session says plainly that the passage is horrifying and that no explanation makes it not so. Jireh comes from the verb to see: the LORD will see to it. The ram appears after the knife is raised — which is why it's named on the mountain, not in the valley. You can only name a mountain after you've climbed it. The provision was real, and it was late. To provide, in this chapter, is to have your eye on somebody.

Day 5 · Jehovah Rapha — The LORD who heals (Exodus 15:22–26)

“I am the LORD who heals you.”

Three days after the Red Sea, the water at Marah is bitter. The name is given at a well, not a sickbed, and rapha across the Old Testament means repairing — a body, an altar, a pot, a land. This session is explicit: the name has been used to tell ill people more faith would have healed them, and the passage doesn't support that. It's a covenant word about a nation, not a medical guarantee to individuals.

Day 6 · Jehovah Nissi — The LORD my banner (Exodus 17:8–16)

“The LORD Is My Banner.”

A nes was a standard on a pole, raised on high ground so scattered men knew where to regroup. The story is faintly comic: Moses on a hill with his arms up, getting tired, sat on a rock while two men hold his hands up until sunset. The altar isn't called the LORD my sword. A banner doesn't fight; it stands where it can be seen. And the great man can't do it alone, and the text says so without embarrassment.

Day 7 · Jehovah Shalom — The LORD is peace (Judges 6:11–24)

“The LORD Is Peace.”

Gideon is threshing wheat in a winepress — a pit with no wind, the worst place for the job, chosen because no one can see him from the road. His first words to the angel are close to rude: if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened? He builds the altar called the LORD is peace before the battle, with the Midianites still in the valley. Peace isn't the reward for the victory. It's the equipment issued beforehand.

Day 8 · Jehovah Rohi — The LORD my shepherd (Psalm 23:1 · Ezekiel 34)

“The LORD is my shepherd.”

Everywhere else in the walk, God speaks and a man builds an altar. Here a shepherd looks at his own life and says what God is to him, and it becomes one of the names. And the first word is a possessive: not a shepherd — my. You can be raised inside a faith and never once have said my about any of it. Then Ezekiel 34, where God says it from His side: I Myself will search for My flock.

Day 9 · Jehovah Tsidkenu — The LORD our righteousness (Jeremiah 23:5–6)

“The LORD Our Righteousness.”

When Jeremiah wrote this, Judah's king was Zedekiah — the LORD is my righteousness — and he was a catastrophe, the last king Judah ever had. Jeremiah announces a king who'll be called almost the same thing, the LORD our righteousness, and it will be true of Him. The righteousness isn't the people's; it's the LORD's, given their name. Which makes this the most freeing of the twelve.

Day 10 · Abba — Father (Romans 8:14–17)

“Abba, Father.”

Paul, writing Greek to Rome, leaves one word in Aramaic and then translates it. Abba isn't baby talk — scholars have pushed back on 'Daddy' — it's what a grown man calls the man who raised him. A servant who fails worries about his position; a child who fails is in trouble with someone who won't stop being his father. And Jesus's one recorded use of it is face down in Gethsemane, asking for something He didn't get.

Day 11 · Immanuel — God with us (Matthew 1:18–23)

“God with us.”

Nobody in the Bible ever calls Him Immanuel. The angel says you shall call His name Jesus; Matthew adds that they will call Him Immanuel. Jesus is what you call Him; Immanuel is what He is. Matthew bookends his whole gospel with it — God with us in chapter one, I am with you always in the last verse. Of the three words, with is the scandal.

Day 12 · Alpha and Omega — The beginning and the end (Revelation 22:12–13 · 1:8)

“I am the Alpha and the Omega.”

Alpha and Omega aren't only the first and last letters; they name the whole alphabet, what everything gets written with. And the three-part formula is in the wrong order on purpose: who is, and was, and is to come — the present first, as at the burning bush. None of these twelve names was worked out in a study. Every one was given to somebody in the middle of something, which is why they still work in the conditions you're actually in.

How to use this study

In order. It opens with I AM and closes with Alpha and Omega, and the last day only lands if you were at the bush on the first.
Carry the name. Each session ends with one name to say during the day — Jehovah Jireh in the valley, Jehovah Shalom before the thing you're dreading.
Go gently on Days 4 and 5. The binding of Isaac is disturbing and the session says so. The LORD who heals is handled carefully for anyone who is ill.
With a small group. Twelve names fits twelve weeks, or three a week for a month. "When was the name given?" is the best discussion question.
Next. The Shepherd Psalms walk takes Jehovah Rohi into ten days of Psalm 23 and its kin.

Frequently asked questions

What are the names of God in the Bible?

This plan covers twelve: I AM (Exodus 3), Elohim (Genesis 1), El Shaddai (Genesis 17), Jehovah Jireh (Genesis 22), Jehovah Rapha (Exodus 15), Jehovah Nissi (Exodus 17), Jehovah Shalom (Judges 6), Jehovah Rohi (Psalm 23), Jehovah Tsidkenu (Jeremiah 23), Abba (Romans 8), Immanuel (Matthew 1) and Alpha and Omega (Revelation 22). There are others; these are the most widely known.

What does Jehovah Jireh mean?

Usually 'the LORD will provide', but Jireh comes from the Hebrew verb to see, so it reads more literally as 'the LORD will see to it'. Abraham named the mountain after the ram appeared — after the knife was raised — which is why Day 4 calls it a name you can only give once you've climbed the mountain.

What does El Shaddai mean?

It's usually translated 'God Almighty', but scholars genuinely disagree about Shaddai: it may come from a word for overpowering, from a word suggesting nourishment and sufficiency, or from an Akkadian word for mountain. Day 3 says so, and focuses on when the name was given — to a childless man of ninety-nine.

Does Jehovah Rapha mean God will heal my illness?

It means 'the LORD who heals', and it was given at a well, when bitter water was made drinkable. Day 5 says plainly that it isn't a promise that believing people don't get ill, and that using it to tell sick people more faith would heal them is a cruelty the passage doesn't support.

Does Abba mean 'Daddy'?

Not quite. It's often taught that way, but scholars have pushed back: Abba was the ordinary, intimate word an adult would use for their own father — neither formal nor baby talk. Day 10 explains why that's actually better.

Is 'Jehovah' the right way to say God's name?

'Jehovah' is a traditional English rendering of the divine name YHWH, written in most English Bibles as 'the LORD' in small capitals. Many scholars prefer 'Yahweh'. This plan uses the traditional forms (Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Rapha) because they're the names most people know and search for.

How long is each day?

About nine minutes. Each session is a short guided reading of roughly 850 words, built around the moment the name was given rather than its etymology alone.

Which Bible translation is used?

The Berean Standard Bible (BSB). Every session works with any translation you already read.

Do I need the app?

No. The schedule and Day 1 are here in full. In the HER Hallow app each session is read aloud with music, about nine minutes a day.

One name a day, read aloud to you. The HER Hallow app has Names of God and twelve other walks — Bible reading plans for women you can listen to.

Download the app

Written by the HER Hallow team.