The title Adonai is the plural-of-majesty form of adon with a first-person possessive suffix, literally meaning 'my lords' but functioning as 'My Lord.' It became the standard reverential substitution for the personal name YHWH in Jewish reading practice, occurring over 450 times in the Hebrew Bible as a divine title.
When scribes marked the sacred text with the vowels of Adonai under the consonants YHWH to signal the substitution, it produced the hybrid form 'Jehovah' in later tradition. Adonai emphasizes God's absolute lordship — He is the cosmic Master, the One to whom all creation belongs. Isaiah uses it frequently in his throne-room vision: 'I saw the Lord (Adonai), high and exalted, seated on a throne' (Isaiah 6:1). This title is foundational for understanding biblical sovereignty and worship.