hayah
היה
also spelled יהי (yihi), אהיה (ahyah)
The opening scene of Genesis uses the word 'hayah' several times.
- The Mayim spoke to the Elohim “We are light!”
- The Elohim studied light (in a) dark era; studying night, we are evening
'Hayah' is just one of many possible spellings and pronunciations of the Hebrew word meaning “to be”. Interestingly, it appears to be built upon the root word 'hay' which means “life”.
Although there are many minor variations on spelling and pronunciation of this family of words, there is little debate regarding the meanings of this family of words. The verb “to be”, and its many forms “is”, “was”, etc., are universally acknowledged.
In the book of Exodus we are shown that 'hayah' is the root of the name Yahweh/Jehovah. Notice the personal nature of the word as it is used in Exodus. 'Jehovah' is very definitively understood to mean “I AM”. Jehovah does NOT mean “it is” or “it was”.
Bringing this personal understanding back to the context of Genesis, we have applied 'hayah' to the opening scene with this same consistent personal nature, this time spoken by the plural Elohim, to mean “we are”. This interpretation is arguably more consistent across the uses of the word 'hayah', and in particular, its use as the basis for Jehovah's name.
Notice however that the Genesis 1:2 uses a different word for “to be” when first referring to planet Earth. instead of 'hayah' we see (hytah) היתה used instead. Although Strong's concordance lumps this together with 'hayah', these are not the same word, nor are built upon the same root word and should not be lumped together. see strong_errors