Did the patriarchs know God by the name of YHWH?

Question:

Did the patriarchs know the proper name of God as "YHWH"? Or did He reveal Himself only to Moses and the Israelites?

Answer:

The name YHWH first appears in Genesis 2:4, so the name YHWH has been known since creation. Abram called on the name of the LORD (YHWH). "The LORD appeared to Abram and said, 'To your descendants I will give this land.' So he built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him. Then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD" (Genesis 12:7-8). In Jacob's blessing of his sons, he said, "For Your salvation I wait, O LORD" (Genesis 49:18).

In case someone thinks that since Moses wrote Genesis that he used the name of God that he knew, look at the book of Job, which takes place around or before the time of Abraham. Job uses the name YHWH for God. "Who among all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this, in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?" (Job 12:8-9).