Hebrew for Bible Readers

018

µyIm;v;h’ tj’t’ Åp,je–lk;l] t[;ew] ÷m=;zÒlkol’

lak-kohl zeman ve-eht le-kohl cheh-fets ta-chat ha-sha-ma-yim

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven” (Ecclesiastes [Koheleth] 3:1). This biblical expression provides a means for saying “Shalom!” (Goodbye!). For this will be the final lesson in this series. The preparation of these lessons has been challenging. I know from experience that even in a classroom a teacher cannot anticipate all the questions students may ask. Even more so, attempting to be concise and clear in these lessons has often left me wondering what I should have written that would have been more helpful and effective for you, the reader. I hope these lessons have encouraged you to start, or to continue, the study of Hebrew. But please do not stop now. The end of these lessons should be the beginning of your personal study, with the assistance of one or more of the excellent resources available to you. I will list some of these below.

What have we learned?

Hebrew Sounds

We began with Hebrew phonology, the basic building blocks of sound upon which verbal communication is built. Of course, to read the Hebrew Bible is to participate in written communication, but the sound is mother to the symbol. We do not know exactly how the Hebrew of the biblical prophets sounded, but the sounds you learned are a satisfactory approximation. You can easily review your Hebrew consonants, and vowels, now that you have had this initial contact with them.

Hebrew Vocabulary

Through these lessons, you have become familiar with some basic words. You can recognize, for example, nouns, verbs, the definite article and prepositions. As you read the Hebrew verse above, you no doubt recognized the familiar preposition le, which appears so often prefixed to a noun. You saw the patach – beneath the l and the dagesh . in the following consonant, so you knew the first word was, literally, “to the whole.” This was followed by a word you may not know yet, ÷m=;zÒ zeman. The meaning, “time,” is in the translation, but you could have found it in a Hebrew-English dictionary. A number of dictionaries (also called lexicons) are available, but for the beginning level I recommend either Langenscheidt’s Pocket Hebrew Dictionary by Dr. Karl Feyerabend (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1961) or W. L. Holladay’s A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1971). You likely would have guessed that ÷m;zÒ was a masculine, singular noun, since it had neither the markings of a masculine plural ending in µy. –im or a feminine form ending in h; –ah (singular) or t/i –ot (plural).

Hebrew Syntax

You also have learned enough Hebrew syntax to recognize that there is no verb in this verse. We must, therefore, have verbless clauses here, and we do. In fact, the accent mark (=) atnach appearing under ÷m=;zÒ indicates that the first two words of the verse form an expression with an understood verb, “is.” Similarly, the second part of the verse could be literally translated: “and a time (is) for every matter under the heavens.” (By the way, the subject, t[ eht, is a feminine noun, ending in t t, an alternative to h; ah as a feminine singular ending.) And finally, you have met tj’t’ ta-chat before and recognize it as a preposition.

You see! You really have learned considerable Hebrew in these lessons! To continue your learning, study one of the following helpful books:

Page H. Kelley, Biblical Hebrew: An Introductory Grammar (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1992).

Thomas Lambdin, Introduction to Biblical Hebrew (New York: Macmillan, 1971).

Menahem Mansoor, Biblical Hebrew Step by Step (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1978). Also available by the same author and publisher are Key to Biblical Hebrew Step by Step, vol. 1 and Biblical Hebrew Step by Step, vol. 2, Readings from the Book of Genesis, with a key to volume 2 and cassette tapes to accompany each volume.

C. L. Seow, A Grammar for Biblical Hebrew (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1987).

Jacob Weingreen, A Practical Grammar for Classical Hebrew, Second Edition (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1959).

A final word: µk,yle[‘ t/kr;b]W µ/lv; sha-lom uverakot a-ley-chem “Peace and blessings on you all!”