A Student's Vocabulary for Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic, Updated Edition: Frequency Lists with Definitions, Pronunciation Guide, and Index

By Larry A. Mitchel

Book Overview

A Student's Vocabulary for Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic has been a standard resource for students of Hebrew and Aramaic for over 30 years. This new edition has updated formatting and transliterations to be more useful for students in vocabulary acquisition. The book provides vocabulary lists of Hebrew words appearing ten times or more in the Hebrew Bible. A separate section contains all Aramaic words appearing in the Hebrew Bible. The lists are arranged according to word frequency, allowing students to pay special attention to the words they will encounter most often when reading and translating. Complete alphabetical indices of all Hebrew and Aramaic terms in the book are included to make it more user-friendly for students.

The vocabulary lists provide:

The basic meaning of each wordSyllabification in transliterationKey information about the word's part of speechThe number of times each word appears in the Hebrew Bible

This resource is a proven and effective tool to aid students in Hebrew and Aramaic vocabulary acquisition.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0310533872
• ISBN13: 9780310533870
• Release Date: March 2017
• Publisher: Zondervan Academic
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.2" x 7.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Vocabulary Triage

Life is triage. We all must choose how to do the most in a short amount of time. A Student's Vocabulary for Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic helps by presenting the words used most frequently in the Hebrew Bible. Using this book, students of Biblical Hebrew can learn first the words that they most need to learn. If only other tasks in life came so splendidly prioritized! If you are interested in a similarly prioritized audio vocabulary builder for Biblical Hebrew, consider Old Testament Hebrew Vocabulary: Learn on the Go. Learning by reading differs from learning by hearing, so you may find it most productive to use both products concurrently. For a somewhat prioritized audio vocabulary for Modern Hebrew, consider Vocabulearn Hebrew: Level 1 (Language Power), Hebrew/English: Level 1: VocabuLearn: Original Format, Vocabulearn Hebrew Level 1 (VocabuLearn), or VocabuLearn: Hebrew, Level 1 (all four different formats of the same basic product). All these products are variations on flashcards. For more conventional paper flashcards (also prioritized), consider Old Testament Hebrew Vocabulary Cards (ZONDERVAN VOCABULARY BUILDER SERIES) or Biblical Hebrew Vocabulary Cards or Modern Hebrew Vocabulary Cards: Academic Study Card Set.

Exactly what is needed

As others have said, this is a terrific vocabulary builder, containing both Hebrew and Aramaic words. The back contains an index which I have found wonderfully helpful as an aid to finding the root in drop-letter or hollow verbs. Sometimes BDB gives far too much information. The one minor flaw is that feminine nouns aren't identified as such

A superb vocab list

This book is a great list for those students who wish to build their vocabulary in order to gain a greater understanding to the bible. This book is not a dictionary and don't try to use it as such. The words are broken into sections according to the frequency in which they occur in the bible. The more frequent a word occurs the closer to the front they will appear. The words are not in alphabetic order. However, if you wish to improve your vocabulary quickly by learning the most useful words than this book is for you.

Well Organized

The interesting thing about learning Biblical Hebrew is that there is a definite limit to how much vocabulary you need to learn (about 8700 words). This booklet arranges all words together by frequency, without having to switch between a verb and a noun section. This book gives the frequencies of each word so that you can basically calculate how much of the Hebrew Bible you will be able to read as you learn. Its one downfall is that it doesn't give frequencies on words over 5000 occurrences--it just says 5000. Well, that's very inadequate considering that "-h" (the) occurs some 48,000 times, not 5000, and "v" (and) occurs some 38,000 times, not 5,000. Other than that, I know that having learned all words used over 200 times, I've learned close to 70% of the occurrences in the Hebrew Bible. This is the best Biblical Hebrew word listing I've seen, apart from the "Readers Lexicon," which has all words used, but it doesn't give frequencies.

A Great Tool For Hebrew Students

I was in the middle of taking a class in Elementary Hebrew. Part of the class requires learning vast amounts of vocabulary. I was struggling with learning the vocabulary as English has little roots to Hebrew. I found this little book in our library at school and it has helped to save my life! I just ordered it today to keep with me when I take Hebrew again in seminary! Thanks for the help Dr. Mitchel.-Jason