The Vocabulary Guide to Biblical Hebrew

by Gary D. Pratico, Miles V. Van Pelt

A Hebrew vocabulary guide that gives the student everything he or she needs in order to master basic Hebrew vocabulary and to expand knowledge of biblical Hebrew. This title is intentionally made with a space between the cover and the binding to allow the book to lay flat when opened.

Genres: Reference, Judaica, Biblical, Biblical Studies, Language, Judaism

336 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2003

About the author

Dr. Gary D. Pratico is Senior Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew Language at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. Dr. Pratico holds a Bachelor of Arts from Berkshire Christian College, a Master of Divinity from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Doctor of Theology from Harvard University with concentration in Hebrew Bible, Ancient Near Eastern History and Syro-Palestinian Archeology. Dr. Pratico was curator of archaeological collections at the Harvard Semitic Museum from September 1982 until December 1993. He has participated in archaeological projects in North Africa, Cyprus, Israel and Jordan. He has also directed dozens of archaeological study tours of Israel, Jordan and Egypt. Dr. Pratico’s most recent book is entitled, Nelson Glueck’s 1938-1940 Excavations at Tell el-Kheleifeh: A Reappraisal. He has co-authored numerous articles with Dr. Cooley on the western cemetary at Tell Dothan and has published many articles on topics concerning biblical and ancient Near Eastern studies.

Reviews

[Jacob Aitken · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is what it says it is in the title. However, the genius of the book lies in giving the reader a descending order of word frequency in the Hebrew Bible. The authors note: "By memorizing only the first fifty words in the vocabulary frequency list, students will be equipped to recognize almost 55% of the total words that occur in the Hebrew Old Testament (419,687). Students who master the 641 words that occur 50 times or more will be able to recognize 80% of all words that occur" (Van Pelt and Pratico ix).

My brethren, I can testify. I had 2 years of Hebrew in seminary and let it drop when I left. I probably didn't touch it again for six years. When I came back, my grammar, verb tenses, etc were weak, obviously. But I followed the reasoning of this book and my vocabulary recognition was surprisingly strong.

The first section of the book is by overall frequency. It begins with waw (50,524 occurrences). The 100th most frequent word is peh, mouth (498 occurrences). The 500th most frequent word is tsar, foreign or strange (70 occurrences).

The other sections of the book are arranged by common root, proper nouns, common gender, endingless feminine singular nouns, adjectives, prepositions, verbs, verbal roots in the derived stems, Weak Verbs I-נ, III-ה, I-Guttural, II-Guttural, III-ח/ע, III-א, Weak Verbs Biconsonantal, Weak Verbs Geminate, and identical words with different meanings.

[Robert Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to buy A Student's Vocabulary for Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic for class next semester, and it's got a lot to live up to. This book is very well laid out, helpful, easy to read and conveniently organized. I recommend it to anyone studying Biblical Hebrew.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just definitions of Hebrew words organized by frequency of their use in the Bible.

This is a very convenient book to toss in your bag for when you want to memorize a few new Hebrew words while standing in line. Some people prefer the cards, but this was far more convenient for me.