Hebrew Verbs and The First Day of Creation

An introduction to Hebrew verbs and a reading of the first day of Creation in Genesis 1:1-5.

The plan for this post is to give a brief introduction to verbs in Biblical Hebrew, introduce some vocabulary, and then read the account of the first day of creation in Genesis 1:1-5.

Hebrew verbs can come in several forms that include perfect, imperfect, wayyiqtol, weqatal, infinitive, participle, imperative, jussive, and cohortative.1 In this post I’ll focus mostly on the perfect, imperfect, and wayyiqtol forms. A Hebrew verb can also be inflected according to a derived stem called a binyan, which is something characteristic of Semitic languages. I’ll save that for another time. For now I’ll focus on what is called the qal binyan, which is the most basic form. Hebrew verbs are built on roots. These are usually three consonantal letters. Then we build on these roots by adding certain vowels to the consonants, as well as certain endings or prefixes.

The perfect and imperfect forms indicate the extension or completeness of an action in time. In the perfect form the action is completed and done. In the imperfect form the action is uncompleted or has a repeated, ongoing character.2

Let’s look first at the perfect form. We’ll look at the verb שָׁמַר as an example, שָׁמַר, meaning “watch”, “guard”, or “keep”. The third-person, masculine, singular form is שָׁמַר with a qamatz on the first syllable and a pataḥ on the second syllable, with no ending added. All other person, gender, number combinations have endings added. Here are the perfect forms of the verb שָׁמַר, “to keep”:

שָׁמַרְתִּי – I kept

שָׁמַרְתָּ – You (m) kept

שָׁמַרְתְּ – You (f) kept

שָׁמַר – He kept

שָׁמְרָה – She kept

שָׁמַרְנוּ – We kept

שְׁמַרְתֶּם – You all (m) kept

שְׁמַרְתֶּן – You all (f) kept

שָׁמְרוּ – They kept

First-person, singular has a תִּי- ending, שָׁמַרְתִּי. Second-person, masculine, singular has a תָּ- ending, שָׁמַרְתָּ. Second-person, feminine, singular has a תְּ- ending, שָׁמַרְתְּ. Third-person, masculine, singular is unmarked, no endings added, שָׁמַר. Third-person, feminine, singular has a ה- ending with a hey, שָׁמְרָה. First-person, plural has a נוּ- ending, שָׁמַרְנוּ. Second-person, masculine, plural has a תֶּם- ending, שְׁמַרְתֶּם. Second-person, feminine, plural has a תֶּן- ending, שְׁמַרְתֶּן. And Third-person, plural has an וּ- ending, שָׁמְרוּ.

Now the imperfect form. The imperfect form is used for actions that are ongoing or repeated. In the imperfect form the root is modified with prefixes, as well as endings in some cases. Here is each person, gender, and number for the qal imperfect of שָׁמַר:

אֶשְׁמֹר  – I will keep

תִּשְׁמֹר – You (m) will keep

תִּשְׁמְרִי – You (f) will keep

יִשְׁמֹר  – He will keep

תִּשְׁמֹר  – She will keep

 נִשְׁמֹר  – We will keep

תִּשְׁמְרוּ – You all (m) will keep

תִּשְׁמֹרְנָה  – You all (f) will keep

יִשְׁמְרוּ  – They (m) will keep

תִּשְׁמֹרְנָה  – They (f) will keep

First-person, singular has an -אֶ prefix, אֶשְׁמֹר. Second-person, masculine, singular has a -תִּ prefix, תִּשְׁמֹר. Second-person, feminine, singular has a -תִּ prefix as well as a י- ending, תִּשְׁמְרִי. Third-person, masculine, singular has a -יִ prefix, יִשְׁמֹר. Third-person, feminine, singular has a -תִּ prefix, תִּשְׁמֹר. First-person, plural has a -נִ prefix, נִשְׁמֹר. Second-person, masculine, plural has a -תִּ prefix and an וּ- ending, תִּשְׁמְרוּ. Second-person, feminine, plural has a -תִּ prefix and a -נָה ending, תִּשְׁמֹרְנָה. Third-person, masculine, plural has a -יִ prefix an וּ- ending, יִשְׁמְרוּ. Third-person, feminine, plural has a -תִּ prefix and  a -נָה ending, תִּשְׁמֹרְנָה.

The wayyiqtol and weqatal forms are similar to the imperfect and perfect forms, respectively. They are formed by adding a vav in front of the imperfect and perfect forms, plus a few additional modifications.3 For example, in the wayyiqtol a dagesh is placed in the letter following the vav, in most cases. As an example using the verb שָׁמַר, the third-person, masculine, singular wayyiqtol form is וַיִּשְׁמֹר. The names wayyiqtol and weqatal are conventional grammatical labels based on forms of the model verb קָטַל, “to kill”, which is often used to show verb forms. The wayyiqtol form is also sometimes called the waw-consecutive, the consecutive imperfect, and the converted imperfect. Just other names that are used for it. The wayyiqtol is extremely common, as we will see in Genesis 1.

Shortly we’ll look at Genesis 1 so let’s look at these verb forms using vocabulary from that chapter. Some of the verbs we will see in Genesis 1 have slightly different forms than שָׁמַר. They have features like guttural letters, starting with nun, starting with yud, having only two letters, or having doubled (geminate) letters.

The first verb in the Bible is בָּרָא (bara), “to create”. This verb is what is called either a III-aleph or lamed-aleph verb, which has a few differences in its conjugation. But the general form is quite similar. In Genesis 1:1 this occurs in the perfect in the third-person, masculine, singular form. But we’ll look at the other forms for practice:

בָּרָאתִי – I created

בָּרָאתָ – You (m) created

בָּרָאתְ – You (f) created

בָּרָא – He created

בָּרְאָה – She created

בָּרָאנוּ – We created

בְּרָאתֶם – You all (m) created

בְּרָאתֶן – You all (f) created

בָּרְאוּ – They created

Another verb we’ll see in Genesis 1 is אָמַר (amar), “to say”. This kind of verb is called either a I-aleph or a pey-aleph verb, which also has a few differences in its conjugation. But we can see the same general pattern. In Genesis 1:3 this occurs in the wayyiqtol in the third-person, masculine, singular form. We’ll look at all the person, gender, and number forms of the wayyiqtol for practice:

וָאֹמַר – And I said

וַתֹּאמֶר – And you (m) said

וַתֹּאמְרִי – And you (f) said

וַיֹּאמֶר – And he said

וַתֹּאמֶר – And she said

וַנֹּאמֶר – And we said 

וַתֹּאמְרוּ – And you all (m) said

וַתֹּאמַרְנָה – And you all (f) said

וַיֹּאמְרוּ – And they (m) said 

וַתֹּאמַרְנָה – And they (f) said

One we will see a lot in Genesis 1 is וַיֹּאמֶר (vayomer), “and he said”.

Before moving on to Genesis 1 let’s introduce some vocabulary that we will see in the chapter:

אֱלֹהִים – God

שָּׁמַיִם – Heavens

אֶרֶץ – Earth

רֵאשִׁית – Beginning

אֵת – Direct object marker

בְּ – In, against

לְ – To, toward

וְ – And, or

הָיָה – To be

עַל – On, upon

פָנִים – Face

רוּחַ – Wind, Spirit

מַיִם – Water

אָמַר – To say

אוֹר – Light

חֹשֶׁךְ – Darkness

רָאָה – To see

בָּדַל – To separate

בֵּין – Between

טוֹב – Good

כִּי – That

קָרָא – To call

יוֹם – Day

לָיְלָה  – Night

עֶרֶב – Evening

בֹּקֶר – Morning

אֶחָד – One

With that vocabulary, let’s move on to Genesis chapter 1.

The first chapter of Genesis is one of the most beautiful and awe-inspiring in all of scripture, and in all of world literature. There’s lots of fascinating stuff here. I’d like to look at the Hebrew text and point out some interesting features of the Hebrew language itself as well as consider some intriguing theological details that this chapter has inspired over the centuries. In the following we’ll see the perfect and wayyiqtol verb forms and our vocabulary words. We’ll also see some other interesting grammatical features that I’ll comment on as they come up.

The first verse, Genesis 1:1 reads:

בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃ 

This can be translated in different ways. Here are the King James Version and New Jewish Publication Society translations.

King James Version: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”

New Jewish Publication Society: “When God began to create heaven and earth…”

The way the King James Version renders it is the more common way. This is also how it’s translated in the NRSV, NASB, ESV, NIV, and CSB. It describes a completed action. The NJPS translation treats the verse as a subordinate clause describing the circumstances under which creation began. The difference has to do with how to translate the first word, בְּרֵאשִׁית. And this is an opportunity to talk about an interesting feature of Hebrew nouns.

Hebrew nouns can have an absolute form or a construct form. For example, the plural of בֵּן, the word for “son” in its absolute form is בָּנִים. And that’s just “sons” by itself. But if you want to say “sons of” something you have to use the construct form, בְּנֵי. To say “sons of Israel” you don’t say בָּנִים יִשְׂרָאֵל, you say בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל. Not “sons Israel” but “sons of Israel”. What we translate in English as “of” is denoted by that construct form of the noun. The interesting thing about בְּרֵאשִׁית is that in other instances where this word is used in this form it is often as a construct form, as the beginning of something. For example, as the beginning of someone’s reign (Jeremiah 26:1, Jeremiah 27:1, Jeremiah 28:1, Jeremiah 49:1). Jeremiah 26:1 reads בְּרֵאשִׁ֗ית מַמְלְכוּת יְהֹויָקִים, “In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim”. You actually have two construct forms in a row there, both “beginning of” and “reign of”. So there’s an argument that a similar thing is happening in Genesis 1:1, that it’s not just “in the beginning” but “in the beginning of…” A kind of awkward literal translation would be something like “in the beginning of God created” or “in the beginning of God creating”. But a more natural rendering in English is “when God began to create”.4,5,6

So is that right? Well that’s the debate. And it’s not just something modern scholars have brought up recently. This is an ancient debate. The medieval French rabbi Rashi (1040-1105) proposed this reading.7 Theologically and literarily each reading puts things in a slightly different stance. It’s an interesting topic. There’s been a ton of back and forth. The debate goes on and it’s not settled. So I’ll just leave it at that and say that it’s a topic.

The second word is בָּרָא, “he created”. This is an example of the perfect form we looked at earlier. In this verse בָּרָא is in the third person, masculine, singular. “He created”.

The third word is אֱלֹהִים. “God” or sometimes ‘gods’, plural. אֱלֹהִים can be used explicitly to refer to plural gods, such as the gods of other nations. But here אֱלֹהִים is not talking about plural actors. Why do we say that? Because of the form of the previous word, בָּרָא. The form בָּרָא is singular, not plural. It’s בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים not בָּרְאוּ אֱלֹהִים. So אֱלֹהִים is a single actor even though it has a plural ending.

In the rest of the first verse, God created אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָֽרֶץ. He created heaven and earth. Note there the use of אֵת, which is a direct object marker, heaven and earth here each being direct objects of God’s creation. Note also that שָׁמַיִם and אֶרֶץ are prefixed with a ה, which is similar to the definite article “the” in English. So a more literal translation like King James will say “the heaven and the earth”. Also note the ו before the second אֵת, which here means “and”. It can also mean “or” in other circumstances.

Verse 2:

וְהָאָ֗רֶץ הָיְתָ֥ה תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ וְחֹ֖שֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י תְהֹ֑ום וְר֣וּחַ אֱלֹהִ֔ים מְרַחֶ֖פֶת עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הַמָּֽיִם׃ 

“And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” (KJV)

In this verse we see an instance of the verb הָיָה, “to be”. In this verse it takes the form הָיְתָה, which is the perfect, third person, feminine, singular. It’s in the perfect form so it’s something completed, so we can say it “was”. The earth was תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ, “tohu va-bohu”, a famous Hebrew phrase. There’s a quite lyrical sound to this pair of words. Robert Alter, in his recent translation of the Hebrew Bible, tried to capture this same lyrical sound in English with “welter and waste”. I quite like that!8

And darkness חֹשֶׁךְ was upon the face of the deep עַל־פְּנֵי תְהֹום. The preposition עַל is “on” or “over”. “Face”, פָנִים, is an interesting word. It’s one of those words in a language that gets used for more than just its literal meaning. A very common word. This is a plural-form noun, which in the absolute is פָנִים but also extremely common to see it in the construct form that I mentioned earlier. The construct form is פְּנֵי. The face of something. So it’s not עַל־פָנִים תְהֹום but עַל־פְּנֵי תְהֹום.

Then there’s this תְהֹום, the deep. תְהֹום has cognates in other Semitic languages. In Akkadian it’s tiāmtum. In the Babylonian creation story, the Enūma Eliš, we see this word in the name of the ocean goddess Tiamat. So תְהֹום was a word with a lot of meaning and association in the wider cultural sphere of the Semitic-speaking world.9

Then there’s a Spirit of God, רוּחַ אֱלֹהִ֔ים. Also translated, in the NRSV for example, as a “wind from God”. As in many languages, the same word can mean “wind”, “breath”, and “spirit”. Even the English word “spirit” is etymologically related to breathing. And so it is with רוּחַ, it’s both “spirit” and “breath”.10 And what was this wind or spirit from God doing? It moved over or swept over the face of the waters. Very interesting verb here, רָחַף. In this verse it’s in a participle form, מְרַחֶפֶת. Not a very common word. Just a few occurrences in the Bible. It’s often translated as “hovering” over the waters. It could even be thought of as “brooding” like a bird. One of the other occurrences of this word רָחַף is in Deuteronomy 32:11 that talks about an eagle that hovers over its young, עַל־גֹּוזָלָיו יְרַחֵף. Then again we see this use of the word for face in its construct form, over the face of the waters, עַל־פְּנֵי הַמָּיִם.

Verse 3:

וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֖ים יְהִ֣י אֹ֑ור וַֽיְהִי־אֹֽור׃ 

“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” (KJV)

In this verse the verb, אָמַר , “to say”, takes on the wayyiqtol form. “And God said”, וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, “Let there be light”, יְהִי אֹור. Here we see the verb הָיָה, “to be” again. This time it’s in what’s called the jussive form. Jussive indicates a desire for something to be the case. It’s not merely indicative, stating that something is, nor is it quite imperative, commanding that something be. But something in between: “Let there be”. “Let there be”, יְהִי, “light”, אֹור.

“And there was light”, וַיְהִי־אֹור. This is another wayyiqtol, וַיְהִי , of the verb הָיָה, “to be”. “And there was light”.

Verse 4:

וַיַּ֧רְא אֱלֹהִ֛ים אֶת־הָאֹ֖ור כִּי־טֹ֑וב וַיַּבְדֵּ֣ל אֱלֹהִ֔ים בֵּ֥ין הָאֹ֖ור וּבֵ֥ין הַחֹֽשֶׁךְ׃ 

“And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.” (KJV)

And God אֱלֹהִים saw וַיַּרְא. This is a third-person, masculine, singular, wayyiqtol of the verb רָאָה, “to see”. He saw the light, אֶת־הָאֹור. Note the direct object marker, אֶת, and the ה prefix acting like a definite article, “the light”. He saw that, כִּי, it was good, טֹוב. In English we say “that it was good” but in Hebrew the “it is” isn’t necessary and you just say כִּי־טֹוב. You’ve probably heard the expression מזל טוב, “good fortune”. That’s an easy way to remember the word טֹוב for “good”.

And God אֱלֹהִים divided, or separated וַיַּבְדֵּל. Another wayyiqtol. Third-person, masculine, singular of the verb בָּדַל, “to divide” or “separate”. Note again the vav and the yud with a dagesh before the root of the verb. It’s worth noting that this act of dividing is characteristic of God’s creation in Genesis 1. We see this verb בָּדַל five times in the chapter. When God separates the waters above and below the firmament (verses 6 & 7) and when he creates the sun and moon to separate day and night (verses 14 & 18). But we see the concept with other words as well, as when God gathers all the waters together to make dry land (verses 9 & 10) and when he makes humans male and female (verse 27). To me this contrasts with the תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ, tohu va-bohu at the beginning of the chapter. God is imposing order by separating things into coherent categories.

God makes a separation between בֵּין the light הָאֹור and between וּבֵין the darkness הַחֹשֶׁךְ. The word for “between” here is בֵּין. Note also the vav prefix before the second בֵּין, “and between”. The vav acts as a conjunction “and” as usual but here also takes the form of a shuruq, pronounced “oo”. This happens when the vav prefix comes before certain letters: bet, mem, and pey (labial letters). In this case the bet also loses its dagesh and changes pronunciation. So with בֵּין, “between”, “and between” becomes וּבֵין.

Verse 5:

וַיִּקְרָ֨א אֱלֹהִ֤ים ׀ לָאֹור֙ יֹ֔ום וְלַחֹ֖שֶׁךְ קָ֣רָא לָ֑יְלָה וַֽיְהִי־עֶ֥רֶב וַֽיְהִי־בֹ֖קֶר יֹ֥ום אֶחָֽד׃ 

“And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.” (KJV)

The first word, וַיִּקְרָא, is a wayyiqtol of קָרָא, “to call”. “And God called”, וַיִּקְרָא אֱלֹהִים. In this verse we see the preposition ל with lamed, “to”, “toward”. In this verse a lamed preposition is used with both אוֹר, “light” and חשֶׁךְ, “darkness”: לָאוֹר and לַחֹשֶׁךְ. And he called the light, לָאוֹר, day, יוֹם, and he called the darkness, לַחֹשֶׁךְ, night, לָיְלָה. Then we see the verb הָיָה, “to be” again as a wayyiqtol, וַיְהִי , “and it was”. And it was evening, עֶרֶב, and it was morning, בֹקֶר. We can use these two words along with טֹוב, “good”, for some common Hebrew greetings: ערב טוב, “good evening”, and בוקר טוב, “good morning”. And all of this was יֹום אֶחָד, “one day”. Here we see the Hebrew number one: אֶחָד.

Let’s do Genesis 1:1-5 in Hebrew again, all together. Listen for the words and forms that we’ve gone over and see how much you can understand now.

בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃ 

וְהָאָ֗רֶץ הָיְתָ֥ה תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ וְחֹ֖שֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י תְהֹ֑ום וְר֣וּחַ אֱלֹהִ֔ים מְרַחֶ֖פֶת עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הַמָּֽיִם׃ 

וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֖ים יְהִ֣י אֹ֑ור וַֽיְהִי־אֹֽור׃ 

וַיַּ֧רְא אֱלֹהִ֛ים אֶת־הָאֹ֖ור כִּי־טֹ֑וב וַיַּבְדֵּ֣ל אֱלֹהִ֔ים בֵּ֥ין הָאֹ֖ור וּבֵ֥ין הַחֹֽשֶׁךְ׃ 

וַיִּקְרָ֨א אֱלֹהִ֤ים ׀ לָאֹור֙ יֹ֔ום וְלַחֹ֖שֶׁךְ קָ֣רָא לָ֑יְלָה וַֽיְהִי־עֶ֥רֶב וַֽיְהִי־בֹ֖קֶר יֹ֥ום אֶחָֽד׃ 

So to review. We’ve seen the perfect, imperfect, and wayyiqtol verb forms. We’ve seen construct nouns and some prepositions. We’ve learned vocabulary for and read the first five verses of the Bible. I know that this was a firehouse of information. But hopefully it can serve as a launching point for further learning for folks who are interested. I plan to do some similar readings in Genesis while highlighting certain aspects of the language. As well as other parts of the Bible.

References:

  1. Waltke, Bruce K., and M. O’Connor. An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1990. 
  2. Cook, John A. Time and the Biblical Hebrew Verb: The Expression of Tense, Aspect, and Modality in Biblical Hebrew. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2012.
  3. Fassberg, Steven E. “The Biblical Hebrew Verb.” In A Handbook of Biblical Hebrew, edited by W. Randall Garr and Steven E. Fassberg, 66–83. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2016.
  4. Speiser, E. A. Genesis. Anchor Bible 1. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1964.
  5. Sarna, Nahum M. Genesis. JPS Torah Commentary. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1989.
  6. Hendel, Ronald. “Genesis 1:1–2 as a Hebrew Temporal Clause.” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 63, no. 2 (2001): 193–209.
  7. Herczeg, Y. (1999). Sapirstein Edition Rashi – 5 Volume Slipcased Set Student Size: The Torah with Rashi’s Commentary Translated, Annotated, and Elucidated.
  8. Alter, Robert. The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary. New York: Norton, 2019.
  9. Heidel, Alexander. The Babylonian Genesis. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951.
  10. Koehler, Ludwig, Walter Baumgartner, and Johann Stamm. The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament. Leiden: Brill, 1994–2000.

Hebrew Vowels

An overview of Hebrew vowels.

A video of this content is available on YouTube.

In the last post I went through the Hebrew alphabet. This post is an overview of Hebrew vowels. The letters of the Hebrew alphabet function mostly as consonants. For most of the history of the language it was just these consonants that were ever written. That’s still mostly the case in modern Hebrew. The nature of the language is such that the consonants alone do most of the needed work. I said they function mostly as consonants. The letters he, yud, and vav can also be used to hint at general types of vowel sounds. But eventually systems were developed to explicitly indicate specific kinds of vowel sounds. A little over a thousand years ago the Tiberian vowel system was developed and this is the system that is still used today. Ancient manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible and modern Torah scrolls have only the consonants but printed Hebrew Bibles use the Tiberian vowel system so that it’s very clear, at least once you learn it, exactly how to pronounce each word. In this vowel system, instead of using letters, vowel sounds are indicated with additional symbols written around the letters. These additional symbols or diacritics are called niqqud. Since the symbols are always written around letters and not by themselves I’ll show these here with the letter aleph.

Qamatz – אָ.  The qamatz looks like a little upper-case T that goes under the letter. The qamatz makes an “ah” sound as in “father”. That’s the sound it makes in most words. In some words it can also make an “oh” sound as in “go”.

Pataḥ – אַ . The pataḥ is a horizontal line written under the letter. It also makes an “ah” sound as in father. Qamatz and pataḥ have historically had distinct sounds but they are pronounced the same in modern Hebrew.

Tsere – אֵ . Tsere is written with two horizontally aligned dots under the letter. This makes an ‘ey’ sound as in “they”.

Seghol – אֶ. The seghol is written with  three dots in the shape of a triangle, going under the letter. This makes an “eh” sound as in “bed”.

Ḥireq – אִ. The ḥireq is written as a single dot under the letter. It makes an“ee” sound as in “machine”. Letters with a ḥireq are sometimes followed by a yud as well, which is one of those helping letters.

Ḥolem – אֹ. The ḥolem is written as a single dot written to the upper left of the letter. It makes an “oh” sound as in “go”. It is also often written with a vav accompanying this single dot – אוֹֹ.

Shuruq – אוּ‎. The shuruq is written with a vav to the left of the letter with a single dot in the middle of the vav. It makes an ‘oo’ sound as in “food”.

Qubbutz – אֻ. The qubbutz is written with three dots arranged diagonally under the letter. It also makes an ‘oo’ sound.

Sheva – אְ. The sheva is written as two dots arranged vertically under the letter. It represents a very short vowel, pronounced like the first ‘a’ in “Maria” or the first ‘e’ in “Jerusalem”. Singers may be familiar with talking about a “schwa” sound, which comes from the Hebrew sheva. The sheva is also sometimes silent and is just there to mark the end of a syllable.

The sheva also combines with the qamatz, pataḥ, and seghol to form what are called “reduced” or “compound” versions of each of these.

Reduced Qamatz – אֳ. The reduced qamatz is written as a combination of a sheva and a qamatz, both written under the letter. It makes an “oh” sound as in “go”.

Reduced Pataḥ – אֲ. The reduced pataḥ is written as a combination of a sheva and a pataḥ, both written under the letter. It makes an “ah” sound as in “father”.

Reduced Seghol – אֱ. The reduced seghol is written as a combination of a sheva and a seghol, both written under the letter. It makes an “eh” sound as in “bed”.

Now let’s try spelling a few words using these vowels. With each of the following words I’ll just be giving a gloss, rather than a full definition. For a full definition consult something like the Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon, which is freely available. 

The first word is אֱלֹהִים, meaning “God” or “gods”. In אֱלֹהִים we have three of the vowel sounds. The first syllable has a reduced seghol under an aleph, pronounced – “eh”. The second syllable has a ḥolem to the left of the lamed, pronounced – “lo”. In the third syllable there’s a ḥireq under a he – “hee”. In this word there’s also a yud accompanying the ḥireq, which is quite common. This third syllable ends with the mem in its final form, so this last syllable becomes – “heem”. Eh-lo-heem. אֱלֹהִים.

The next word is יִשְׂרָאֵל, meaning “Israel”. In this word there are four niqqud but just three syllables. I’ll explain why. In the first syllable there is a ḥireq under a yud, pronounced – “yee”. This is followed by a sheva under a sin. In this case this sheva just indicates that it’s the end of the syllable so that syllable is pronounced – “yees”. So there are two niqqud in this one syllable. In the second syllable there’s a qamatz under a resh – “rah”. And in the third syllable there’s a tsere under an aleph followed by a lamed – “eyl”. Yees-rah-eyl. יִשְׂרָאֵל.

The next word is בָּבֶל, meaning “Babylon”. This word is interesting because we have two bets, one with a dagesh and one without a dagesh. So as a bonus I’ll also talk here about the dagesh. I mentioned in the recording on Hebrew letters that some letters are pronounced differently with or without a symbol called a dagesh. The dagesh is a dot in the middle of the letter. It can have a grammatical function but can also simply indicate pronunciation for those letters that change with or without a dagesh. The letters that change with a dagesh are bet, gimmel, dalet, kaf, pey, and tav. An acronym to remember these is “beged-kefet” and we can call these the beged-kefet letters, which change pronunciation with the dagesh. Or at least did change pronunciation in classical Biblical Hebrew. Some of them don’t really change any more. But some definitely still do and this includes the letter bet. In the word בָּבֶל we have two bets. The first one has a dagesh and is pronounced as a ‘b’. The second one doesn’t have a dagesh and is pronounced as a ‘v’. There’s a qammatz under the first bet, with a dagesh, so this is pronounced – “bah”. Then there’s a seghol under the second bet, without a dagesh, so this is pronounced – “veh”. Then this syllable ends with a lamed so the full second syllable is – “vel”. Bah-vel. בָּבֶל.

The next word is אֶרֶץ, meaning “land”, “earth”, or “ground”. אֶרֶץ has two seghols in it, the first under an aleph – “eh”, the second under a resh “reh”. Then the word ends with a tsade in its terminal form – “retz”. Eh-retz. אֶרֶץ.

The next word is שֻׁלְחָן, meaning table. The first syllable has a qubbutz under a shin – “shu”. Then there’s a sheva under the lamed, which ends the syllable, making this first syllable – “shul”. Next there’s qammatz under a chet, followed by a nun in its terminal form, making this second syllable – “chan”. Shul-chan. שֻׁלְחָן.

The next word is רוּחַ, meaning “spirit”, “wind”, or “breath”. The first syllable is a resh followed by a shuruq – “ru”. The second syllable is interesting and is an example of what is called a “furtive pataḥ”. Usually with the Hebrew vowels you pronounce the consonant that is given by the letter first and then the vowel that is written around it second. But when a pataḥ is under a chet, at the end of a word like this, in the last syllable, you actually pronounce the pataḥ vowel first and then the chet. So instead of “chah” this second syllable is pronounced “ach”. Ru-ach. רוּחַ.

The last word is שָׁלוֹם. This one I’m sure you’ve heard. שָׁלוֹם means “peace”, “welfare”, or “wholeness”. The first syllable has a qammatz under a shin – “Sha”. The second syllable has lamed followed by a ḥolem, this one written with a vav, followed by a mem in its final form – “lohm”. Sha-lohm. שָׁלוֹם.

And that’s my introduction to Hebrew vowels. After doing letters and vowels it’s advisable to go on and study things like pronouns, prepositions, verb forms, and so on. There are tons of good resources out there for that. My favorite is Michael Carasik’s Biblical Hebrew: Learning a Sacred Language, produced by The Great Courses. For now I’m not going to do any more posts dedicated to those topics myself, so I’ll just refer you to those resources. Instead I’m going to start looking at the Biblical text itself. And I’ll talk about various grammatical and vocabulary topics as they come up in that way. So that’s what we’ll do next time.

The Hebrew Alphabet

A quick run through the Hebrew alphabet. For both adults and kids. I’m trying to teach my daughters some Hebrew and they helped me make the recording.

This post is also a video available on YouTube.

In this post we will go through the Hebrew alphabet. The letters of the Hebrew alphabet function primarily as consonants. A few of them sometimes act as vowels as well. But for the most part vowel sounds are written in another way than with letters. We’ll cover the vowels in another video. The letters of the Hebrew alphabet are related to the letters of many other alphabets like English, Spanish, Latin, and Greek. Even the order of the letters is almost the same in each language. For example, the Greek letters alpha, beta, gamma, delta, have the same order as the Hebrew letters aleph, bet, gimmel, dalet.

With each of the letters I’ll say the sound that it makes. Two letters, aleph and ayin, are silent as consonants. Some of the letters have different ways that they can be pronounced. Some of the letters were pronounced differently in Biblical times. One notable example is vav or waw, which made a ‘w’ sound rather than a ‘v’ sound. I’ll use modern Hebrew pronunciation, which is a very common way to read even Biblical Hebrew.

Some of the letters also have different forms. Most importantly, some letters are written differently if they come at the end of a word. These include: kaph, mem, nun, pey, and tsade. In the video I’ll show the final form of such letters on the left and the other form on the right. There’s also something called a dagesh in Hebrew, which can be present or absent in some letters. Such letters are pronounced differently with a dagesh and without a dagesh. These letters are bet, gimmel, dalet, khaf, pey, and tau. But I’m not going to get into that in this video.

Here are the letters of the Hebrew alphabet:

א – aleph

Silent

ב – bet

b,v

ג – , gimmel

g

ד – dalet

d

ה – hey

h

ו – vav

v

ז – zayin

z

ח – chet

kh

ט – tet

t

י – yud

y

כ – kaf

k,kh

ל – lamed

l

מ – mem

m

נ – nun

n

ס – samekh

s

ע – ayin

silent

פ – pey

p,f

צ – tsade

tz

ק – kof

k

ר – resh

r

שׁ – shin

sh

שׂ – sin

s

ת – tav

t

Now let’s try a few simple words putting together the letters we just learned. Remember that in Hebrew words are written from right to left so look for that in the following words:

אב

Av, which means “father”. Aleph-bet. Av.

אם 

Em, which means “mother”. Notice the mem in its final form at the end of the word. Aleph-mem. Em. 

בן

Ben, which means “son”. Notice the nun in its final form at the end of the word. Bet-nun. Ben. 

בת

Bat, which means “daughter”. Bet-tav. Bat.

בית

Bayit, which means “house”. Bet-yud-tav. Bayit.

מים

Mayim, which means “water”. Notice the mem in its final form at the end of the word. Here we can see both forms in one word. Mem-yud-mem. Mayim.

יד

Yad, which means “hand”. Yud-dalet. Yad.

כן

Ken, which means “yes”. Or in the Bible this usually means “thus” or “therefore”. Notice the nun in its final form at the end of the word. Kaf-nun. Ken.

Thanks for reading. Next time we’ll take a look at the Hebrew vowel system.

Resources for Learning Biblical Hebrew

Getting back into publishing after a long hiatus. I’ve been doing a lot of sciencing so just for fun I’ll do something completely different and talk about Hebrew. Here’s a list of great resources that I’ve found very useful.

It’s been some time since I’ve published any material. A big part of that was probably graduate school. But I’m done now. I got my Master’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering, which was very interesting education and stuff I’m continuing to work on and learn about. But I thought it would be fun, with getting back into publishing material, to do something in a completely different subject but one that I also find very interesting and that is the Hebrew Bible and the Hebrew language.

I love reading and talking about the Hebrew Bible and especially doing it in Hebrew. I’ve talked to a lot of people who are also interested in both the Hebrew Bible and the Hebrew language, though most I’ve talked to haven’t learned a lot of Hebrew. Yet. I thought I’d put together some preliminary material to introduce the basics of the language and provide some recommendations for resources for further study. I also want to teach my kids Hebrew so I want to make a few videos that are accessible enough for children. But after those preliminaries I’ll just dig into the text and let people do enough self-study of the language to learn as we go.

I’d like to say a word about my motivation and perspective on the Hebrew Bible and why I take the effort to study it in Hebrew. I have a very high view of scripture as the inspired word of God. That’s not to ignore the historically rooted and human element of it. But it is to say that scripture is a unique kind of text in that it is revelation. It comes from God. So it’s really important and it’s important to understand it correctly. If there’s any text that is worth all the effort of learning a language to read it it’s scripture. And this gives Biblical Hebrew and Koine Greek special importance.

I want to focus mostly on reading scripture with language study being more supplementary to that. But I would like to recommend some excellent resources that I have found very useful and always recommend to people when this subject comes up. 

The first is a series of video lectures offered by The Great Courses. Biblical Hebrew: Learning a Sacred Language by Michael Carasik, who is a professor of Biblical Hebrew at the University of Pennsylvania. This course is fantastic. It’s amazing how comprehensive it is and how much Carasik is able to cover in 36 lectures.

The second is an audiobook, Old Testament Hebrew Vocabulary by Jonathan T. Pennington. This is simply a vocabulary list in audiobook format. But that’s incredibly useful. It goes in order of word use frequency in the Bible. There’s no substitute to learning vocabulary, lots and lots of words! The full audiobook is two hours long. I recommend listening to it over and over again.

The third is the Biblehub Interlinear Bible. This is an online Hebrew Bible in both Hebrew and English. Each Hebrew word has an English gloss underneath it. A gloss, by the way, is not a comprehensive definition but just a short, inexact definition. Each word is also fully parsed out with its grammatical form. Each word also includes a hyperlink that includes the Brown–Driver–Briggs lexicon, which gives more than just a gloss, but a more comprehensive definition of each word. Brown–Driver–Briggs is an older but respectable lexicon. The best is probably the Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (HALOT) but that one is definitely not free like Brown–Driver–Briggs is. Biblehub also includes entries from Strong’s concordance but it’s not as good as Brown–Driver–Briggs so I’d definitely go with that.

Last is A Reader’s Hebrew Bible published by Zondervan. If you want to go all in and get a Hebrew Bible in print this is a great one. The Reader’s Hebrew Bible gives the Hebrew text with footnotes providing glosses for words that occur less than 30 times. Words that occur 30 times or more are given gloss in the glossary but the best way to read it is to memorize all the words that occur 30 times or more. Then you can just read and look in the footnotes for the less common words. It’s really well done.

In the next two episodes we’ll look at the Hebrew alphabet and Hebrew vowel system respectively. Then get to the good stuff in the Hebrew Bible itself. And hopefully get back into conversations about science, Star Trek, Star Wars, philosophy, literature, and all that stuff.