How to do a Hebrew Word Study Without Knowing Hebrew

In this section you will need a Bible and a concordance and dictionary keyed to Strong's numbers. If you do not have these on hand, I will provide you with free resources that are available to complete this section. These resources include

• Strong's Hebrew Dictionary (PDF file)
• Link to an online Bible
• Link to eSword, a free downloadable Bible program
• link to Blue Letter Bible, an online Bible program

A Bible concordance and dictionary is essential for Hebrew word studies and they are easy to use, once you learn how. In this lecture you will learn how to use a standard Bible concordance and dictionary to be able to;

1. Find the Hebrew word behind the English translation
2. Look up a Hebrew word in the dictionary
3. Understand the information provided in the dictionary
4. Learn how to use the dictionary to find the more concrete meaning of a Hebrew word

E-Sword is a free Bible program that you can download and use on your computer (mobile versions are also available). With this program you can quickly and easily look up Bible passages, find the Hebrew word behind the English translations and look up other verses using that word. In this lecture I will show you how to use the program to;

1. Look up a Bible verse
2. Identify the Strong's number of the Hebrew word behind the English
3. Learn how to use the dictionary to find the more concrete meaning of a Hebrew word
4. How to download the concordance and use it
5. How to do a simple Hebrew word study on any given word

As useful as Strong's and other similar dictionaries are, they do have their limitations that must be understood to prevent misunderstandings of Hebrew words and their translations. In this lecture we will focus on Strong's inability to identify all of the words that are derived out a given root word. In a future lecture we will look at some other resources that can help with this issue.

Another limitation of Strong's Dictionary is that it does not include the many prefixes and suffixes that are attached to Hebrew words, which will effect how one understands the Hebrew word. In this lecture I will show some examples of these prefixes and suffixes using Genesis 1:1. But don't worry, in a future lecture I will provide you with some tools to help with identifying these prefixes and suffixes.

One other major limitation of Strong's Dictionary is that it does not provide the different forms of Hebrew verbs. Strong's will only identify the simple form, but in the Hebrew text a verb can take on many different forms, which will drastically change how that verb will be translated. But again, don't worry as in a future lecture I will provide resources to help with understanding the basics of Hebrew verbs.

Hebrew names can easily be deciphered using Strong's Dictionary.

This lecture is an introduction to the Strong's Dictionary exercise that you will complete in the next lecture where you will be given Psalm 23 and and all the Strong's numbers associated with each English word. In this lecture I will provide an example of how to;

1. Look up a Hebrew word in the dictionary
2. Use the dictionary to find the more in-depth meaning of the word
3. Apply the definition to the text to bring out its more Hebraic meaning

In this article I will explain how to look up words in Strong's Dictionary to find the more in-depth meaning to the words in Psalm 23. Once you you have found these meanings you will create your own paraphrase of Psalm 23 using the Hebraic meanings of the words.

The resource attached to this lecture is the worksheet that will be needed to complete the exercise and will include; 

1. The King James Bible text for Psalm 23
2. The Strong's numbers associated with each word
3. All of Strong's dictionary entries associated with the words in Psalm 23

Now that you have completed your exercise, let's compare notes. In this article is my own paraphrase of Psalm 23 using Strong's Dictionary to determine the more in-depth meaning of the words in this chapter, along with a detailed description of how I derived at my paraphrase.

There are many lexicons available to assist you with doing a Hebrew word study. In this article I will provide you with details on some of these lexicons, some of which are free as they in the Public Domain. The resources provided with this lecture are;

• Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon
• Benjamin Davidson's Lexicon
• Gesenius' Lexicon
• The Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible

In this lecture I will demonstrate how Gesenius' Lexicon will help to better define Hebrew words by revisiting a passage that we looked at with Strong's Dictionary and expand our understanding of the Hebrew words.

One of the limitations of Strong's was the inability to identify all the words derived out of one root, an important aspect when doing Hebrew word studies. In this lecture I will show you how the Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon will overcome this problem. But as this lexicon requires one to find a Hebrew word alphabetically, I show how to use the New Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon, which is keyed to Strong's numbers to allow you to find the Hebrew words easily.

Another limitation of Strong's was its inability to identify the prefixes and suffixes attached to Hebrew words. In this lecture I will show you how to use Benjamin Davidson's lexicon to find the Hebrew word as it appears in the Bible and decipher the prefixes and suffixes added to the word. The only drawback is that you must know the Hebrew alphabet to use this lexicon so you can look up the Hebrew words alphabetically.

In this lecture you will learn about the two-letter and three-letter roots of Hebrew words and how they relate to each other. I will also show you how to look up a Hebrew word in the Ancient Hebrew Lexicon by its Strong's number.

The Ancient Hebrew Lexicon will provide the cultural background of a Hebrew word by looking at all of the words and roots that are related to it. In this lecture you will learn;

1. The mechanics of the Hebrew word and root entries
2. How to Identify the root of a word 
3. How to Identify all of the words derived out of a common root
4. How to find a common theme found in all the words related to one root

In this lecture you will examine all of the words that are derived out of one two-letter root and determine the common theme among all of them, which will help to define particular words.

In this exercise you will be given a series of, what appear to be, completely unrelated words. Using what you have learned about the Ancient Hebrew Lexicon you will look all of these words up in the lexicon, looking for a common theme among them.

Once you have completed the exercise from the previous lecture, you will evaluate your work by comparing it to my own observations about the words provided. Your evaluation of the words may vary from mine, but you should at least be able to see some similarities and some observations that you may have missed.

In this article you will be provided links to two online interlinear Bibles to assist you with doing a more in-depth study of the Hebrew Bible.

An interlinear Bible may appear complicated at first, but learning how to navigate through and read an interlinear is fairly simple and will greatly improve your understanding of a given Bible passage, phrase or word. In this lecture you will be given an overview of the interlinear and;

1. How to properly follow the interlinear text
2. The basics of Hebrew sentence structure
3. How to identify the prefixes and suffixes in Hebrew words
4. How to identify and interpret Hebrew verbs

While Strong's Dictionary only provides a limited look at the words of the Hebrew Bible, an interlinear Bible will present a more accurate understanding of the words. In this lecture we will examine each word in Psalm 23:1 in the interlinear Bible to better refine our understanding and translation of this verse.

In this lecture we will continue our examination with Psalm 23:2 in the interlinear Bible looking for a more refined understanding of the Hebrew words behind the English.

Using the interlinear Bible you will expound on what we learned from Strong's Dictionary concerning the Hebrew words in Psalm 23:3-6.

In this article is my own interpretations of the Hebrew words in Psalm 23 based on what can be gleaned from the interlinear Bible. Compare your work with my own to evaluate your work.

As an interlinear Bible provides a translation of Hebrew words, including their prefixes and suffixes, you will be better equipped to interpret Hebrew words and phrases and go beyond the limitations of Strong's Dictionary.

The translations provided for each Hebrew word will assist you with interpreting Hebrew verbs. While Strong's Dictionary is only able to provide the simple verb form, the interlinear can help with identifying different aspects of Hebrew verbs, refining your understanding of the words used in the Bible.

bible Dictionaries are an invaluable resource for researching and studying the manners, customs, lifestyle and culture of the Hebrew people of the Bible. In this lecture I will provide you a few examples of how a Bible Dictionary can help your understanding of Hebrew words and provide a cultural background. The resources provided in this lecture are in the public domain and include;

1. Easton's Bible Dictionary
2. Piercy's Bible Dictionary
3. Smith's Bible Dictionary

Besides the Bible dictionaries that are written specifically for the Bible, there are many other resources available, such as encyclopedias, history books and the internet, for studying the culture and lifestyle of the Hebrew people. While these resources are not specific to the Bible, they can still be a valuable resource.

The translators of the Bible used specific English words to convey the meaning of the Hebrew words behind them. So when defining a word from the Biblical text, the first step is to determine the meaning of the English word. However, because the Hebrew language is so different from our own, English is extremely limited and cannot completely convey the meaning of a given Hebrew word.

In previous lectures we have used dictionaries and lexicons to determine the meanings of Hebrew words, but the Bible itself is also a very useful tool in interpreting the text. In this lecture you will learn how to examine the context of a word to help define it.

We all have our favorite translations, but by comparing how a Hebrew word, phrase or verse is translated in different translations you can get another look at how other translators translate and interpret the Hebrew words.

A common form of Hebrew poetry that is found in the Bible is the paralleling of Hebrew words with similar or opposite meanings. These words, that are paralleled with the word you are studying, will help to understand how the author understood the word.

In previous lectures we have learned how the study of the root of a given word will help to define the word that you are studying. By also looking at how the root of the word you are studying is used in its context you will better be able to define the root and thereby define the word you are studying.

Through this course you have learned a series of steps to be taken when doing a thorough study of a Hebrew word. In this lecture I will review for you all of these steps to prepare you for your own Hebrew word studies

In this lecture, which is divided into three parts, we will use all of the tools shown in the course, from beginning to end, to do a Hebrew word study on the word "grace."

This is the second part of the lecture on how to do a Hebrew word study on the word "grace," using the tools we have learned in this course.

This is the third and final part of the lecture on how to do a Hebrew word study on the word "grace," using the tools we have learned in this course.

You are now equipped with the tools and knowledge you need to do your own Hebrew word study, but don't worry, I'm not leaving you to defend for yourself just yet. In this exercise you will do your own Hebrew word study on a specific word, using the methods described in this course. Once you have completed your word study, I will go through my own study of this word in the next lecture to help you evaluate your own work.

Congratulations, you have just completed your first Hebrew word study. Now its time to compare notes. In this lecture, divided into three parts, I will go through my own study on the word righteousness. Compare your word study with my own, looking for things you may have missed, or maybe even something that I may have missed.

This is the second part of my word study on the word "righteousness," allowing you to compare your study with my own.

Now that you have completed this course, what's next?