ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of Late Biblical Hebrew (LBH) lexical and grammatical features. It discusses rates of accumulation in numerous biblical and extra-biblical Hebrew texts. The test of accumulation shows that the predictions of the chronological approach are off the mark. All biblical texts attest 'late' linguistic items, which mean that the principal difference between EBH and LBH is fluctuation in the accumulation of the same features. The issue is tendency or statistical divergence. To continue to maintain the validity of the criterion of accumulation, and hence of LBH itself, one would have to admit that Early Biblical Hebrew (EBH) passages generally exhibit LBH features. The LBH language in monarchic-era inscriptions, possibly corroborated by LBH language in books traditionally dated to the pre-exilic period and in the late pre-exilic/exilic books of Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Lamentations, suggests that some form of LBH or proto-LBH existed in the pre-exilic period.
