ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a comprehensive introduction to Biblical Hebrew language and texts. It presents the essentials of biblical grammar and vocabulary in an engaging and systematic way. The chapter focuses on all the topics expected in a first-year Biblical Hebrew course, including the Hebrew writing system, pointing rules, nouns and adjectives, parsing, mastery of strong and weak verb paradigms and full attention to syntax. Hebrew is a fascinating language with a rich history spanning 3,000 years. Hebrew is a member of the Afro-Asiatic language family, which is a large group of languages spread throughout much of northern Africa and the Middle East. In Biblical Hebrew, not only nouns but also prepositions often appear with possessive suffixes. A Biblical Hebrew preposition with a possessive suffix is the equivalent of an English preposition followed by a personal pronoun. Some prepositions take the suffixes that attach to singular nouns, while others take the suffixes that attach to plural nouns.
