A Hebrew Verse-Based

Vocabulary Reader

Table of Contents
Introduction and Instructions .................................................................. i
Pronunciation ......................................................................................... v
1. Exodus 33:12-23; 34:1-9 ................................................................ 1
2. Genesis 1:1-31; 2:1-3 ...................................................................... 7
3. Genesis 24:1-27 ............................................................................ 13
4. Genesis 31:55; 32:1-32 ................................................................. 19
5. Numbers 14:1-35 .......................................................................... 25
6. Deuteronomy 5:1-6:9 .................................................................... 31
7. Joshua 2:1-24 ................................................................................ 39
8. Judges 8:33-35 .............................................................................. 45
9. Ruth 1 ........................................................................................... 47
10. Ruth 2 ........................................................................................... 51
11. Ruth 3 ........................................................................................... 55
12. Ruth 4 ........................................................................................... 58
13. 2 Samuel 1:27; 2:1-7 ..................................................................... 61
14. Psalm 103:1-20 ............................................................................. 65
15. Psalm 100:1-5; Psalm 117:1-2 ...................................................... 69
16. 2 Chronicles 7:1-10 ....................................................................... 71
17. Proverbs 3:1-20 ............................................................................. 75
18. Joel 2:13-27; 28-32 ....................................................................... 79
19. Jonah 1-2 ....................................................................................... 85
20. Jonah 3-4 ....................................................................................... 91
21. Micah 7:1-20 ................................................................................. 95
22. 2 Chronicles 30:1-13 ..................................................................... 99
23. Nahum 1:1-8 ............................................................................... 100
24. Review ........................................................................................ 107
25. Lamentations 3:19-33 ................................................................. 109
26. Daniel 9:1-27 .............................................................................. 111
27. Zechariah 7:1-14 ......................................................................... 117
28. Nehemiah 9:1-21 ........................................................................ 121
29. Nehemiah 9:22-38 ...................................................................... 127
Appendix A: Consonant Pairings
Appendix B: Verse Prompts

A Draft by Daniel J. Pfeifer, 2014
Hebrew Verse-Based Vocabulary Reader i


Introduction
Welcome to the Hebrew Verse-Based Vocabulary Reader
experiment. You might have picked up this book because you are starting
your Hebrew learning experience and want all the help you can get! Or
you may be reading Hebrew at this point and are looking for a
vocabulary refresher. You may also be wondering why someone would
pick these seemingly random texts and go to all this work. Regardless,
you are here, reading.
Through this reader, I invite you to join the story, relate to the
characters, and hear the Hebrew words as they are not only spoken, but
as they are lived. Further, I propose through the following passages that
from the beginning to the end of Hebrew Scripture, the goodness of
God's character is a major theme revealed through God's interaction
generation after generation. As the story unfolds over almost two
millennia, we observe God's role in a search for a wife, a brother's
anxious return, faithfulness to an enemy and her family, the burial of a
king, undeserved compassion, revival, songs of remembrance,
prophecies of restoration through judgment, painful defeat, prayers, and a
final crowd event of covenant renewal.
The goal of this book is to contribute to, not replace, your classroom
experience. The purpose of this book is to give context to the Hebrew
words you are memorizing and thereby create an associative meaning to
anchor the vocabulary in memory. For example, when I think of the
Hebrew words, "morning" and "evening," I hear them in the repetitious
phrase from Genesis 1, "There was evening, and there was morning."
The phrase and the words are linked, their meanings associated.
In addition, I wanted to create a vocabulary tool that allows you to
sample the reality of the ancient Hebrew experience. This reader gives a
context for these words in the experiences of individuals, families,
ii Introduction


foreigners, and nations and a sampling of literary forms such as
narrative, poetry, prayers, and songs. You may not know enough Hebrew
yet to read and understand the inflected text, so we offer an intermediate
solution, an English-Hebrew mix that includes the lexical forms of the
Hebrew words from your vocabulary cards.
A major theme of Hebrew Scripture is the compelling story of the
experience of God with humanity. Much of the content focuses on the
children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. There are, however, several
noteworthy exceptions where God expands the influence of His
character. The overall narrative of Hebrew Scripture can be pictured in
six cycles of three words (6x3).
God, community, creation,
fall, failure, flood,
family, famine, forced-labor,
exodus, wilderness, conquest,
judges, kings, injustice,
exile, sojourn, return
The following passages provide a cross-section of the ancient
Hebrew experience. They follow a thematic line the revelation of God's
character flowing through the six cycles. Each passage includes an
English introduction, a vocabulary list from the passage of lexical terms
used 50 times or more in the whole Hebrew Scripture, and the English-
Hebrew mix.
Each text contains a mix of English sentences and Hebrew words in
their lexical form. The mix places focus on the meaning of the Hebrew
words apart from their inflected forms and differing order in a Hebrew
phrase. When memorizing vocabulary, learners often associate a word
with a phrase as an aid to long-term memory (called mnemonic devices).
Hebrew Verse-Based Vocabulary Reader iii


The goal, then, is to create associations with the Biblical text itself to aid
recall. While these associations begin as an English-Hebrew mix, our
ultimate goal is to read the words in their native structure in the Hebrew
text. In the meantime, I hope that learning the words by the repeated
reading of these Bible passages will serve you devotionally as well as
academically.
Instructions
1. Read through the passage in English.
We chose the passages for their thematic significance as
explained above and also for their repetition of vocabulary terms.
The original Young's Literal Translation (YLT) provides a basis
for the English passages in this reader, because word order from
the YLT generally represents the Hebrew word order. Glosses
from the Hebrew-Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament
(HALOT) informed updates to antiquated English words.
2. As you reacquaint yourself with the English passage, picture in
your mind or draw a quick sketch of the actions, places, and
objects the words represent.
3. Review the Hebrew vocabulary list.
The parenthetical numbers after each definition represent the
number of times the word appears in the BHS Hebrew text and
the references in brackets list the occurrences in the passage.
4. Read the English-Hebrew passage out loud, so that you can hear
the words in context. And remember, you are reading the lexical
form of the word, not the inflected form.
5. Picture the action or thing represented by each Hebrew word as
you recall the English meaning.
iv Introduction


6. In most cases, we have avoided putting two Hebrew words side-
by-side. If two Hebrew words do appear together, read them in
English word order from left to right.
7. In some cases, a Hebrew word represents multiple concepts in
English, and we have provided an appropriate translation in
parentheses.
8. If you typically read the Bible daily, consider using this Hebrew
Verse-Based Vocabulary Reader as your daily reading.
9. Read a passage or memorable excerpt multiple times throughout
the day to refresh the words and context.
10. Note the list of seven common verbs and nouns below. The
words appear often. In addition, you will read nouns like field
and land frequently and verbs like sit and return. "But of course,"
you say, "These words represent experience." Exactly!

Seven Common Verbs and Nouns
The following common verbs and nouns appear frequently in all of
the passages. Know these relational words.
say (5,316)
go in, enter (1,210)
Pi-speak to, with or about (1,136)
be, become (3,576)
go, walk (1,554)
give, put (2,014)
do, make (2,632)



father, ancestor (1,210)
faithfulness, truth (127)
son (4,941) [34:7]
Yahweh, LORD (5,766)
loyalty, steadfast love (249)
good, pleasant (530)
people (1,869)

Hebrew Verse-Based Vocabulary Reader v
Pronunciation
In order to read the English-Hebrew mix, we need to begin with a
basic pronunciation scheme. So we start with the pronunciation clues left
by ancient writers and used by translators for centuriesproper names.
Our pronunciation is greatly aided by the use of transliterated names.
The names are very helpful prompts as we develop a basic pronunciation
as a basis for reading. In this introductory exercise we review the
consonants of the Hebrew alphabet and the major vowel pointings as
well as an excerpt of names from 1 Chronicles 12.
The Hebrew alphabet contains 22 consonants and 8 major vowel
pointings. (Please be aware that there are more pointings, mostly
combinations of the 8 listed.) The table below contains the consonant and
vowels and the English letter typically used to represent the Hebrew
letter. In addition, there are notes on the dot that changes pronunciation.
The narrative of Hebrew Scripture contains the compelling story of
the experience of God with humanity. So we begin our vocabulary
survey with some important words, proper names that tell the history of
humanity starting at the beginning.
The genealogies of 1 Chronicles 19 provide a human chronology
from Adam to David. The names in chapter 1 summarize the book of
Genesis. In fact, the author of Chronicles is very conscientious in
copying the information found in Genesis family trees.
In addition, the names in 1 Chronicles 19 offer a broader and deeper
view of history than the Old Testament focus. While other gods and
national stories were known, the primary focus of the Old Testament is
the story of the LORD () God ( ) and Israel ( ).
Beyond their value to the historian, the first chapters of Chronicles
are a treasure trove for the linguist-translator. The names themselves
provide language data including pronunciation helps. For more on the
alphabet, see the 15-minute lecture, Chapter 1, at Animated Hebrew.
<http://www.animatedhebrew.com/lectures/chapter_1/chapter_1.html>
vi Introduction: Pronunciation

Biblical
Hebrew is
written with 22
consonants and a
variety of vowel
pointings. Note
the dot (dagash
lene) in 6 letters;
in 3, it signals
pronunciation
changes. For
example, Bet
with a dot sounds
like the English
b and without
the dot like a v.
Otherwise, the
dot signals a
doubled letter,
such as tt. The
dot never appears
in guttural letters.
If you can
imagine clay
tablets and stone,
then you can see
the efficiency of
a dot to carry
language
information!
Letter Name Transliterated
Aleph stop guttural
Bet b (dot) and v
Gimmel g
Dalet d
Hey h guttural
Vav v
Zayin z
Chet ch () guttural
Tet t ()
Yod y
Khaf k
Lamed l
Mem m
Nun n
Samekh s
Ayin stop guttural
Pey p (dot) and ph
Tsade ts ()
Qof q
Resh r guttural
Shin + Sin sh () + s ()
Tav th (dot) and t
Vowel Name Transliterate

Qamets a = ah

Patach a = ah

Seghol e = eh


+
Tsere + T..-Yod e = eh + ei


+
Hireq + H..-Yod i = ee

+
Holem + H..-Vav o = oh
+
Qibbuts + Shureq u = oo

Sheva e (short)

Hebrew Verse-Based Vocabulary Reader vii
Text-Mix: 1 Chronicles 1:1-5, 8, 17, 24-27; 2:1-2

read Hebrew right-to-left

1


Adam, Shet, Enosh

2

Kenan, Mahalalel, Yared,

3

Chenoch, Metushelach, Lamech,

4

Noach, Shem, Ham and Yapet.

5


The
sons.of
Yephet Gomer, and
Magog,
and
Madai,
and
Yavan,



and Tuval and Meshech and Tiras.


8


The
sons of
Ham Cush, Mizraim
(Egypt),
Put, and
Cenaan.

17


The
sons of
Shem Elam, and
Ashshur,
and
Arpachshad,

viii Introduction: Pronunciation

read Hebrew right-to-left

and
Lud,
and
Aram,
and
Uts,
and
Chul,
and
Geter
and
Meshech.

24


Shem, Arpachshad, Shalach,

25


Ever, Peleg, Reu,

26


Serug, Nachor, Therach,

27


Avram, that is Avraham.
1 Chronicles 2:1-2
1

These
[are]
sons
of
Yisrael Reuven Shimeon



Levi and Yhudah Yisachar and Zebulun

2

Dan Joseph and
Vinyamin
Naphthali Gad and Asher