Biblical Hebrew: A Compact Guide

I believe this little book of 210 pages is chock full of helps. Beginner, intermediate, and even veterans of this language will find this Guide to be helpful in both constructing and reading the Hebrew. I have no hesitation in recommending Biblical Hebrew as an additional tool to anyone engaged in Biblical Hebrew study.

Great resource.

I bought this, not having any idea what it really was, to supplement the required texts for my online course in Biblical Hebrew. It has turned out to be a wonderful tool for me. In the first trimester of Hebrew, I found myself flipping back and forth in the text to find bits of information, and going to the lexicon in the back of the text. This required that I have the bulky text with me any time I wanted to do the translation exercises. This little compact quide has assembled of all the things for which I used to flip through the text in a small, lightweight, easy-to-handle book. Having it has allowed me to leave the heavy text behind when packing for a weekend trip and saved me trying to juggle a large, heavy book with my homework in a tight airplane seat. I can read the chapter from the text and leave it behind when I am studying on the go (including the coffee shop). I expect it will be very useful in future exegesis as well. It is the best little accidental (and not required) purchase I have ever made regarding coursework.

At long last, a compact reference guide to Biblical Hebrew! Not long ago Zondervan released Biblical Greek: A Compact Guide, a helpful and portable distillation of Mounce's oft-used grammar. Many such little books already exist for easily reviewing Koine Greek: Dale Russell Bowne's Paradigms and Principal Parts for the Greek New Testament, Paul Fullmer and Robert H. Smith's Greek at a Glance, and even the back of Kubo's Reader's Lexicon has a good summary of Greek grammar with paradigm charts.

There seem to be more resources available to students of Biblical Greek than to students of Biblical Hebrew. For example, while there is just one (excellent!) "Reader's" Hebrew Bible (uncommon vocabulary is glossed at the bottom of the page), I am aware of at least three Reader's Bibles that exist for the Greek New Testament. So Miles Van Pelt's Compact Guide, based on his and Gary Pratico's Basics of Biblical Hebrew, is a welcome addition as far as this eager Hebrew student is concerned.

The book is not terribly dissimilar from Pratico/Van Pelt's Charts of Biblical Hebrew, but unlike that work, A Compact Guide is more than just a collection of charts and paradigms. Each section includes a distillation of what is in the larger grammar textbook, followed by paradigms and charts for quick reference. Seeing Van Pelt's world-famous color-coded verbal diagnostics is a highlight.

Oddly enough, at times there seems to be more precision and detail in this little book than in the larger grammar. Or perhaps it's just more nuance or smoother grouping of material that has come about with the passage of time since the publishing of the grammar's second edition. For example, there is a section in the Compact Guide on "particles" that is a unique and clearer grouping than what is in the larger grammar. And whereas the grammar lists three kinds of Hebrew prepositions (independent, Maqqef, and inseparable), the Compact Guide adds a fourth: compound prepositions, where "two different prepositions, or a preposition and a noun" (28) combine to make a new preposition. (This fourth category appeared in the larger textbook later in its chapter as "Advanced Information"; having everything grouped together in the Compact Guide was easier.)

The primary focus of the guide is morphology (how words are formed, including paradigm charts) and syntax (how words are used in sentences, i.e., grammar). Unlike Basics of Biblical Hebrew there is not much in the Compact Guide by way of vocabulary, save for a Hebrew-English mini-lexicon at the back of the book. Unfortunately, there was no introduction or explanatory note as to what constituted inclusion on the lexicon. (In Mounce's Greek Compact Guide, the lexicon notes that it includes words that occur in the New Testament 10 times or more.)

From what I can tell, though, the Hebrew Compact Guide reproduces exactly the Hebrew-English lexicon in its larger textbook counterpart. In this case, the lexicon covers Hebrew words that occur 50 times or more in the biblical text. The Basics of Biblical Hebrew lexicon notes that it also adds "less frequently occurring words that appear in the grammar and workbook."

In addition to a thorough listing of paradigms (the 11-page section on pronominal suffixes is particularly helpful), the book is filled with examples from the Hebrew Bible (with English translation). The Hebrew font used, while not quite as easy to read as that of the grammar, is readable enough. (And that may just be a matter of personal preference anyway.)

The section on verbs is a particular strength of this work-in addition to examining all the forms and stems (both strong and weak), there are extensive listings of paradigms for easy review.

All in all, I give a hearty two thumbs up to this work-and express my gratitude that it is now on the scene for those who want to keep their Biblical Hebrew fresh! For a beginner in Biblical Hebrew I would recommend the full-length grammar textbook, but for those with even a semester or two of Hebrew (and beyond), this small reference guide will be a valuable and inexpensive addition to their library. As Van Pelt notes in his preface, even "veterans" of Hebrew will be able to utlize the guide to "keep fit" in their language use.

Icing on the cake: the pocket-sized paperback comes encased in a sturdy, translucent plastic cover.

Note: I received a review copy from Zondervan for the purposes of this review.