Refreshing Ways to Connect with God: The Blessings of Learning One Biblical Hebrew Word

One of the many benefits of learning the Hebrew alphabet is to be able to look up individual words in the Hebrew lexicon. Hebrew is such a rich language. Individual words have such depth of meaning, usually more than can be expressed with one single, English-word equivalent. Even in the same Bible passage, when the …

Basics of Biblical Hebrew and Greek Can Help Your Christian Writing

As a Christian writer, it's important to be immersed in scripture and interpret biblical passages well. You will often refer your readers to Bible truths, so you want to get hold of those truths for yourself before you write. While you will discover many spiritual practices that can help (prayer, worship, Bible Study, lectio divina, …

Shalom: A Biblical Hebrew State of Being

"Shalom" (peace) is one of my favorite words in biblical Hebrew. I yearn for God's peace, especially in areas of my life where I don't have it. It's an interesting journey to look up "shalom" in the lexicon. I encourage you to try it, and use this opportunity also to pray for greater "shalom" in …

Biblical Hebrew Alphabet: The Letters “Sin” and “Shin”

Near the end of the biblical Hebrew alphabet are two interesting-looking letters: שׂ The name of this letter in biblical Hebrew is "sin" (pronounced: "seen"). The letter itself makes the sound "s." שׁ The name of this letter in biblical Hebrew is "shin" (pronounced: "sheen"). The letter itself makes the sound "sh." These letters are …

“If My People” – Biblical Hebrew Words for Intercessors

Biblical Hebrew is a wonderful language for intercessors to learn. That doesn't mean we have to learn many words or entire verses in Hebrew. It doesn't have to be a daunting task. Just learning a few words from the Hebrew Bible -- from verses related to prayer or verses intercessors often turn to -- can …

Learning the Biblical Hebrew Alphabet: The First Four Letters

Learning the biblical Hebrew alphabet can be a challenge, especially if you try to learn it all at once. I had studied Russian, Greek, and Japanese (all of which use a different alphabet than English) before I learned biblical Hebrew. Even with my experience with other alphabets, I found the Hebrew alphabet overwhelming. Many letters …

Biblical Hebrew Mini Lesson: The LORD Is God

In biblical Hebrew, often the verb "to be" is implied rather than included. At other times, the verb "to be" is included. When there is no verb "to be," there may be nothing at all to link the subject and predicate. You have to look at the context to find the meaning -- which is …

Sun, Moon, and Stars in Biblical Hebrew

The Old Testament makes several references to the sun, moon, and stars. Let's look at these words in biblical Hebrew: Sun שֶׁמֶשׁ That's one of those "exception" words where the stress is on the first syllable. Moon יָרֵחַ Star כּוֹכָב Looking up the verses listed below in your Hebrew Bible, see if you can recognize …

Biblical Hebrew Adjectives – Our Great God in the Smallest of Ways

For beginning students of biblical Hebrew, it's common to learn several nouns first. So I thought it might be interesting to learn a few adjectives to go with those nouns: רַב = many, much ("rav") צַדִּיק = righteous (tzaddiq) גָּדוֹל = great (gadol) קָטֹן = small (katon) Interesting how those adjectives describe the body of …

A Hebrew Prayer

It has been a busy day of prayer ministry here, so I did not have time to prepare a Hebrew lesson to share. Instead, I would like to share the first line of a Hebrew prayer, at the close of this beautiful day, in thanksgiving to God. This is the opening line of several Hebrew …