Transcript Lesson 1

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Textbook: Cook & Holmstedt’s Biblical Hebrew: A Student Grammar (2009)
Found here online: http://individual.utoronto.ca/holmstedt/Textbook.html
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• What are the three “inseparable prepositions” and what do they mean?
• Translate the following words or phrases into Hebrew:
- The king.
-There is no king in land.
-The slave.
-There is no slave in the house.
-The way.
-There is no way to Israel.
-The house.
-The king came out (‫ )יָ ָצא‬from the house..
-The slave.
-The slave is the same as the king.
• The main issues in lesson 3 dealt with the definite article, the three
inseparable prepositions and the preposition ‫ ִמן‬and how each is pointed
(vocalized) when they come into contact with a noun.
• This will all get much clearer as you get experience reading text.
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In English, we say that a noun is a person, place, thing or idea. Thus,
“friend” is a noun, since it is a person; “school” is a noun, since it is a place;
“pencil” is a noun, since it is a thing; and, “attention” is a noun, since it is an
idea.
Generally, nouns in English are made plural by adding –s or –es to the end of
the word. Thus, we have dog-dogs, boy-boys, friend-friends and lady-ladies.
There are irregular plurals in English, such as woman-women and childchildren.
Possession is shown regularly by adding ’s to singular nouns (my friend’s
house) and just ’ to plural nouns (my friends’ house). Possessives are always
placed before the head of noun phrases in English.
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In Hebrew, by comparison, nouns are again representative of persons,
places, things and ideas. ‫( ֶֶ֫מ ֶלְך‬king) is a noun. ‫( ָש ֶ֫מיִ ם‬heaven) is a noun.
‫( ִשיר‬song/poem) is a noun. And, ‫( א ֲה ָבה‬love) is a noun.
All nouns in Hebrew are either masculine or feminine in gender. Even
nouns that don’t have gender in English do in Hebrew. For example,
“table,” “throne” and “day” are masculine, while “land,” “ground” and
“commandment” are feminine. There’s no real reason behind how the
language decides what is masculine and feminine, but there are signs in
the words themselves to indicate whether they are masculine or feminine
(most of the time).
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Hebrew grammar books generally say that masculine nouns are
unmarked in the singular (they have no ending – just the root letters) and
are marked with ‫ִִים‬in the plural, while feminine nouns end in either ‫ ה‬or
‫ ת‬and are marked with ‫ ֹות‬in the plural.
Examples of this are:
‫ֶֶ֫י ֶלדִ– יְ ָל ִדים‬
‫ֶֶ֫כ ֶלבִ– ְכ ָל ִבים‬
‫ֶֶ֫מ ֶלְךִ– ְמ ָל ִכים‬
boy
dog (m.)
king
‫י ְל ָדהִ– יְ ָלדֹות‬
‫כ ְל ָבהִ– ְכ ָלבֹות‬
‫מ ְל ָכהִ– ְמ ָלכֹות‬
girl
dog (f.)
queen
ִ‫ָד ָברִ– ְד ָב ִרים‬
word, message
ִ‫סּוסהִ– סּוסֹות‬
ָ ִ‫מ ְלכּותִ– מ ְל ֻכּיֹות‬
mare
kingship
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The fact is, though, that “exceptions” make up about 30% of the cases.
So, really, a masculine noun can have a feminine-looking plural (‫ ָאבֹות‬-‫ָאב‬
– father).
All of these words are masculine. Notice the “feminine” ending.
ִ‫ִכ ֵּסאִ– ִכ ְסאֹות‬
chair, throne
ִ‫ֲחלֹוםִ– ֲחלֹומֹותִ ָחלֹוןִ– ֲחלֹונֹות‬
window
dream
ִ‫ֻש ְל ָחןִ– ֻש ְל ָחנֹות‬
ִ‫ָאבִ– ָאבֹות‬
table
father
These nouns are feminine with “masculine” endings:
‫ִעירִ– ָע ִרים‬
‫ָשנָ הִ– ָשנִ ים‬
‫ִמ ָלהִ– ִמ ִלים‬
city
year
word
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Body parts are generally unmarked but are feminine.
‫כףִיָ ד‬
‫ֶ֫אזֶ ן‬
‫ָפנִ ים‬
‫ֶ ֶ֫רגֶ ל‬
‫ֶ֫עיִ ן‬
‫יָ ד‬
hand
ear
face
leg
eye
hand
A few exceptions to this are:
‫אף‬
‫ֵּש ָער‬
‫ע‬
ִ ‫זְ ר‬
nose
hair
upper arm
This should cover everything that we need to know about Hebrew nouns
at this point. Notice that we have not yet mentioned anything about
possession in Hebrew. This is being saved for later, since it will take
some explanation of its own. 
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Verbs – Definitions
• Hebrew verbs (just like nouns) are regularly built on three-letter
(“triliteral” or “triconsonantal”) roots. This is called the shoresh.
• The root ‫ך‬-‫ל‬-‫ מ‬can be arranged in many different ways:
)*‫מ ֶלְךִ(מ ְל ְִכ‬
ִֶֶ֫
‫מ ְל ָכה‬
‫מ ְלכּות‬
‫מ ְמ ָל ָכה‬
‫ָמלְך‬
‫ִה ְמ ִליְך‬
[noun]
king
[noun]
queen
[noun]
kingship, reign
[noun]
kingdom
[verb]
he was king, reigned
[verb]
he made X king, caused X to reign
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Verbs (cont.)
• So, the root of a word refers to the three letters that make up the
underlying idea behind it. With our previous example, the root memlamed-kaf (‫ך‬-‫ל‬-‫ )מ‬is associated with kingliness or royalty. The root shinkuf-resh (‫ר‬-‫ק‬-‫)ש‬, however, is associated with deception and falsehood.
We have ‫ש ֶקר‬
ִֶֶ֫ (“lie, falsehood”) and ‫“( ִש ֵּקר‬he lied”) associated with it.
• The binyan (Hebrew, ‫“ ִבנְ יָ ן‬structure” from the root ‫ה‬-‫נ‬-‫ ב‬associated with
building) of a verb is the pattern that it falls into. There are seven regular
binyanim that we will learn as well as some offshoots of them. For
example, ‫“ ָמלְך‬he reigned” is in the binyan kal (the “simple” binyan –
since it is based on the root letters without any additions) while ‫“ ִה ְמ ִליְך‬he
caused X to reign” is in the binyan hiphil (which is causative). In the
meantime, we’re learning only the binyan kal.
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Verbs (cont.)
• Tense generally refers to time reference, either past, present or future.
English has all three tenses in various forms. Biblical Hebrew (as
opposed to modern Hebrew) does not have any tenses. When we speak of
verb forms in biblical Hebrew, we need to speak of aspect rather than
tense.
• There are two aspects of the verb in Hebrew – perfect and imperfect.
• The perfect is generally associated with the past tense when it stands
alone. From this aspect, we see the action as a whole event. We look at it
from outside as if it’s complete (“perfect”).
• Alternatively, the imperfect is generally associated with the future tense.
From this aspect, we see the events unfolding around us, as incomplete.
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Verbs (cont.)
• Hebrew also has what has come to refer to the “present tense” in modern
thinking. It is far less frequent than either of the two finite verb
paradigms. We tend to call it an “active participle” and translate it either
with the present tense or with –ing .
• For the moment, we are going to look only at part of the perfect.
Specifically, we’re going to learn the singular forms.
• Number is either singular or plural. It matches the subject of the
sentence.
• Gender in verbs can be masculine, feminine or common (either for men
or women).
• Person can be either first (the one speaking), second (the one spoken to)
or third (the one spoken about).
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)‫ָפ ֶ֫ק ְד ִתיִ( ִתי‬
‘I attended’ (1CS)
)‫ת‬
ְִ (ִ‫ָפ ֶ֫ק ְד ְת‬
)‫ת‬
ִָ (ִ‫ָפ ֶ֫ק ְד ָת‬
‘you attended’ (2FS)
‘you attended’ (2MS)
)‫ָ ָּֽפ ְק ָדהִ ִ(ָה‬
)-(ִ‫ָפקד‬
‘she attended’ (3FS)
‘he attended’ (3MS)
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)‫ָש ֶ֫מ ְר ִתיִ( ִתי‬
‘I kept’ (1CS)
)‫ת‬
ְִ (ִ‫ָש ֶ֫מ ְר ְת‬
)‫ת‬
ִָ (ִ‫ָש ֶ֫מ ְר ָת‬
‘you kept’ (2FS)
‘you kept’ (2MS)
)‫ָ ָּֽש ְמ ָרהִ ִ(ָה‬
)-(ִ‫ָשמר‬
‘she kept’ (3FS)
‘he kept’ (3MS)
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)‫ָה ֶ֫ל ְכ ִתיִ( ִתי‬
‘I went’ (1CS)
)‫ת‬
ְִ (ִ‫ָה ֶ֫ל ְכ ְת‬
)‫ת‬
ִָ (ִ‫ָה ֶ֫ל ְכ ָת‬
‘you went’ (2FS)
‘you went’ (2MS)
)‫ָ ָּֽה ְל ָכהִ ִ(ָה‬
)-(ִ‫ָהלְך‬
‘she went’ (3FS)
‘he went’ (3MS)
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The fourth lesson’s goals are basically as follows:
• Basic noun concepts:
There are masculine and feminine nouns.
Masculines are generally unmarked in the singular and -im in the plural.
Feminines end in heh or tav and have -ot in the plural.
• Basic verb concepts:
Person = 1, 2 or 3.
Gender = M or F.
Number = S, P or C.
Binyan = structure (for now, kal is all we’re learning)
Aspect = PERFECT or IMPERFECT.
• How to conjugate a verb in binyan kal in the singular.
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Textbook: Cook & Holmstedt’s Biblical Hebrew: A Student Grammar (2009)
Found here online: http://individual.utoronto.ca/holmstedt/Textbook.html