Customer Reviews

Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon

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This lexicon is probably the most commonly used tool for Hebrew students. While dated, being based on an original work from the middle of the last century, it provides in one relatively cheap volume a handy reference guide for beginning Hebrew students. One of the highlights for beginning stucents was the added index at the back of the 1979 edition which alphabetically listed Hebrew words and provided their corresponding Strong's number and the BDB page where they are discussed. For some reason the most recent edition has removed this useful feature, leaving only the Strong's numbers, which are of little practical value for a novice student trying to find a word for the first time. Serious students should be aware of D.J.A. Clines, The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (Sheffield, 6 volumes), and beginners could find K. Feyerabend's Langenscheidt's Pocket Hebrew Dictionary more portable and easier to use, though much less thorough.

If you pulled up this title you probably have some interest in studying Bibilical Hebrew. If you plan on buying only one reference tool for those studies, this should be it. The contextual references and translations (although somewhat dated) are extensive and detailed. The The lexicography is the standard used or referenced by all of the other works in the field. The historical information is extremely useful if you plan on doing comparative work or focused eymologies.

This is the single masterwork reference for Biblical Hebrew; and, if you are a seminary student, you will probably have to buy it anyway.

This is one of the foremost English-Hebrew lexicons available, but has come under scrutiny in recent years because it is quite dated (about 100 years old). It has been updated to include Strong's concordance numbers, which is quite silly to me because if one is utilizing the BDB regularly, then one's skills are probably far beyond the need for Strong's reference numbers. Despite updates like the inclusion of Strong's reference numbers, BDB, because of its advanced age, does not take into consideration insights which scholars have gleaned from Ugaritic findings and other extra-biblical texts (like the Dead Sea Scrolls, etc.). One example is the lack of a "Hishtaphel" stem in the BDB, but which has been attested in Ugaritic literature-scholarship now believes the stem to exist in the Hebrew OT. Another problem beginners may have with this book is that each entry is arranged by its triumvirate root-a skill most beginners won't have until they reach the intermediate reading level. Again, a useful lexicon for age-old comprehensive analysis, but certain compunctions should be considered when in use.

I would recommend the 2-volume "student edition" of HALOT (Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament) instead of BDB.

Without a doubt Brown Driver and Briggs (BDB) is a phenomonally useful lexicon, and once one works how to work round the root-order, is more useful than alphabetically-ordered books. The price of this edition too is unbeatable. BUT BDB is a hundred years old, and scholarship has moved on. The current standard reference in English is the 3rd ed. of Koehler and Baumgartner's 'Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament' (HALOT). I would recommend students to start with BDB but to check contentious words with Koehler and Baumgartner, and get a copy when they can afford to (it does cost $150-$180 in the 'economical' 2-volume study edition). Clines 'Dictionary of Classical Hebrew' at over $700 so far, with 3 or 4 volumes to be published, is for libraries only.

I have to say that I use the Oxford edition more than the Hendrickson edition (which seems a straight reprint of the Oxford with Strong's numbers added), but recently I ordered the latter from Amazon for use in Italy where I was living (due to its amazing price, it was cheaper to order it from America than to get my own copy out of store in England), and was very pleased with the quality. Though it has Strong's reference numbers in the margins which are of no interest to me, those margins are slightly larger than the OUP edition, and so one has a little more space to scribble (both editions could do with more margin, tho').

On djdjdjdjdjdj9's allusion to the hishtaph'el interpretation of hishtaHawe, I must point out that by no means the whole of scholarly opinion holds with it. I do, as it happens, but there's not a concensus.

Without a doubt the most complete study of Biblical Hebrew I have run across in my 18 years of study. Complete, concise and clear definitions with references to scripture search as well. Cross references with Strongs Concordance so even if you don't know Hebrew you can find your word or passage in Strongs and then look for Strongs reference number at the back of BDB Lexicon to find the page for your word within the Lexicon. Will open a entire new world of study for the serious student of Hebrew.

This is a wonderful resource for a student of Biblical Hebrew. I used it all the time in college and couldn't have gotten through my Hebrew classes without it. Make sure you get the index by Bruce Einspahr too.

As other reviewers have commented, this is an essential book for study of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) in the English-speaking world. However, I'd add that it's also perhaps overlooked as a useful tool for anyone seriously engaged with later/modern Hebrew, simply because (unlike the majority of other dictionaries) words are listed by shoresh (root) rather than purely in alphabetical order, and in each case the full range of biblical usages is listed. I live in Israel, and it's unbelievable the number of times that my BDB has been fetched mid-conversation to check the meaning of the root of a word. Geeky, maybe, but nonetheless extremely worthwhile.

The Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB) Hebrew and English Lexicon is a very special dictionary for Biblical Hebrew (and there's a little section at the end for Biblical Aramaic). This is how it works, or at least how I use it. When there is a (Hebrew) word in the Tanakh you don't know or you're not clear about, you page through to it in the BDB. The BDB tells you what type of word it is, whether it's a proper name, noun, verb, etc; it may give you the root in cognate languages such as Akkadian, Arabic, Ethiopic, etc.; and it gives you the various meanings of the word in some of the contexts it is used (with sources and biblical references; it often gives you all the references for the word so that you can use it as a sort-of concordance).
The book was first published in 1906 so it is a classic. It seems that there are more modern lexicons available. If I'm not mistaken (and I stand to be corrected), one modern version I considered seemed very expensive. But the BDB is great value for money. It has about 1200 pages, (mine) is hard-cover (and the cover is nice-looking). It is detailed and clear, and I find it very easy to use. It is also coded with Strong's Concordance Numbers (which I don't use).
It's a pity that the great scholars that gave us this Lexicon devoted so much of their keen minds to the unfortunate documentary hypothesis of higher criticism, whose J's, E's, D's, and P's show their ugly faces in this book, albeit rarely; fortunately, they also gave us BDB, and it is no surprise that it has come to be an essential book for the study of the Tanakh for so many.

It's a good book for those who already know hebrew and want to improve themselves. To find out the meaning of a word in the Hebrew bible using this book, you need to know its root, which is very difficult for beginners. I would recommend for a beginner to buy a lexicon that explains every single word as it is without the need to go to the root.

A Scholar might find this book very easy to use, but dated. There is just too much new literature out there that takes into account lots of new evidence on the subject.

A Lay person will find it difficult to use, and dated. Listed by root, and difficult to ascertain the correct meaning for any given word, will make this lexicon hard to become familiar with.

Beginners will find this book taxing at best. However, if you plough through it, you will gain immeasurable experience and understanding hebrew of the Torah, Prophets and Writings.

The roots are fascinating as a reference and are often cited by S.R. Hirsch's etymological dictionary.

In this respect then, it has a lot to teach us, even if it is difficult to read and is somewhat dated. I still find it useful. Its size is not too big to render it into a dusty reference piece.