הַשָּׁמַ֗יִם מְֽסַפְּרִ֥ים כְּבֹֽוד־אֵ֑ל
וּֽמַעֲשֵׂ֥ה יָ֝דָ֗יו מַגִּ֥יד הָרָקִֽיעַ׃
Accurate Old Testament exegesis demands an understanding of biblical Hebrew, the original language of the majority of the OT. This guide lists resources available at the Mack Library for Hebrew students of all levels. Some of the included sources also address biblical Aramaic.
The Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS), an update of G. Kittel's 1906 Biblia Hebraica (BHK), is the standard text used for translations in the BJU Hebrew program. The text is nearly an exact copy of the Masoretic Text as recorded in the Leningrad Codex.
Although BHS is the current standard, other critical editions exist. The German Bible Society (publisher of BHS) is producing a new critical edition titled the Biblia Hebraica Quinta (BHQ), while the Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University is producing the Hebrew University Bible and Oxford University Press is producing the Oxford Hebrew Bible.
The primary benefit of these Reader's editions is the footnotes with basic dictionary glosses for less-common terms located at the bottom of each page. This can be immensely helpful, but students need to realize that these helps are off-limits for most class translation assignments.
This work by Duncan Johnson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
You may reproduce any part of it as long as credit is included. I encourage you to license your derivative works under Creative Commons as well to encourage sharing and reuse of educational materials.