The basics of how to begin word studies if you have little or no knowledge of the Hebrew language.

I. Starting Points for Initiating a Word Study:

1. A question about a Hebrew word from the reading/studying of the English Bible.
2. A topical question involving one or more Hebrew words on a certain subject (faith/trust, sacrifices/offerings, etc.).
3. A question about a Hebrew word you may have heard about and want to pursue.

NOTE: All serious Bible students should develop a "sacred curiosity" about Bible words and look up words routinely. Just because you know the meaning of a word (at least generally) or if the word seems insignificant do not ignore it—the meaning may surprise you. As you read your Bible and meditate on its sacred truths, think interactively and ask yourself questions such as:

1. Exactly what does this word mean? (in a specific context):
2. How does the usage of this word in Hebrew or Greek differ from its usage in English?
3. What is the range of meanings contained within this word ('semantic range')?
4. How does the context lead to a correct conclusion about its meaning?(Remember that Hebrew is a 'context–critical' language.)
5. What is the root of this Hebrew word? What is the relationship of this derivative from the central idea of the root (there may be none).
6. What are any synonyms of this word?
7. What are any antonyms (opposites) of this word?
8. How is this word used figuratively, if at all?

II. Books that Help you find a Specific Hebrew Word from a Specific Passage:

1. Zodhiates: Hebrew–Greek Study Bible
2. Interlinear Hebrew Bible
3. Hebrew Bible

III. Books that Help you find All Relevant Hebrew Words Pertaining to a Specific Topic:

1. ZPEB (Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible) or other Bible Dictionary/Encyclopedia.
2. Girdlestone's Synonyms of the Old Testament.
3. The reverse index of the Englishman's Hebrew – Chaldee Concordance.

IV. Sources for Word Studies:

A. Lexicons:

1. Gesenius' Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon.
2. Brown, Driver, Briggs Lexicon ("BDB").
   

B. Easy word study books:

1. W.E. Vine, Merrill F. Unger, William White Jr. Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. Nashville: Nelson.
2. Lawrence O. Richards. Expository Dictionary of Bible Words. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1991.

C. Word study books for advanced students:

1. Theological Word Book of the Old Testament ("TWBOT").
2. Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament ("TDOT").
3. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament ("TDNT").

D. Bible encyclopedias: (Note: these can be very useful for word

1. Zondervan Pictorial Encylopedia of the Bible ("ZPEB").
2. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia ("ISBE").
   

E. Hebrew concordances:

1. Englishman's Hebrew–Chaldee Concordance.
2. A New Concordance of the Old Testament (Even-Shoshan, ed.).

V. How to Look Up Words in a Lexicon:

1. Hebrew words need to be looked up in their root or lexical form; that is, without any prefixes, suffixes, or infixes (alterations to the most basic spelling of the word). Verbs must be looked up in root form--as though you were looking up the 3rd person masculine singlular of the perfect conjugation.
   
   
2. Books that help the reader to find the lexical form of Hebrew words:
   
   

1. OT Parsing Guides (verbs only).
2. Einspahr's Index to Brown, Driver, Briggs Lexicon.
3. Davidson's Analytical Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon.
4. Reader's Lexicon (only the words that occur 50 times or less).
5. The Analytical Key to the Old Testament defines the words according to context but strangely does not provide the root/lexical forms.

VI. Strong's Numbering System:

1. J. Strong--the compiler of the famous concordance that bears his name--assigned a number to every different word in the Old Testament.
   
   
2. Strong's numbers (S#'s) have become the standard now and many new and reprinted Hebrew resource tools are coded to them. (This puts many of these tools within the reach of a wider audience.)
   
   
3. How to find the Strong Number of a Hebrew word:
   
   

1. Look up the passage in a Bible that has Strong's Numbers above each line of Bible text.
   
   
   1. The Zodhiates KJV Hebrew–Greek Study Bible (or New Testament).
   2. The one or three volume Interlinear Bible by Jay Green Sr.
      
      
2. Use the reverse index of the Englishman's Hebrew – Chaldee Lexicon (it must be an edition coded to Strong's numbers)
   
   
   1. The reverse index will refer to you to certain Hebrew words and their page numbers in the concordance.
   2. The Strong's number for each word is given at each entry
      
      
3. Some newer editions of BDB and Gesenius Lexicons have S#'s.

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