The Concise Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised

This Dictionary (CDCHR) is a revision of the Concise Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (CDCH), with the purpose of including the new words and many of the new features found in the Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised (DCHR) as compared with the original Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (DCH). When the first volume of DCH appeared in 1993, it was the first dictionary of the Classical Hebrew language ever to be published.

Unlike other dictionaries of ancient Hebrew, which only cover texts of the Hebrew Bible, either exclusively or principally, DCH records the language of all texts written in Hebrew. It includes not only Biblical Hebrew but also all Classical Hebrew (pre-200 CE), i.e. Ben Sira, Dead Sea Scrolls, and inscriptions.The CDCHR contains more than 6,420 Hebrew words not in BDB, and refers to many newly published texts, including 540 Dead Sea Scrolls and 4,000 ancient Hebrew inscriptions, making it the most thorough Hebrew dictionary ever produced. All the words from DCHR are to be found in the CDCHR.

The CDCH has been designed to be clear, concise and easy to use. The Hebrew words are arranged in alphabetical order, so it is not necessary to know the ‘root’ of a word to look it up in the Dictionary. All the Hebrew words and phrases quoted are accompanied by an English translation. At the end of each entry on verbs is a list of the nouns derived from that verb; and at the end of each entry on nouns a reference to the verb from which it is derived (when known). For every word the numbers of its occurrences in the four main corpora of classical Hebrew (the Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Ben Sira, and the ancient inscriptions) are noted. All the proper names in classical Hebrew texts are included, with their correct spellings in English.

Previous dictionaries have generally been revisions and adaptations of earlier dictionaries; DCH, DCHR, The Shorter Dictionary of Classical Hebrew and this volume result from a completely fresh re-examination of the texts and an independent analysis of the meanings of Hebrew words. Rich in examples and citations, this edition will be of immense value to students at all levels, as well as to working scholars who will not always be in a position to refer to the complete DCHR.