Biblical Hebrew Words for Beginners

When you really want to delve into your studies of the Bible, a knowledge of its original languages is indispensable! Aside from the obvious biblical advantages, there are other benefits to a Christian’s faith when learning Hebrew.

If you’re just starting out, welcome! I encourage you to first become familiar with the Hebrew alphabet, as well as the vowels as a starting point.

Flash cards are a great way to memorize these and build a firm foundation. Here are free printable flash cards of the words in this article to help you memorize them. From there, this article will lead you into some of the common and basic Biblical Hebrew words. Here are more frequently used words in the Bible for you to study.

The Hebrew language is written from right to left. This may be difficult to get used to but you can train your brain to immediately recognize this in no time! Because of this, books written in Hebrew will be opposite of those in English, with the spine on the right instead of the left and they’ll open toward the right instead of the left as well.

A Hebrew word is read by saying the consonant first, then the vowel that accompanies it, then the next consonant, and so on. You can easily sound the words out, similar to the Phonics method of learning to read English.

Note on pronunciation: I use the letters “ch” to indicate not the English “ch” sound as in “chew” but the Hebrew guttural sound as in the name “Bach”.

אָב (father)

This word means “father” and is pronounced “ahv”. אַבָּא, pronounced abbah, is a more familiar term for “father”, similar to the use of “dad” in English.

נַעַר (young man)

The word for “young man” is pronounced “nah-ar”. Related to this is the word for “young woman”, נַעֲרָה, pronounced “nah-ah-rah”.

אַבְרָהָם (Abraham)

One of the most significant names in the Bible, Abraham, is pronounced “av-rah-hahm”.

דַּוִד (David)

Another of the people we know in the Bible, David, is pronounced “dah-veed”.

שַׁמָע (hear)

Pronounced “sha-mah”, this is the word for “to hear” or “he heard”. Conjugation of Hebrew verbs is gender-dependent, so “she heard” would be שָׁמְעָה, pronounced “sham-ah”. They heard, if you’re talking about a group of males, would be שָׁמְעוּ, pronounced “sham-oo”.

הוּא (it)

Nouns have masculine or feminine gender in Hebrew. For example, the word for table, שֻׁלְחָן (“shul-chan”) is masculine, while the word for family, מִשְׁפָחָה (“meesh-pa-chah”) is feminine.

“Hoo” is how you pronounce the word for “it” (הוּא above) when you’re describing a masculine noun. For feminine nouns, הִיא pronounced “hee”, is used. So, “he” is “she” and “who” is “he”. That’s how my children remember it!

מִצְוָה (commandment)

Pronounced “meetz-vah”, this is the word for “commandment”. A mitzvah can also be a good deed or act of obedience to God’s Law. Plural, mitzvah would become mitzvot (מִצְוֺת).

יְרוּשָׁלַםִ (Jerusalem)

Jerusalem is pronounced “yuh-roo-sha-la-eeem”. This is one case where a vowel sound precedes a letter it’s under. The chiriq under the final mem at the end of the word is said before the mem, making the sound “eem” rather than “mee”.

Another case where the vowel sound precedes its letter is when Chet is found at the end of a word and accompanied by the vowel patach (חַ). In this case, instead of being pronounced “cha”, it’s pronounced “ach”. An example is the word רוּחַ, which means “spirit”. It’s pronounced “roo-ach”.

מִצְרַיִם (Eqypt)

Here’s another familiar place in the Bible. Meaning “Egypt”, Mitzrayim is pronounced “meetz-ra-yeem”.

בְּהֵמָה (animal)

Pronounced “buh-hey-mah”, this is the Hebrew word for “animal”. It can also mean “cattle”. Plural, בְּהֵמָה would be בְּהֵמוֹת, pronounced “buh-hey-moat”.

זַכַר (to remember)

This verb means “to remember” or “he remembered”. It’s pronounced “za-char” and is conjugated depending on the subject. “She remembered” would be זָכְרָה, pronounced “zach-rah” and “they remembered” would be זָכְרוּ, pronounced “zach-roo”.

לִפְנֵי (before)

Pronounced “leef-nay”, this is the word for “before” as in “he appeared before the king”.

עַמַד (to stand)

Here’s another verb. This one means “to stand” and is pronounced “ah-mahd”. It’s conjugation is similar to other Hebrew verbs, so “she stood” would be עָמְדָה (“am-dah”) and “they stood” would be עָמְדוּ (“ahm-doo”).

עִיר (city)

“City” in Hebrew is pronounced “eer”. “Cities” would then be עָרִים, pronounced “ah-reem”.

עֶבֶד (servant)

“Eh-ved” is the word for “servant” or “slave”. Plural, it’s עֲבָדִים, pronounced “ah-vah-deem”.

אָח (brother)

The word for “brother” is pronounced “ach”. Plural, it’s אַחִים (“ach-eem”) and the word for “sister” is אָחוֹת and is pronounced “ach-oat”.

לֶחֶם (bread)

“Le-chem” means “bread”. As Christians, we’re familiar with the name of the place of Jesus’s birth, Bethlehem. Bethlehem is a Hebrew word (בֵּית לֶחֶם), meaning “house of bread” or “beit-le-chem” (more commonly pronounced “beth-le-chem”).

מַיִם (water)

“Water” in Hebrew is pronounced “mah-yeem”. The ending of the word mayim indicates that it’s plural, so it’s more literally translated “waters”, such as in Genesis 1, when God’s Spirit hovered over the waters.

לֵב (heart)

The word for “heart” is pronounced “layve”. It can also appear as לֵבָב, which would be pronounced “lay-vave”.

Memorizing these words will increase your Hebrew vocabulary and aid you in your Bible studies. Here’s a printable version of flash cards of the words in this article to help you memorize them. There are many other resources for learning Biblical Hebrew on my Hebrew Language Resources page.