בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים
Biblical HebrewRead the Hebrew Bible in Hebrew
Whether you study Scripture, teach it, or are simply curious what the text really says, this is a clear way in. Follow one path from the alphabet to reading whole chapters, with every word in the Hebrew Bible parsed for you along the way.
- 305,517 words, each one parsed
- 929 chapters to read
- 49% of the text is just the 100 most common words
Twenty minutes a day beats three hours on Sunday
Small, regular sessions are what make a language stick. A day looks like this:
- Review, 5 minutes. Clear your flashcards. Spaced repetition brings each word back just before you would forget it.
- Read, 10 minutes. A few verses of real text. Try each word before you tap it.
- Drill, 5 minutes. Parse real forms, most common first, or take your next lesson.
The study path
Four stages, in order. Tick steps off as you go. The timing assumes about twenty minutes a day, and it is fine to go slower. Your ticks are saved in this browser.
Read the letters and vowels
Weeks 1 to 2
Sound out any pointed Hebrew word, slowly but correctly. You do not need meanings yet.
Build grammar and your first 100 words
Weeks 3 to 6
Spot prefixes and endings, and recognize about half of the words on any page.
Read real text with help
Weeks 7 to 12
Read narrative with glosses on, checking yourself against the parsing, and turn them off verse by verse.
Work like a student of the text
Month 4 onward
Handle every verb stem, read poetry, and make your own exegetical decisions.
Your study tools
- Hebrew Bible ReaderEvery chapter, with tap-to-parse words, glosses you can hide and English you can reveal.
- Word StudyFollow a word through the whole Bible: its forms, stems, books and every occurrence.
- Alphabet and VowelsLetters, final forms, vowel points and Paleo-Hebrew script, with quizzes.
- Core VocabularyThe 1,000 most frequent words, and how much of the text each milestone unlocks.
- Parsing DrillsReal verb forms and prefixes from the text, with instant feedback.
- Scholar CoachAsk about any word, verse or idea and get the Hebrew, the parsing, the context and the manuscripts.
Spaced review decks
Try a few cards now. A free account saves your progress and schedules every card for you.
The reading ladder
Start at the top. The percentage is how many of the chapter's words (not counting names) are in the 300 most common words, so you can see how much you will recognize.
- Genesis 22 The binding of Isaac 88%
- 1 Samuel 3 The call of Samuel 87%
- Deuteronomy 6 The Shema 84%
- Exodus 20 The Ten Words 83%
- Genesis 12 The call of Abram 83%
- Ruth 1 Ruth and Naomi 81%
- Jonah 3 Nineveh repents 80%
- Genesis 3 The garden 76%
- Psalm 1 Your first psalm 74%
- Genesis 1 Creation 71%
- Psalm 23 Poetry stretches your vocabulary 56%
- Isaiah 53 Hard, rewarding prophecy 53%
Courses
- Learn to Read Biblical HebrewBeginners: alphabet to Genesis 1.
- A Scholarly Approach to Biblical HebrewFull grammar, syntax, poetry and textual criticism. Membership required.
- Biblical Hebrew Aleph Bet tutorialA short free walkthrough.
For biblical studies
- The text.Westminster Leningrad Codex, the digital text of the oldest complete Hebrew Bible, with ketiv and qere marked.
- The parsing.Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible morphology, with stem and conjugation for every verb.
- The word.Strong's numbers, BDB-based glosses and a full concordance for any lemma.