All previous Biblical Hebrew lexicons have provided a modern western definition and perspective to Hebrew roots and words. This prevents the reader of the Bible from seeing the ancient authors original intent of the passages. This is the first Biblical Hebrew lexicon that defines each Hebrew word within its original Ancient Hebrew cultural meaning. One of the major differences between the Modern Western mind and the Ancient Hebrew's is that their mind related all words and their meanings to a concrete concept. For instance, the Hebrew word "chai" is normally translated as "life", a western abstract meaning, but the original Hebrew concrete meaning of this word is the "stomach". In the Ancient Hebrew mind, a full stomach is a sign of a full "life". The Hebrew language is a root system oriented language and the lexicon is divided into sections reflecting this root system. Each word of the Hebrew Bible is grouped within its roots and is defined according to its original ancient cultural meaning. Also included in each word entry is its alternative spellings, King James translations of the word and Strong's number. Indexes are included to assist with finding a word within the lexicon according to its spelling, definition, King James translation or Strong's number.

• An introduction to the Ancient Hebrew alphabet, language and thought.
• The history of the Hebrew script from ancient to modern times.
• Reconstruction of the original Hebrew alphabet and root system of roots and words.
• Alphabetical ordering of Parent, Child and Adopted Roots with each root listing the Hebrew nouns and verbs derived from the root.
• Ancient Hebrew, Modern Hebrew and English transliteration of roots and words.
• The action, concrete and abstract meaning of each Hebrew root.
• Ancient Hebrew Cultural definition of Hebrew roots and words.
• Root origins of Hebrew words and their relationship to other roots and words.
• Frequency each word is used in the Hebrew Bible.
• Listing of foreign words found in the Hebrew Bible.
• Index to English translations of Hebrew words, King James Translations of Hebrew words, Strong's numbers and alternate Hebrew spellings of Hebrew words.

L. Taylor - Roanoke, Va. 3-21-2006 (From Amazon.com)

There are numerous lexicons, dictionaries, and concordances on the market for students to use when translating Hebrew words as they appear in the Old Testament Hebrew text into English. This is one the few (and the only one I know of personally) that not only gives on the viewpoint of translating Hebrew words into English, while carrying across the thought process that comes with Ancient Hebrew culture.

A good example is the word, "Bara" in Genesis 1:1, where it says, "In the beginning, God created (bara) the Heavens and the Earth. The word "Bara" in most concordances and lexicons will simply trnaslated this word as "to create or to make". However, this is an abstract translation. A more concrete translation, as seen from a ancient Hebrew perspective would be "To fatten, or to fill", as what is fattened is filled. Thus, Genesis 1:1 would be better translated, "In the Beginning, God fattened and filled the Heavens and the Earth", portraying the idea of God filling a Earth that was without form and void, and not the idea of him creating it that way.

Another good thing about this book, is it is keyed to the Strongs exhuastive concordance, so you can look up what the word means in this lexicon, and this carry it over to the Strongs concordance to see the various translations. I highly recommend this work. There needs to be more works into the study of Ancient Hebrew culture & thought, and how it effects Biblical interpreation and translation. The only reason why I give it 4 stars, is because there are some roots (only a few) that are left without all their proper translations, but that is the case with pretty much any lexicon, which is why a serious student should always have more than one resource in the first place.