Differences between Biblical and Modern Hebrew

The best comparison is Shakespeare or King James English to modern English. It’s very similar, but yet different!

Subject/verb agreement is the same, noun/adjective agreement is the same,
direct-object pointer is the same.

Biblical Hebrew has a few extra things to learn,
that have basically been dropped in modern Hebrew. Such as the “noun-construct”,
the use of possessive suffixes.

The other difference is the vocabulary. Here’s a brief vocab comparison:

Biblical Nouns: king, temple, breast-plate, tabernacle, high-priest, angel

Modern Nouns: car, taxi, airplane, waiter, check,
steak, computer, typewiter,

Nouns common to both: street/road, boat, meat, fish, honor, love, man/woman,

Biblical Verbs: slay, kill, punish,

Modern Verbs: drive, fly

Common Verbs: go, take, sit, say, speak, stand, build, honor, judge, buy, sell

Biblical Adjectives: righteous, sinful, without-blemish, pure

Modern Adjectives: colorful, ???

Common Adjectives: fast, slow, bright

Biblical Hebrew tends to use VSO (Verb Subject Object) instead of SVO (Subject Verb Object).

Biblical Hebrew makes extensive use of the VAV-Consecutive – where putting the letter VAV in front of a verb flips the tense.

Biblical Hebrew uses noun suffixes to show possession (SUSO = his horse). This is still sometimes used in Modern Hebrew, but modern Hebrew tends to prefer “SUS SHELO” = horse of his.

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