Hebrew for Bible Readers

The conquest of Jericho (Joshua 6) is an intriguing biblical story that provides examples of word forms and syntactical constructions useful for learning more about Hebrew. We will study the Hebrew of verses 1–4 in detail (consult any standard English Bible for a translation of the entire passage):

.aB‰; ÷yaˆewÒax~?~E/y ÷yaˆe la=er;c]yI yn¤EB] yn£emi tr,G 6:1 /j~?~yriyÒAta, ò+d]~?~y:b] yTit¢'n: h~aer] ['vu+/hyÒAla, h~r;hyÒ rm,aY»"Iw 2 hm;+j;l]Pih' yv°enÒa' lKi~?~ ry[ioh;Ata, µt°,Bok'wÒ 3 .lyIj‰;h, yr~?~e/BGI HK=;l]m'Ata,wÒ h[°;b]viwÒ 4 .µym‰iy: tv,vˆe hc~?~,[}t' hKˆo tj=;a, µ['P¢' ry[~?~ih;Ata, ¹yQˆeh' y[i+ybiV]h' µ~/b'W ÷/r+a;h; y¤emeli µ~ylib]/Y”h' t/r~?~g]/v h[;b]vi W¡ac]yI µynIßh}ko .t/r‰p;/ViB' W[~?~q]yI µynI±h}Ki°h'wÒ µym=i[;P] [b'v°, ry[ªh;Ata, WBsoˆT;

6:1 ve-ri-cho so-ge-ret u-msoog-ge-ret mip-pney bney yis-ra-el ain yo-tseh ve-ain bah (2) vah-yoh-mer YHWH el-yeho-shuah re-eh na-tat-ti byah-dekah et yeri-cho ve-et mal-kah gib-boh-rey he-chah-yil (3) ve-sab-boh-tem et-hah-ir kol an-shey ham-mil-chah-mah haq-qef pah-ahm eh-chat koh tah-ah-seh sheh-shet ya-mim (4) ve-shiv-ah ko-hanim yi-se-u shevi-ee tah-sob-bu et-hah-ir she-vah pe-ah-miym ve-hak-koh-hanim yit-qe-ooh bash-sho-fah-roht