Hebrew Root Words

Jerusalem of Gold

Hebrew Root Words

Most Biblical Hebrew words have a "root". The root is usually created using three consonants. The root-word will then share it's meaning, or core idea, with any other word in the Bible which also is built from the same three root consonants. Knowing this can give us deep insight into the LORD's intended meaning of each individual word, by knowing the flavour of His use of Biblical "word-families."


The closest concept we have, in modern languages, is when a group of words start with the same prefix, such as community, common and communicate.  We understand they all have a shared basis, yet they each develop the meaning while sharing a connection. With Hebrew root words, there are distinctions from the English concept. Understanding these distinctions will help us greatly, in deepening our understanding of the LORD's Character, Heart and Purposes in His Biblical Hebrew language. 


In Hebrew, the vowels often change while the three consonants that form the root stay the same. Changing the vowels, for example, will change the tense of the word, or sometimes change it from a postiive to a negative meaning. This cannot be discovered when reading the Bible in English. This is because it is impossible to see which words are related to which other words, without being able to see the original Hebrew roots in the Hebrew language. Reading Hebrew is like diving into an endless clear blue ocean, in which you can breathe deeply and never drown. This beautiful language is like a coded message of how the LORD wants to relate the meaning of one word to another. Like finding hidden pure gold treasure.


For example, the Hebrew word for "Salt" is related, amazingly, to the Hebrew root-words for: "War", "Dreams", "Bread" and "Growing Strong". This gives deeper meaning to Jesus'/Yeshua's teaching on the "Salt of the Earth" and not losing one's "saltiness" (Matthew/Mattityahu 5.13). My prayer is to offer the opportunity for more believers to discover the hidden beauty in God's Word, through Biblical Hebrew lessons, in order to deepen our understanding & love of the God of the Bible.


The second aspect to note, within the Hebrew language, is that the changing of the vowels in the "root" can also change the verb stem. (The vowels in Hebrew are written below, above and within the consonants as tiny dots or dashes.) This is not a linguistic concept we have in English. In Hebrew, there are seven verb stems. Three are active, three are passive and one is a combination of both the active and the passive. So, in the Hebrew language, the LORD makes it very clear how intense an action is and who is doing or causing the action. So, there are even levels of personal responsibility for our actions built into the Biblical Hebrew.


So, adding small vowels, and occasionally a prefix or suffix, to the root three consonants, will literally change the intention, intensity, causality, subject or object of the sentence. For example, by changing the verb stem of "he hit", while keeping the root the same, it can become:


  • "he smashed " (greater intensity)
  • "he was hit" (changes him from the active subject to  the passive object of the  sentence)
  • "he caused someone to hit something" (he becomes the cause or motivation of someone else's action)
  • "he hit himself" (he becomes both the do-er and receiver of the action.)


If you'd like to learn more about Biblical Hebrew lessons, please click here.