The Abridged Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew-English Lexicon of the Old Testament

Overview

This lexicon comes from A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament by Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles Briggs, based on the lexicon of Wilhelm Gesenius. It was edited by Richard Whitaker (Princeton Theological Seminary). The text was provided by Princeton Theological Seminary. A trio of eminent Old Testament scholars—Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles Briggs—spent over twenty years researching, writing, and preparing it. Since it first appeared in the early part of the twentieth century, BDB has been considered the finest and most comprehensive Hebrew lexicon available to the English-speaking student. Based on the classic work of Wilhelm Gesenius, the “father of modern Hebrew lexicography,” BDB not only gives dictionary definitions for words, but also relates each word to its Old Testament usage and categorizes its nuances of meaning. BDB’s exhaustive coverage of Old Testament Hebrew words, along with its unparalleled usage of cognate languages and the wealth of background sources consulted and quoted, render this abridged version of BDB an invaluable resource for all students of the Bible.