A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew (Subsidia Biblica 27)

A easy book to read, very clear in its explanations.

One reviewer remarked that they were pleased to discover that the version they bought "included" 2009 Corrections. I need to explain the situation more precisely for anyone who is thinking of buying this book. Amazon is currently (Dec 2015) supplying the Fourth Reprint of the Second Edition. The last part of the publishing history given inside the book is as follows: "2011 Third Reprint of the Second Edition, with Corrections; 2013 Fourth Reprint of the Second Edition". That corresponds with the differences in the front covers: the front cover of the Third Reprint, which is what is displayed on the Amazon website, says "with Corrections", whereas the Fourth Reprint front cover does not. The Fourth Reprint does include 5 pages of Errata and corrigenda signed by Professor Muraoka in January 2011. But it is left to the reader to make the corrections. That was one unpleasant surprise for me. The other was the small dots scattered at random throughout the book (and I'm not talking about the Hebrew pointing), which make it clear that the Fourth Reprint is produced by a photographic process. This is liveable with for most of the book, but unfortunately the print quality of the Errata and corrigenda is particularly poor. Some of the corrections are of Hebrew pointing and accents, and some of these are hard or impossible to decipher. After three hours I have still not completed the first page of corrections. I look forward to reading the book, which I haven't yet started: with my four stars I am assuming that once I have completed the corrections as far as I can, it will be a good book.

I don't think you'll find any grammar that's more complete... but you'll certainly find more didactic ones. Don't get me wrong, this book is not for beginners. However, even intermediate to advanced learners will sometimes find the way syntax is explained convoluted and unhelpful... if we had more didactic resources such as tables and exercises, the students would benefit a lot more. Anyway, as I said, you will hardly find any grammar that scrapes the topics this one treats in detail. Just not in the most student-orientated way.

Thanks