This book is one of the most comprehensive books on the Hebrew language. It covers all aspects of the language from word roots and derivatives, prefixes and suffixes, syntax and pronunciation. Written at a high level of scholarship, this book is for the serious Hebrew student but full of relative information.

This second English edition of Gesenius' Grammar, edited and enlarged by the late E. Kautzsch, stands alone as the definitive reference work on Hebrew grammar. It is revised in accordance with the 28th German edition by A.E. Cowley, and includes a facsimile of the Siloam inscription.

As edited and enlarged by the late E. Kautzsch. Revised in accordance with the twenty-eighth German edition (1909) by A. E. Cowley. With a facsimile of the Siloam Inscription by J. Euting, and a table of alphabets by M. Lidzbarski.

Ingram
Gesenuis' grammar remains the standard intermediate / advanced level grammar of the Hebrew Bible.

Gregory Olsen from Novato, CA USA
Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar is the standard reference grammar in English for Biblical Hebrew. Anyone serious about reading and translating Hebrew Bible will need a copy on their shelf for reference, when things get difficult. The book is well indexed, so navigation is not too difficult. There is also a scriptural index, so finding entries that directly relate to a passage that you are working on may be found. The verbal paradigms are in the back of the book. They are complete. Given the age of the text, the language used to describe grammatical and syntactic features may be unfamiliar to people trained in modern linguistics.

All this said, I like Waltke and O'Connors' Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax better. I frequently end up consulting multiple sources when really stuck, so it pays to have both.

Song Yu from Langhorne, PA United States
I have used many other grammars in my studies of Biblical Hebrew and none have been as helpful as this one. I would seriously consider selling the others if they were not required texts for my future studies. His handling of Hebrew and cognate languages will give a student a much deeper

Christopher Alsruhe from Maryland
Whether one is taking formal education classes or is seeking to read Biblical Hebrew on his/her own, this text will have to become part of the personal library. There are grammatical issues in Hebrew that are never explained in 1st-year grammars, but one will need to know them, and Gesenius provides this.

I recommend reading this book from cover to cover at least twice: once as a studious overview, secondly as a serious study, maybe putting notes into your Hebrew text. But the following explanation is needed: there are portions of information that do not have to be known too thoroughly to understand what one is reading in the Hebrew Tanach. Much of the information is analytical more from a linguistics standpoint. In other words, don't think you need to know everything in the book. But embedded within the optional information is other information one will need; so all the book must be read.

The book can be broken down into 3 levels:

1. That which every serious student must know. This would mean that most of the book needs to be known, with probably placing details into your Hebrew text for reference. This text is especially needed for grammatical variations not found in basic grammars (e.g., a rare form of the infinitive used with intransitive verbs; the fem. objective affix seemingly having no antecedent, but actually having a previous phrase or clause for its antecedent, regardless of gender, Gen. 15:6); the ignoring of gender at times, etc. Like any other language, Hebrew has grammatical structures that have "broken the rules."

2. That which is interesting to know and which may or may not really help in translation. This would, for instance, include some of the heavier details concerning rules for vowel changes, etc.

3. That which surely does not need to be known to read and understand Hebrew. This information is for people who are grammar geeks, who need to know how things work even though not knowing this information will not hurt anyone's communication skills. Much of this has to do with comparing Hebrew with other Semitic and European languages. It's interesting, and in other fields, it is important; but for the Hebrew reader, this tends to be ineffectual in helping the student who is learning to read Hebrew. Don't be discouraged by this stuff as you read the book; read it and move on.

Just as with English, volumes can be written on how a language works, and Gesenius provides this. But no one needs to know the most intricate circuitry to communicate. For instance, speakers in English say, "If he were to go, I would stay." The rule for having a plural verb for the singular pronoun is: "3rd person singular subjunctive uses a plural verb." Most people don't know this, and yet they speak correctly. The same is true with Hebrew: You can get overloaded with the details, and yet without those details a student of Hebrew won't have a problem.

As one progresses in the book, the information becomes more practical in a sense, moving away from all the technical analysis of language and moving into what is really needed for anyone to do translation.

But, it is also true that while all this information should be reviewed because of its historical important in the process of understanding Hebrew, it is also necessary to know that there are significant points in this grammar that have been proven to be untrue. Such updated information can be found in Waltke & O'Connors "Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax," another, and even more so, must have.

Steven Blackwelder from Pasadena, CA USA
Even recently published English-language grammars of Biblical Hebrew admit that Gesenius-Kautsch-Cowley (GKC) is still good for people like me who can't (yet) read German.

As you read the Hebrew Bible and find grammatical challanges, look first in Jouon-Muraoka, Williams and Waltke-O'Connor . If they don't answer your question, look in GKC. If GKC doesn't answer it, look in commentaries.

Kazu Skevoukloges from Grand Rapids, MI, USA
For more than a century this grammar has been proven to be one of the best grammar of Biblical Hebrew known to existence.

Must-have for serious Hebrew and seminary students for years to come. It's been cited over and over again. It is still THE standard grammar of bibical Hebrew.

marc bauer (marc_bauer -- yahoo.com) from EE.UU.
I found Jouon-Muraoka's grammar more readable. The old references are more dated than the book is. Not that Genesius' is suffering from being dated. Hardly. It is one of the leading grammars in Biblical Hebrew. It is worth getting for its reference value alone. In the translation of Gunkel's Genesis from Mercer Press, Gesenius' is frequently referenced. Also Dahood in his Anchor Bible translation of the Psalms uses it also. So I find it worthwhile to have, even though I don't understand most of it.

judaeo-semitist from Bethesda, MD
This book is a great reference for people who already have a basic knowledge of the Hebrew Language and want to dive deeper into it. The explainations are long and detailed (that's a good thing), and it gives nice info on the history of Hebrew, as well as a chart of the evolution of the Hebrew & Aramaic script from old to square characters. If you know no Hebrew and want to learn the language, I would suggest J. Weingreen's "A Practical Grammar for Classical Hebrew".

A reader from Turku, Finland
This work is an outstanding example of the scolarship of the classical Hebrew language. The work covers nearly everything on this matter. The print is sometimes too small and the structure of the book is a bit complicated. I recommend it for a person who wants to dig into the language.