Jonah: A Handbook on the Hebrew Text (Baylor Handbook on the Hebrew Bible)

I took two years of Hebrew at Whitworth University and decided to spend summer break making sure my Hebrew skills remained intact for graduate school (in religious studies). I went through this book twice. I ended up writing a paper on the book of Jonah also--and this particular book was instrumental to my argument and thesis. I found I came to it over and over again. This book is perfect for the returning Hebrew student. It presupposes a KNOWLEDGE of Hebrew (2 years worth, at least!). Don't think you'll learn Hebrew simply by using this book! But if you know Hebrew and want to broaden your reading and translating abilities, I happily recommend this volume. It is stellar. Jonah is, as many know, one of the most funniest books in the Hebrew Bible; reading it in Hebrew, exposing all of the wordplays, makes it all the funnier!

Just about every student of Hebrew gets to go through Jonah or Ruth so there are a plethora of aids out there - and plenty of home grown ones as well.This little handbook does have some positive features in that it focuses on discourse structure and macro-syntax, something you won't get in many other handbooks of this nature (Tucker follows Brian Rocine's work on discourse analysis and uses his terminology; Rocine's work in turn is derivative of Longacre, in case you want to know). It is also geared at a level that won't put students off (well, it shouldn't put off those who have done their basic homework; it may daunt those who just want a crib sheet) and suitably concise.The book also has many annoying features. The Kindle version is not worth the price, despite the convenience, because the Hebrew text is tiny and won't enlarge rendering the book next to useless at times. Even in this day and age of unicode, the Hebrew text is presented as images which at times are out of line.It is also badly edited with many shocking typos ("grams mars" "traditions ally" - was the editor blind? - some Hebrew errors too, but then the Hebrew is so small it would render any proof reader blind). One also finds the odd paragraph which betrays a copy-paste compilation. Oh, I'll just copy this bit in here. Too bad if it's in the wrong spot. The editor won't read it so it will pass. (I am sure it wasn't intentional on the author's part but hey, this is why one has editors and proof readers, right? Was there an editor?)Some of the analysis is questionable - but then grammarians and exegetes never agree on anything anyway. Sadly too, some references are also wrong or misleading. For example one inline reference was to an alleged multi page discussion in another text which amounted to a footnote on a different page altogether, with no discussion, and a reference to another much older work.Worth looking up? Maybe. Worth buying? Hmm, not sure. Depends on your disposable income. Mine isn't that disposable.

Tucker's handbook on the Hebrew text of Jonah is an excellent addition to the library of any intermediate student of Ancient Hebrew. For those familiar with the basics of Hebrew syntax, Tucker's volume is especially useful. Thankfully, Tucker incorporates numerous recent developments in discourse analysis and linguistic approaches to Hebrew literature into the volume, which further helps those seeking to understand the meaning of the Hebrew text. I highly recommend this volume to anyone interested in understanding the message of Jonah.

Excellent book for 1 year hebrew students, greatly assists with verse parsing and identifying special words and terms.

For those who have a working knowledge of Hebrew this book is really a great tool!