Bible Discussion Thread

I have been given the task and the honor or reading

Psalm 83 in church this Sunday.

Can you give me proper phonetic pronunciation of the Biblical names of persons contained

therein?

Thank you.

Dan

Hi Dan. Referring to my Lexicon, I can offer the names & their pronunciations. However, I should add, that the congregation who might be more familiar with the names pronounced in a western-style manner, may think you odd speaking forth with the Hebrew 'sounds'. Hopefully, your reading of Psalm 83 is for the minister's address as it's certainly unsuitable to lead one to worship. The preacher might be impressed with your efforts. All the best.

Asaph = aw-sawf

Ishmaelites = yish-maw-ay-lee (or, to stick closer to the English: yish-maw-ay-lites)

Hagarenes = hag-ree (or, hag-reens, being closer to English)

Gebal = gheb-awl

Amalek = am-aw-lake

Philistines & Tyre (stay with these words as the Hebrew for them is vastly different)

Assur = ash-shoor

Lot = lote

Sisera = see-ser-aw

Jabin = yaw-been

Oreb = o-rabe

Zeeb = zeh-abe

Zebah = zeh'-bakh

Zalmunna = tsal-moon-naw

Jehovah = yeh-ho-vaw

Hello Chris, that is nice that you took the time to help him. I noticed the last one Jehovah ( yeh-ho-vaw-) which is different than how most people pronounce it in English. Upon checking a few websites and they appear to agree its pronounced Juh-ho-vah in English. It would probably be most recognizeable to an English speaking audience in English. Also, lot isn't pronounced lote in English.

If I understand correctly, this might be akin to speaking to US-born citizens but calling the country Estados Unidos which some may not understand and cause confusion. Someone can be technically correct in an unfamiliar language at the risk of not having the message understood by the audience which defeats the purpose of communicating.

Thanks for that brother Adam, and I agree that the pronunciations given are as close as possible to the actual vocalization of those words in Hebrew. I did read Dan's request for the "PROPER phonetic pronunciations", as the words would be spoken in Hebrew by a Hebrew speaker (maybe I misunderstood him & he just wanted to say the words correctly in English). Though, you're correct, an English speaker may not easily discern those names unless read simultaneously with the one reading them from the Bible.

Hi Dan , my KJV is fab because it has pronunciation symbols all the way through it and a table of these symbols for me to check , sadly I can't help you if your Bible doesn't also have them sad face , e.g. that symbol over the letter o makes it sound like the o in the word nor , or if that was over the letter a , the a sounds like the a in the word fare . My Bible is a Collins Comfort Text and I got it from a very well know shopping site and its second hand . Maybe you can find one , I hope so .