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Parent guide · Grade 2 Biblical Hebrew · Unit 1

Lesson 1.1 Psalm 119: An Alphabet Psalm

Written for the parent. The Read aloud parts are written to your child; read them as they are. Do this parts are for you. Answers for you are marked Listen for.

At a glance

Time
3 sessions of 15–20 minutes
Goal
Say and write all 22 letters in order. Explain how Psalm 119 is arranged. Find the letter that begins a Psalm 119 stanza.
You need
  • A strip of card stock
  • Fine markers
  • A ribbon (optional)
  • A sketchbook or plain paper, and crayons
  • A King James Bible
Print
Worksheet A · the lesson page (it also has a short video (2:25))

Steps

  1. Do this together: Open your Bible to Psalm 119. It is the longest chapter in the whole Bible! Look at the little headings between the stanzas: in many Bibles they say ALEPH, BETH, GIMEL. What do you think they mean?

  2. Read aloud: The story. Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible: 176 verses. It is built on the alef-bet. The first eight verses all begin with alef, the next eight with bet, and so on, all the way to tav: 22 letters times 8 verses. Every stanza praises God’s word. The bet stanza begins: Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.

    Read aloud: The 22 letters. א ב ג ד ה ו ז ח ט י כ ל מ נ ס ע פ צ ק ר ש ת. In your King James Bible, the stanzas are headed with the letter names: ALEPH, BETH, GIMEL, DALETH, HE, VAU, ZAIN, CHETH, TETH, JOD, CAPH, LAMED, MEM, NUN, SAMECH, AIN, PE, TZADDI, KOPH, RESH, SCHIN, TAU. They are spelled a little differently from ours, but they are the same letters.

    Read aloud: Say it and do it. Turn the pages of Psalm 119 in your Bible and read the stanza headings out loud. At each one, point to the same letter on your chart.

  3. Do this: Say each word clearly; your child says it back twice. Point to a picture or the real thing when you can.

    • א (alef) [AH-lef]: the letter alef: silent
    • ב (bet) [BAYT]: the letter bet: b with a dot inside
    • ת (tav) [TAHV]: the letter tav: t
    • דָּבָר (davar) [dah-VAHR]: word, thing
  4. A page of old parchment, stained with age, written with three neat columns of black Hebrew letters with tiny vowel points; small notes are written in the margins and above and below the columns.
    A page of the Aleppo Codex (Deuteronomy), Shlomo ben Buya’a, scribe; pointed by Aaron ben Asher, about 930. Image: Wikimedia Commons, public domain

    Do this: Look at the picture together for a quiet minute before anyone talks.

    Read aloud: The Aleppo Codex is one of the oldest Hebrew Bibles written as a book. A scribe wrote the letters, and a famous scholar named Aaron ben Asher added the vowel points and notes. For hundreds of years teachers used it to check that their copies were exact.

    Point and find:

    • How many columns of writing are on the page?
    • Do the lines start on the right or the left?
    • Find the tiny notes in the margins.
    • Can you find a lamed rising above the line?

    Ask:

    • “Why would a scribe work so carefully?”
    • “What would it be like to copy a whole Bible by hand?”

  5. Show: Which letter begins every verse of the third stanza of Psalm 119?

    Say this: “The stanzas follow the alef-bet.”

    Say this: “The third letter is gimel.”

    Answer: Gimel, ג.

    Show: What is the first letter of Psalm 119:9?

    Say this: “Look at the right end: בַּמֶּה”

    Answer: Bet, ב.

  6. Do this: Ask out loud. Let your child try first; help only after a real try.

    Ask: How many letters are in the alef-bet?

    Listen for: 22.

    Ask: How many verses are in each stanza of Psalm 119?

    Listen for: Eight.

    Ask: Which letter comes after ayin?

    Listen for: Pe.

    3 more on the lesson page.

  7. Read aloud: Make a bookmark for Psalm 119 with all 22 letters.

    Steps:

    1. Write the 22 letters down the strip from top to bottom, alef first.
    2. Beside each letter write its KJV heading (ALEPH, BETH …).
    3. Put the bookmark in Psalm 119.
    4. Each day this unit, read one stanza heading and its first verse.

    Tips for you:

    • Check the look-alikes as you write: ב כ, ד ר, ה ח ת, ו ז ן.

    Done when your child can say:

    • My bookmark has all 22 letters in order.
    • I can match each to a Psalm 119 heading.

  8. Do this: Your child picks one or more; you write the date.

    1. Copy the 22 letters across a page from right to left, in two rows of eleven.

  9. Read aloud: Psalm 119 is not the only alphabet poem in the Bible. Psalms 25, 34, 111, 112 and 145, Proverbs 31:10–31 and four chapters of Lamentations are also written in alphabet order.

    • Forgetting samekh or ayin in the middle. Practice: nun, samekh, ayin, pe.
    • Reading the KJV heading CAPH as a new letter. It is kaf.

  11. Call out a letter name. The child finds that stanza heading in Psalm 119 as fast as possible and reads the first English verse. Keep score; then swap.

  12. Say this: “Tell me what you learned today.”

    Listen for: Say and write all 22 letters in order.; Explain how Psalm 119 is arranged.; Find the letter that begins a Psalm 119 stanza.

  13. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.

    Psalm 119:9 (KJV)

    In Hebrew, from the Leningrad Codex: <span class="heb-block" lang="he" dir="rtl">בַּמֶּה יְזַכֶּה־נַּעַר אֶת־אָרְחוֹ</span> This verse opens the bet stanza. Its first word, bammeh, means with what? or wherewithal? Find the bet at the start, on the right.

Spread over the week

3 sessions of 15–20 minutes. Stop while it is still going well.

  1. Session 1. Warm-up, then read and teach the new idea and the new words. Picture study and show how.
  2. Session 2. Practice together, then start the project. Finish the project, then the sketchbook.
  3. Session 3. Narration, the game and the Scripture.