HIERO (Hebrew Idiom in English Roots) is a partial translation of the Old Testament, in which Hebrew word order and vocabulary choices are transparent to the reader.
HIERO (Hebrew Idiom in English Roots) is a partial translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew into English, in which Hebrew word order and vocabulary choices are transparent to the reader. Its intended audience is studious English readers with little or no knowledge of the Hebrew language. Its purpose is to give some insight into the poetic idiom that the sacred authors chose to use.
You can browse the full HIERO translation here. Or read one of the following familiar passages:
Modern English readers are blessed with more and better translations of the Bible than anyone else in history. Some translations specialize in theological precision, others swell with rhetorical beauty, and others use such everyday words that they sound like they were written yesterday. The Hebrew scriptures, however, are not written in modern, everyday language, modern technical language, or even classical rhetorical language. They are written in ancient Hebrew poetry, and HIERO tries to reflect that.
HIERO does not interpret the Hebrew scriptures in a precise, beautiful, or accessible way. Instead—recognizing that word choice and word order are two of the most basic elements of poetry—HIERO tries to represent the Hebrew idiom in a way that lets the English reader see which Hebrew root words are used and in what order. Some readers will find beauty in this.
Two parameters guide the translation:
The English word order always reflects the Hebrew word order. Maintaining Hebrew word order lets the reader feel more of the poetic texture of the underlying Hebrew.
Each Hebrew root and all of its derivatives are always represented by derivatives of a single English root. Unrelated Hebrew words are represented by unrelated English words. This root-for-root translation parameter makes many word associations more apparent in English than is possible in a translation. Exceptions are made for some pronouns, simple prepositions, and other function words for which word choices are probably less significant. You can read more about the root-for-root translation parameter here.
Following these two parameters—the second one especially—makes it impossible to translate into normal English. Instead, the text is only partially translated—the morphology is mostly English, but the idiom is not. The vocabulary is based on English roots but extended in unfamiliar ways. Read more about Hebrew idiom here.
HIERO depends on the “Translators Amalgamated Hebrew OT” (TAHOT) by STEP Bible, licensed under CC BY 4.0. TAHOT provides the Hebrew text from which HIERO works, as well as lexical and grammatical tags on which HIERO’s Hebrew parsing dictionary is primarily based.
HIERO also uses code from the “OSHB Hebrew Lexicon” by the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, licensed under CC BY 4.0. The OSHB Hebrew Lexicon contains XML code, part-of-speech mappings, and Strongs number mappings that structure HIERO’s English lexicon.
The rest of my sources are listed here.
HIERO is still in progress and updated often. I have posted it online only so that I can receive feedback on it. As a result, I am not offering any license to use my work. Nothing on this website may be copied, shared, distributed, modified, or used for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial, without my prior written permission. Feel free to read and provide suggestions for improvement.