The need of a new Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament has been so long felt that no elaborate explanation of the appearance of the present work seems called for. Wilhelm Gesenius, the father of modern Hebrew Lexicography, died in 1842. His Lexicon Manual Hebraicum et Chaldaicum in V. T. Libros, representing a much riper stage of his lexicographical work than his earlier Hebrew dictionaries, was published in 1833.

Based on the seminal work in Hebrew lexicography, Gesenius' Thesaurus, this lexicon offers the reader short English definitions, and, in cases of uncertainty, the means of forming an independent judgment from the extant materials and the extra-biblical history of the words. Words are classified according to their stems and no pronunciations are supplied. The comprehensive appendix containing the Biblical Aramaic makes use of important Aramaic texts from Egypt, of the fifth century B.C.

Ingram
Brown/Driver/Briggs is to this day THE work of Hebrew lexicography. There is simply nothing else that comes close. Knowledge of Hebrew is required to use this reference as all word entries are in Hebrew.

judaeo-semitist from Bethesda, MD
This is a great Hebrew lexicon with detailed entries with references to the other semitic languages such as Aramaic, Arabic, Syriac, and Ethiopic. In fact, it even has a biblical Aramaic lexicon as an appendix.

An Amazon.com Customer
Why a lexicon? "In the beginning was the WORD." Word usage is enormously helpful to Biblical understanding. H.W.F. Gesenius (mid 1800's) is acclaimed as the Noah Webster of Old Testament Hebrew lexicons (dictionary). He brings to the Old Testament a wonderful blend of Christian/Jewish background and insight. Be sure to note not only the word you are looking up, but also the words that surround it, for they too often lend very interesting and even uncanny insight (divine providence).