Hebrew

Hebrew is the language spoken by the Israelites throughout the Old Testament period. It is a Semitic language closely related to Aramaic and Phoenician. In the Bible, Hebrew is often referred to as "the language of Judah" (2Ki.18.26, 28; Isa.36.11, 13) or "Judean" (Neh.13.24). During the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem, the officials of King Hezekiah requested that the Assyrian envoy speak in Aramaic rather than Hebrew, so that the people on the wall would not understand (2Ki.18.26; Isa.36.11). Hebrew continued to be spoken and written by the Jews after the Babylonian exile, as evidenced by the later books of the Old Testament and the Dead Sea Scrolls.