One of the great difficulties in reading the Hebrew Bible, especially for beginners, is knowing when the unfamiliar word you’re seeing is a place-name/personal name or a common noun. The beginnings and endings of proper nouns can look like grammatical affixes (morphemes), and if you analyze them as such, they can lead you on a wild goose chase. For ex., in v. 23 if you don’t realize that מֵר֗וֹז is the name of a city (Meroz), you could mistakenly assume that מֵר֗וֹז is an adverbial prepositional phrase: the preposition מִן (with nun assimilated, and compensatory lengthening due to not being able to place dagesh forte in word-initial resh) affixed to some Hebrew noun רוֹז that you can’t find in your lexicon! In order to help you, my beloved Hebrew reading class, avoid this unfortunate problem (I’d much prefer to see you reading Hebrew, rather than chasing geese!), I’ve provided you with a list of the proper names in your next reading assignment: Judges 5:19-27.

v. 19 כְנַ֔עַן = Canaan;

בְּתַעְנַ֖ךְ = Taanach;

מְגִדּ֑וֹ = Megiddo

v. 20 סִיסְרָֽא = Sisera

v. 21 קִישׁוֹן֙ = Kishon (river)

v. 22 none

v. 23 מֵר֗וֹז = Meroz

v. 24 יָעֵ֕ל = Jael;

חֶ֣בֶר הַקֵּינִ֑י = Heber the Kenite

v. 25 none

v. 26 סִֽיסְרָא֙ = Sisera

v. 27 none

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