Page:A Hebrew and English Lexicon (Brown-Driver-Briggs).djvu/14

, ; I. , , , , ,  (not ), ; , ;  (incl. ); , I., , I. , , ; , , I. , , , , III. , II. , I. (not ), I., , , , , I. , I. , , ; , , , I., , , ; , , , ; I. , , I. , , , ,, , , I. ; , , , , I. , , , I. , I., , I. , , ; , , ; , , II. , III. ,, (not , ), , , III. , ; I., , , , I. , ; ,, ; , , I. , , , I. ,. I. ;, , , I., I. , , ; ; , , , , , I. , , , , ,, , , ; , ,.
 * I., , , , , , , , , , ; , , , ,

Professor Brown is responsible for all articles and parts of articles not included in the above statements, as well as for the arrangement of the book and the general editorial oversight.

The work has consumed a much longer time than was anticipated at the outset. Twenty-three years have passed since it was undertaken, and nearly fifteen since the issue of the First Part, in June, 1891. Several causes have prevented an earlier completion of it. Not only have the Editors been engaged in the active duties of their professorships, to which they were obliged to subordinate even so important a work as this, but they have more than once encountered serious interruptions from unforeseen circumstances of a personal nature. But, above all, the task itself has proved a greater one than they supposed it to be. The field has been large, the questions have been many, and often difficult, the consideration of usage, involved, as it is, with that of textual change and of fresh proposals in exegesis, has required an enormous amount of time; the study of etymologies is involved with masses of new material, rapidly increasing and as yet imperfectly published and digested; the critical discussion of the many related topics is of great extent and scattered through many books and periodicals. Even tentative conclusions can be reached often only through a careful weighing of facts yielded by prolonged investigation. And so the process has gone on year after year. The Editors are quite aware that the patience of purchasers has been put to a severe test. They would be glad to think that they may find in the result a partial compensation.

They know, indeed, that this result is far from perfect. Their most earnest care has not been able to exclude errors; the First Part, in particular, was printed under unfavourable conditions, and the years since the earlier Parts were issued have brought new knowledge at many points. It was not possible, nor would it have been just to owners of these Parts, to make considerable changes in the plates. Such changes have been limited, almost wholly, to obvious misprints, and occasional errors in citation. A selected, and restricted, list of some of the more important ‘Addenda et Corrigenda’ is appended to the volume. The Editors venture to hope that in the future they may be able to utilize the additional material which is now in their hands.