Hey Backwoods Presbyterian!
I would second the recommendation of Waltke/O'Connor
An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax. However, there have been some criticisms of that grammar. Dennis Pardee's criticisms are the most classic. If you get the 1994
Journal of Near Eastern Studies, you can read his criticisms for yourself.
There are two basic criticisms he presents, and that is that Waltke and O'Connor, first of all, do not distinguish between poetry and prose. For example, one cannot construct a grammar of the English language from the writings of Dr. Seuss as phrases such as, "Then he did the same thing to the other whos' houses, leaving crumbs much to small for the other whos' mouses" would mean that "mouses" is how we form the plural of mouse! Clearly the grammar of poetry, due to sound, rhythm [although that is debatable], word pairs, parallelism etc. is going to vary greatly.
His second main criticism is that they do not distinguish between different levels of discourse, and never get beyond the sentence level to the discourse level. Discourse is very important, as it can change the entire meaning of a word. For example, the pronoun "I" is a pronoun that is generally used to refer to ones self. However, what happens if I say, "John said, 'I don't feel well today.'?" Now, who does the "I" refer to? It refers to John instead of myself. This can even happen on levels beyond the sentence level, as certain authors will use certain forms consistently in a passage to have specific functions. If you cannot see beyond the sentence level, you will not understand how to recognize these forms together.
Hence, while Waltke O'Connor has a whole lot of good and vital information, these deficiencies need to be made up. For poetry, I would recommend the book by Adele Berlin, a Jewish Hebrew Poetry grammarian, entitled
<i>The Dynamics of Biblical Parallelism</i>. Also, very necessary and essential is Wilfred Watson's book
Classical Hebrew Poetry. These books will give you an introduction to the unique field of the grammar and exegesis of Hebrew Poetry.
Also, one must understand texts beyond the sentence level. For that, I would recommend a book with articles by several authors, edited by Walter R. Bodine, which is specifically addressed to Hebrew scholars entitled
Discourse Analysis, What it is, and What it Offers. Also, I have heard of a linguistics textbook on Discourse Analysis which is supposed to have really good exercises to practice these techniques, although I have not yet seen it. The book is called
Discourse Analysis (Introducing Linguistics) by Barbara Johnstone.
Fortunately, some of these deficiencies are going to be resolved as I heard through the grape vine that there is a revision of Waltke/O'Connor coming out by someone who is one of the experts in the field of Hebrew Grammar and Discourse Analysis. Unfortunately, I have no clue how far along that process is, and it still could be several years before it is completed.
I would also recommend, along with the above books, the Hebrew grammar by Paul Jouon which was translated and edited by the oriental scholar Takamitsu Muraoka entitled,
A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew. There is also an excellent grammar with three different authors, Christo H. J. Van Der Merwe, Jackie A. Naude, and Jan H. Kroeze entitled
A Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar.
Also, while it is good to have a copy of
Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar [preferably, the Oxford University Press edition, as the other editions are really abbreviated], there are many things in Gesenius that are outdated. It is helpful to first check the sources I mentioned above, and then, if you still cannot find the answer, then consult Gesenius.
Well, that should be plenty to get you started, as all this material will take a very long time to read!
God Bless,
Adam
