In general, the form of Hebrew found in the 39 books of the Hebrew Scriptures, often called the Old Testament.

Hebrew was used by the Israelite descendants of Abraham and is part of the Semitic group of languages that includes Aramaic, Akkadian, and the various Arabic and Ethiopic dialects. The Hebrew language remained relatively stable for the thousand-​year period during which the Hebrew Scriptures were written (from 1513 to about 443 B.C.E). The form of Hebrew script changed after the Babylonian exile when the square-​shaped script became popular. Nevertheless, the ancient script continued to be used for a time.