Bible
Hebrew to English Transliteration
Paste or type Hebrew text. The tool first matches a built-in dictionary of common biblical words and falls back to a letter-by-letter consonant map for the rest.
Paste Hebrew text or type Hebrew letters. The tool first checks a small dictionary of common biblical words and falls back to a letter-by-letter Latin map for the rest.
Try a sample
English transliteration
shalom
1 of 1 word matched the common-word dictionary; the rest use a letter-by-letter map.
The single-quote symbol (') marks alef and ayin, which are consonants without a clean Latin equivalent. Vowel points (nikud) are stripped before mapping; the output is consonant-only unless the dictionary supplies vowels.
Examples
שלום
shalom (peace)
אמן
amen
תורה
torah (instruction)
ישראל ירושלים
yisrael yerushalayim
How it works
Hebrew is read right to left. For each word, the tool tries a dictionary lookup first. If it finds one, it returns the standard romanization with a short meaning note. Otherwise it strips any nikud (vowel points) and maps consonants letter by letter.
Consonants · ש → sh · ח → ch · צ → ts · ת → t · ק → q
Alef/Ayin · א, ע → ' (apostrophe)
Final-form letters (ך ם ן ף ץ) map to the same sound as their regular forms.
Related Bible tools
- English to Hebrew transliteration for the reverse direction.
- Hebrew gematria calculator for numerical values of Hebrew letters and words.
- Gematria calculator for English, Hebrew, and Greek gematria across multiple ciphers.
- All Bible tools.
Limitation note. This tool transliterates sound, not meaning. It does not parse biblical Hebrew grammar or vowel structure, and the mapping is a single educational convention. For scholarly work, follow the transliteration system your publisher uses.
Frequently asked questions
Transliteration represents the sound of a word in a different alphabet. It is the bridge that lets a non-Hebrew reader pronounce a Hebrew word. Translation is something different: it conveys meaning. This tool is a transliterator.
First it checks a small dictionary of common biblical Hebrew words (shalom, amen, torah, et cetera) and returns the standard romanized form along with a short meaning note. For words not in the dictionary, it strips vowel points and maps each Hebrew consonant to its Latin counterpart letter by letter.
The Hebrew letters alef (א) and ayin (ע) are consonants without a clean Latin equivalent. Scholarly transliteration often uses an apostrophe (or a special mark) to represent them. This tool uses ' for both, which is the practical choice for casual use.
It strips them before mapping consonants. Vowels are written in pointed (mefukad) Hebrew using small marks below or above the consonants. A real transliterator that reads pointed Hebrew can produce a fully vocalized romanization; this tool does not.
Different academic systems exist (SBL, ALA-LC, ISO 259, Israeli academic). This tool uses a simple sound-based map for general readers. For scholarly publication, follow the system your editor or journal specifies.
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