Hebrew

Of or related to the Hebrew people, variously known as the Jews, Israelis or Israelites, also known as Semitic.

1. A form of writing, associated with Phoenician, and characterized by consonants as letters with vowels as punctuation marks, written right to left. See Hebrew alphabet.
2. A language used by the Hebrew people in ancient times. See Hebrew language.

According to traditional Jewish thought, the Hebrew writing system contained all the current letters at the time of Moses, although Ezra is known for his contribution to the square form. The original Assyrian script was devoted to writing the Torah, with a later script (the Ivri script) devoted to secular uses such as in coins or emblems. The Ivri script was in use at the time of the first Temple.