Note also that we have very limited texts from the biblical period. There were probably lots of words that just don't appear in Tanakh and we don't know about.

@IsaacMoses what about Jastrow? His dictionary is specifically geared towards Rabbinic texts.

@DoubleAA good point, but mostly irrelevant to reading Tanach itself.

@Hugh, Jastrow's is a dictionary of [primarily] Aramaic, specifically as used in "Targumim, Talmud and Midrashic Literature," not of Biblical Hebrew.

@IsaacMoses Targumim is Tanach/Biblical Hebrew, plus there are plenty of Hebrew entries in it

@IsaacMoses my really crux question though has nothing to do with Modern Hebrew, it is if there is some resource that one can use to learn the texts independently of a translation

and by texts I mean Tanakh primarily, but really and sefer that is written in Hebrew

@Hugh what we call "Targumim" are Aramaic translations of Tanach.

@Hugh "what is commonly referred to as Hebrew nowadays" is Modern Hebrew, as is what you'll find in Webster's and on Google.

@IsaacMoses so you're saying there is no way to learn the Rambam or any other Hebrew sefer besides with an English translation?

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

@IsaacMoses there is some glitch I guess with StackExchange, even though I have 21 rep it wont let me chat in the room.

@Hugh, sorry about that. Please feel free to respond to my multi-message comment there, here, and we can continue here.

@IsaacMoses I looked up Dag in Jastrow, and he says biblically it can mean both small and big fish. For Ger he has "dweller" or "stanger", and I don't really think thats off persay.

@IsaacMoses and what I meant by Targumim, is that they are translations/definitions/interpretations of the actual Ancient text, and therefore relevant to understanding it's meaning in English

@IsaacMoses not to nitpick, but the definition of Ger which you contrast between "Modern" and "Biblical" which isn't really the question anyway, I think that Dweller has that implication from the get go, as Rashi spells out in the Avraham & Ephron encounter of Ger vs Toshav

@IsaacMoses the bottom line is whether there is some accepted standard of Hebrew which one can use to learn Seforim on his own? I personally have been using Jastrow, but is this accepted as accurate, and if so by whom?

@Hugh, If you want to ask someone in Modern Hebrew "Where do you live?" you'll say "איפה אתה גר?" Someone familiar with this usage and not with Biblical Hebrew or the relevant rabbinic literature (e.g. Rashi) is likely to misinterpret this verb in Biblical contexts.

@Hugh, as indicated above, this question, as written, sounds very much like it's asking whether a Modern Hebrew dictionary is sufficient for understanding Tanach. As indicated in two answers, it isn't. If what you really want to know is whether there's a comprehensive dictionary of Hebrew, sufficient to the task of independent study of all Judaic literature from Tanach through Rambam and beyond, you might consider posting a new question asking that.

@IsaacMoses yeah, im actually doing that now ;)

Nonetheless, if you only had access to a modern Heb-Eng dictionary, you'd be able to translate most words correctly. On a related note, if I remember correctly, the Even Shoshan Dictionary (which provides definitions in Hebrew, not translations to English) includes the biblical meanings of the words.

@Shmuel, as my examples indicate, depending on such a dictionary, you'll end up translating some words incorrectly without knowing it.

@Hugh I'm about to move these comments to chat. You should be able to chat there now; if not, please leave a comment in reply to me and I'll look into it.