• Biblical dictionaries define and explain biblical words, sometimes at considerable length. The articles identify and describe people, places, corporate bodies, concepts, and events in the Bible and summarize the variety of perspectives, controversies, and questions about these. The articles also provide summaries and analysis of the books of the Bible.
• Identify key words, persons, events, or corporate bodies that relate to your subject. Then read about those words, persons, events, and corporate bodies in biblical dictionaries to acquire a basic understanding. This preliminary understanding will be helpful when you continue your research in books, commentaries, and journal articles that deal with your subject.
• Reference work articles will usually provide select bibliographies for each article, pointing toward your next steps in research. When consulting multiple reference works, pay particular attention to sources that are repeated in more than one resource. Such repetition is a sign of the significance of those works. Make such works a high priority for your research.

Bible Gateway is a good online substitute for a concordance.  It allows you to search for specific words in the biblical text, in a wide variety of translations.