12.11 The Seven Hebrew Verb Stems

The verb stem indicates the meaning of the verb itself and guides our translation

  • At a basic level, the stem provides the type of action and the voice
    • The table provides a good starting place, but it is not the “final word” on verb stems99
    • Note that Hebrew verbs can have any one of several nuanced meanings depending on the context
    • We will discuss these nuances as we introduce each stem
Active Passive Reflexive
Simple Action QAL-Q Niphal-N (Niphal)
Cause a State Piel-D Pual-Dp Hitpael-tD
Cause an Action Hiphil-H Hophal-Hp
  • The QAL stem is the basic or simple verb stem. All other stems are derived from Qal
  • The Parsing Code for the Qal is “Q”. we’ll explain the “Parsing codes” in a few sections
  • Now review the table from the previous section once again to see how the verb stems relate to translations
Active Passive Reflexive
Simple Action To Love To Be Loved To Love Oneself
Cause a State To Love Passionately To Be Loved Passionately To Cause Oneself To Be Loved Passionately
Cause an Action To Cause to Love To Be Caused to Love

  1. In particular, it has often been thought that Piel indicates an “intensive” action. Modern scholarship has cast some doubt on this. “Causing a state”, perhaps iteratively (doing something over and over, which might be a form of intensity) appears to be more precise description of Piel, and is preferred by scholars such as Dr. Beckman.↩︎