The verb stems and the Niphal

One root, several stems

After the fall, the man tells God why he was afraid.

"I heard Your voice in the garden," he replied, "and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself."

Genesis 3:10

"I hid myself" is וָאֵחָבֵא, "va'echave'", and the panel labels it Niphal. Two verses earlier, in Genesis 3:8, the man and his wife also hide, but there the word is וַיִּתְחַבֵּא, "vaiyitchabe'", labelled Hithpael. Both come from the same root, חבא, in two different shapes.

Those shapes are called stems (Hebrew binyanim). A Hebrew verb takes its three-letter root and pours it into different patterns, and each pattern shifts the meaning, a little like English "tell" and "be told". There are seven main stems. The table gives the sign and the usual sense of each.

Here is one example of each. Qal: בָּרָא in Genesis 1:1, "he created". Piel: וְדִבַּרְתָּ, "and you will speak", with the middle ב doubled. Pual: לֻקֳחָה, "she was taken", with a u vowel. Hiphil: הוֹצֵאתִיךָ, "I brought you out". Hophal: יוּמָת, "he is put to death", where, in the imperfect, the sign is the u vowel after the prefix. Hithpael: וַיִּתְחַבֵּא, "he hid himself".

Treat the table as tendencies, not rules. Some verbs occur in only one or two stems, and a stem such as the Piel does not always intensify. What matters is that the stem changes the meaning, so a root alone does not tell you enough. Qal you already know. Today we study the Niphal; the others come one by one in the next lessons.

Spotting the Niphal

The sign of the Niphal is the letter נ (nun), the one in its name. In the perfect and the participle it stands at the front as נִ-. In Genesis 12:3, וְנִבְרְכוּ, "venivrekhu", has נִ right after the וְ and means "and they will be blessed".

In the imperfect the nun assimilates into the next letter, so the first root letter is doubled (a dagesh). In Genesis 2:23, יִקָּרֵא, "yikare'", comes from the root קרא "call", and its ק has the dot. In the infinitive and the imperative the form begins with הִ- followed by a doubled letter. That looks like the Hiphil's הִ-, but the doubling after it marks the Niphal. Letters such as ח and ר do not double, so a form like וָאֵחָבֵא shows no dot. When you are unsure, trust the panel's stem label.

What the Niphal means: passive and reflexive

The Niphal is usually the passive or the reflexive ("to oneself") of the Qal. Passive uses are the most common. After the creation of the woman, the man says:

And the man said: "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for out of man she was taken."

Genesis 2:23

יִקָּרֵא is "she shall be called" (the verb itself is impersonal, "it shall be called"). The Qal verb is "call", the Niphal "be called". The earlier וְנִבְרְכוּ is read by many Bibles as passive ("will be blessed"), while others take it as reflexive ("will bless themselves"). The same Niphal can be translated both ways, and translators decide.

In Genesis 2:4, בְּהִבָּרְאָם, "behibare'am", is "when they were created". It is the construct infinitive from the lesson on infinitives with בְּ and the suffix ־ָם "they", and being Niphal it turns "create" into "be created". In the same way בְּהִוָּלֶד in Genesis 21:5 is "when (Isaac) was born" from יָלַד, "bear, beget". Genesis 4:18 puts the two stems side by side: וַיִּוָּלֵד, "and (Irad) was born", and the Qal יָלַד, "he fathered".

Two more roots you can add. אָסַף means "gather". Of Abraham's death the narrator says וַיֵּאָסֶף, "vaiye'asef", "he was gathered" to his people. And מָצָא is "find" in the Qal (מָצָא, "he found", Genesis 2:20), but the Niphal יִמָּצְאוּן means "they will be found", as when Abraham asks God in Genesis 18:29 what he will do if forty are found there.

A reflexive Niphal turns the action back onto the doer: וָאֵחָבֵא is not "I hid something" but "I hid myself". Finally, the Niphal is not always passive or reflexive. שָׁבַע, "swear", is a verb that usually appears in the Niphal, as in הִשָּׁבְעָה, "hishave'ah", "swear!" (Genesis 21:23). Just read it as "swear".

Summary

A Hebrew root can appear in seven stems (Qal, Niphal, Piel, Pual, Hiphil, Hophal, Hithpael), each with a usual sense and sign, though these are tendencies. The Niphal is marked by נִ-, or by a doubled first root letter, or by הִ- plus a doubled letter, and it is usually passive ("be called", "be born", "be found") or reflexive ("hide oneself"). If a form puzzles you, read the stem label in the panel. The next lesson takes up the stems with a doubled middle letter.

Words in this lesson

• שָׁבַעshavato swear186 times in the OT
• אָסַףasaphto gather200 times in the OT
• מָצָאmatsato find455 times in the OT
• יָלַדyaladto beget496 times in the OT

Practice