Participles

An adjective that moves

Psalm 23 opens like this.

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

Psalm 23:1

The word translated "my shepherd" is רֹעִי, "ro'i", and the panel labels it a participle. Its root is רָעָה, "to pasture", and the participle רֹעֶה is "pasturing one", which is to say "shepherd". The ending ־ִי is "my". Almost literally: "the LORD is my pasturer".

A participle is a verb that works like an adjective or a noun. Like a verb, it points to an action, and it usually presents that action as ongoing. Like a noun or adjective, it has gender and number, agrees with the word it describes, can be in the construct state, can take a suffix and can take the article. A participle carries no tense of its own; the time comes from the context.

Ongoing action: "-ing"

Look at Genesis 1:2.

Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

Genesis 1:2

מְרַחֶפֶת, "merachefet", is "hovering", a participle, feminine and singular. It is feminine because the word before it, וְרוּחַ ("and the Spirit of"), is a feminine noun in Hebrew. That is a fine example of a participle matching the gender of what it describes.

In Genesis 3:8 the man and his wife hear the sound of the LORD God "walking" in the garden. The word is מִתְהַלֵּךְ, "mithalekh", a masculine singular participle: an action in progress. The panel also names a stem for both of these participles (Piel and Hithpael), but stems are for a later lesson. For now, just notice "participle" and think "-ing".

The Qal participle: someone who does

Very often a participle is a person defined by what they do, and then it is simply a noun. The Qal, the basic stem, gives the participle a steady shape: an o vowel (holem) after the first root letter and an e vowel (tsere) under the second. The model is קֹטֵל, "killer", and for the root שָׁמַר, "keep", it gives שֹׁמֵר, "shomer", "keeper". The o is sometimes spelled with a ו, as in שׁוֹמֵר; the sound and meaning are the same.

Psalm 121:4 shows it.

שׁוֹמֵר, "shomer", means "keeper" (שָׁמַר, "keep, obey"). It is in the construct state and so joins to the next word: "the keeper of Israel". In 1 Kings 8:23 the same form is שֹׁמֵר, "keeping" the covenant, and הַהֹלְכִים, "haholekhim", with the article and the plural ending -ִים, is "those who walk" in the LORD's presence. The article turns the participle into "the one who…" or "those who…".

Genesis 22:17 has a participle that has become an ordinary noun.

I will surely bless you, and I will multiply your descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will possess the gates of their enemies.

Genesis 22:17

אֹיְבָיו, "'oyevav", is "his enemies" (אֹיֵב, "enemy"). It is a masculine plural participle in the construct state with ־ָיו, the form of "his" used on plural nouns: literally "those who are hostile to him". Some participles are so common as names that dictionaries list them as nouns.

Not every word like a participle is one. In Genesis 3:20 Eve is "the mother of all the living", and the word for "living" is חָי, "chai" (חַי, "alive"). It behaves much like a participle, but the panel labels it an adjective, so trust the label.

The passive participle: "blessed"

Qal has a second participle. Where the first describes the doer, this one describes the one who receives the action. The panel labels it participle passive, and its sign is a u vowel after the second letter (קָטוּל). The best-known example is Psalm 118:26.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD. From the house of the LORD we bless you.

Psalm 118:26

בָּרוּךְ, "barukh", is "blessed", the passive participle of "bless": the one who has received a blessing. Right after it is הַבָּא, "haba'", "the one who comes", an ordinary participle with the article. So the line has two participles side by side, one on the receiving end ("blessed") and one doing the action ("who comes"). הַבָּא comes from בּוֹא "come", a root that loses a letter, so the קֹטֵל pattern is hard to see in it; the lesson on weak verbs explains such roots. The crowds in the Gospels shouted words from this psalm as Jesus rode into Jerusalem (Matthew 21:9).

Summary

A participle is a verbal adjective and noun, labelled participle. It shows ongoing action (מְרַחֶפֶת "hovering") or a person defined by what they do (רֹעִי "my shepherd", שֹׁמֵר "keeper", אֹיְבָיו "his enemies", הַבָּא "the one who comes"). The Qal participle has the pattern o-vowel, e-vowel (קֹטֵל); the participle passive has a u vowel and describes the receiver (בָּרוּךְ "blessed"). Because they work like nouns, participles take gender, number, construct, suffixes and the article, so the panel's labels will tell you almost everything.

Words in this lesson

• אֹיֵבoyevenemy281 times in the OT
• רָעָהraahto pasture167 times in the OT
• חַיchayalive242 times in the OT
• שָׁמַרshamarto keep: obey202 times in the OT

Practice