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Hebrew Explorer
The tool for deep Hebrew research into the biblical Scriptures

Hebrew verbs of the Bible — every root, and what each binyan does to it

All 1,705 verb roots of the Hebrew Scriptures — 74,022 verb forms in the Tanakh — each with its meaning, which stems (binyanim) it appears in and how often, its forms, and example verses for every stem. A Hebrew verb is three root letters poured into one of seven patterns, and the pattern tells you whether the action is simple, intensified or caused, and whether the subject does it, receives it, or does it to himself.

The seven binyanim

StemActionVoiceWhat it says
Qal (Pa'al)simpleactivethe plain verb — he broke
Niph'alsimplepassivethe plain verb, received — it was broken
Pi'elintensiveactivethe action intensified or brought about — he shattered
Pu'alintensivepassivethe intensified action, received — it was shattered
Hitpa'elintensivereflexivethe action turned on oneself, or back and forth — he shattered himself, they walked about
Hiph'ilcausativeactivecausing the action — he made (someone) break, he brought
Hoph'alcausativepassivecaused, received — he was made to break, he was brought

The same root in different stems: shavar — Qal he broke, Pi'el he shattered, Niph'al it was broken, Hiph'il he caused to break through. Rarer stems (Polel, Pilpel, Hitpolel…) and the Aramaic stems of Daniel and Ezra appear on the pages of the roots that use them.

Every verb root, most frequent first

Reading the anatomy of a verb

Each root's page lists every stem it takes with a count, the forms it appears in — perfect, imperfect, wayyiqtol, imperative, participle, infinitive — and three example verses per stem, each opening in the app with Verb Anatomy switched on, where the word's own letters are coloured: root letters, stem letters, and the letters that carry person, gender and number.

Morphology from OpenScriptures MorphHB (CC BY 4.0); definitions from Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (public domain); text from the Westminster Leningrad Codex.

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