עָבַד ʻâbad — to work (in any sense)
Translated in the KJV as × be, keep in bondage, be bondmen, bond-service, compel, do, dress, ear, execute, husbandman, keep, labour(-ing man.
a primitive root; to work (in any sense); by implication, to serve, till, (causatively) enslave, etc.
ʻâbad in each stem
Qal (Pa'al)
Imperfect (yiqtol) 64Infinitive construct 47Sequential perfect (weqatal) 41Wayyiqtol 38Participle (active) 28Perfect (qatal) 27Imperative 20Cohortative 3Jussive 2
And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
Hiph'il
Perfect (qatal) 3Wayyiqtol 2Participle (active) 1Infinitive construct 1Sequential perfect (weqatal) 1
And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour:
And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant.
And Solomon numbered all the strangers that were in the land of Israel, after the numbering wherewith David his father had numbered them; and they were found an hundred and fifty thousand and three thousand and six hundred.
Hoph'al
Imperfect (yiqtol) 4
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images.
Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me,
Niph'al
Imperfect (yiqtol) 2Perfect (qatal) 1Sequential perfect (weqatal) 1
And the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer unto a rough valley, which is neither eared nor sown, and shall strike off the heifer’s neck there in the valley:
If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they.
For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown:
Pu'al
Perfect (qatal) 2
And it shall be, that the city which is next unto the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take an heifer, which hath not been wrought with, and which hath not drawn in the yoke;
And it shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve,
What the stems mean
A Hebrew verb is its root letters set into a pattern. The pattern — the binyan — is the grammar's way of saying three things at once: whether the action is simple, intensive or causative, and whether its subject is active, passive or reflexive. That is why one Hebrew word can need six English ones. All seven binyanim, explained ›