אָלַח ʼâlach — to muddle, i.e. (figuratively and intransitive) to turn (morally) corrupt
Translated in the KJV as become filthy.
a primitive root; to muddle, i.e. (figuratively and intransitive) to turn (morally) corrupt.
ʼâlach in each stem
Niph'al
Perfect (qatal) 2Participle (active) 1
How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?
They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread: they have not called upon God.
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 ›