אָלָה ʼâlâh — to bewail
Translated in the KJV as lament.
a primitive root (rather identical with H422 through the idea of invocation); to bewail.
ʼâlâh in each stem
Qal (Pa'al)
Simple · active — the plain action; the subject does it
Imperative 1
אֱלִ֕י Joel 1:8 Imperative, 2nd person feminine singular
Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
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 ›