עָקַב ʻâqab — properly, to swell out or up
Translated in the KJV as take by the heel, stay, supplant, × utterly.
a primitive root; properly, to swell out or up; used only as denominative from H6119,; to seize by the heel; figuratively, to circumvent (as if tripping up the heels); also to restrain (as if holding by the heel).
ʻâqab in each stem
Qal (Pa'al)
Wayyiqtol 1Infinitive absolute 1Imperfect (yiqtol) 1Perfect (qatal) 1
And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said, Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?
And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the Lord.
Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Beth–el, and there he spake with us;
Pi'el
Imperfect (yiqtol) 1
After it a voice roareth: he thundereth with the voice of his excellency; and he will not stay them when his voice is heard.
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 ›