עָרַב ʻârab — to braid, i.e. intermix
Translated in the KJV as engage, meddle, mingle, mortgage, occupy, give pledges, be(-come, put in) surety, undertake.
a primitive root; to braid, i.e. intermix; technically, to traffic (as if by barter); also or give to be security (as a kind of exchange).
ʻârab in each stem
Qal (Pa'al)
Perfect (qatal) 6Participle (active) 4Imperative 3Imperfect (yiqtol) 2Infinitive construct 1
I will be surety for him; of my hand shalt thou require him: if I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame for ever:
For thy servant became surety for the lad unto my father, saying, If I bring him not unto thee, then I shall bear the blame to my father for ever.
Some also there were that said, We have mortgaged our lands, vineyards, and houses, that we might buy corn, because of the dearth.
Hitpa'el
Imperative 2Imperfect (yiqtol) 2Perfect (qatal) 1Wayyiqtol 1Jussive 1
Now therefore, I pray thee, give pledges to my lord the king of Assyria, and I will deliver thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them.
For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sons: so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands: yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this trespass.
But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works.
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 ›