אָרַשׂ ʼâras — to engage for matrimony
Translated in the KJV as betroth, espouse.
a primitive root; to engage for matrimony.
ʼâras in each stem
Pi'el
Sequential perfect (weqatal) 3Perfect (qatal) 2Imperfect (yiqtol) 1
And what man is there that hath betrothed a wife, and hath not taken her? let him go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her.
Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build an house, and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof.
And David sent messengers to Ish–bosheth Saul’s son, saying, Deliver me my wife Michal, which I espoused to me for an hundred foreskins of the Philistines.
Pu'al
Participle (passive) 3Perfect (qatal) 2
But if the owner thereof be with it, he shall not make it good: if it be an hired thing, it came for his hire.
If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her;
But if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her: then the man only that lay with her shall die:
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 ›