עָטַף ʻâṭaph — to shroud, i.e. clothe (whether transitive or reflex.)
Translated in the KJV as cover, fail, faint, feebler, hide self, be overwhelmed, swoon.
a primitive root; to shroud, i.e. clothe (whether transitive or reflex.); hence (from the idea of darkness) to languish.
ʻâṭaph in each stem
Qal (Pa'al)
Imperfect (yiqtol) 5Participle (passive) 2Infinitive construct 1
But when the cattle were feeble, he put them not in: so the feebler were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s.
On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him:
For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.
Hitpa'el
Infinitive construct 3Imperfect (yiqtol) 2Wayyiqtol 1
Thou holdest mine eyes waking: I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.
I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.
Hiph'il
Infinitive construct 1
But when the cattle were feeble, he put them not in: so the feebler were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s.
Niph'al
Infinitive construct 1
Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.
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 ›