עָצַל ʻâtsal — to lean idly, i.e. to be indolent or slack
Translated in the KJV as be slothful.
a primitive root; to lean idly, i.e. to be indolent or slack.
ʻâtsal in each stem
Niph'al
Simple · passive — the plain action; the subject has it done to them
Jussive 1
תֵּעָ֣צְל֔וּ Judg 18:9 Jussive, 2nd person masculine plural
And they said, Arise, that we may go up against them: for we have seen the land, and, behold, it is very good: and are ye still? be not slothful to go, and to enter to possess the land.
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 ›