בָּכָה bâkâh — to weep
Translated in the KJV as × at all, bewail, complain, make lamentation, × more, mourn, × sore, × with tears, weep.
a primitive root; to weep; generally to bemoan.
bâkâh in each stem
Qal (Pa'al)
Wayyiqtol 50Imperfect (yiqtol) 18Participle (active) 13Infinitive absolute 9Perfect (qatal) 7Infinitive construct 5Jussive 4Imperative 3Sequential perfect (weqatal) 2Cohortative 1
And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bowshot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept.
And Sarah died in Kirjath–arba; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.
And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing, my father? bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice, and wept.
Pi'el
Participle (active) 2
Thus saith the Lord; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.
Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord’s house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.
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 ›