בָּלַע bâlaʻ — to make away with (specifically by swallowing)
Translated in the KJV as cover, destroy, devour, eat up, be at end, spend up, swallow down.
a primitive root; to make away with (specifically by swallowing); generally, to destroy.
bâlaʻ in each stem
Pi'el
Imperfect (yiqtol) 8Perfect (qatal) 7Infinitive construct 4Wayyiqtol 1Imperative 1Sequential perfect (weqatal) 1Participle (active) 1
But they shall not go in to see when the holy things are covered, lest they die.
I am one of them that are peaceable and faithful in Israel: thou seekest to destroy a city and a mother in Israel: why wilt thou swallow up the inheritance of the Lord?
And Joab answered and said, Far be it, far be it from me, that I should swallow up or destroy.
Qal (Pa'al)
Wayyiqtol 7Imperfect (yiqtol) 5Perfect (qatal) 4Infinitive construct 2Sequential perfect (weqatal) 1Jussive 1Cohortative 1
And the seven thin ears devoured the seven rank and full ears. And Pharaoh awoke, and, behold, it was a dream.
And the thin ears devoured the seven good ears: and I told this unto the magicians; but there was none that could declare it to me.
For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.
Pu'al
Imperfect (yiqtol) 2Participle (passive) 1
Now therefore send quickly, and tell David, saying, Lodge not this night in the plains of the wilderness, but speedily pass over; lest the king be swallowed up, and all the people that are with him.
Shall it be told him that I speak? if a man speak, surely he shall be swallowed up.
The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.
Niph'al
Perfect (qatal) 2
But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
Israel is swallowed up: now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure.
Hitpa'el
Imperfect (yiqtol) 1
They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
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 ›