בָּלָה bâlâh — to fail
Translated in the KJV as consume, enjoy long, become (make, wax) old, spend, waste.
a primitive root; to fail; by implication to wear out, decay (causatively, consume, spend).
bâlâh in each stem
Qal (Pa'al)
Perfect (qatal) 6Imperfect (yiqtol) 4Infinitive construct 1
Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?
Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.
Yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.
Pi'el
Infinitive construct 2Imperfect (yiqtol) 1Perfect (qatal) 1
Also I will ordain a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, and they shall dwell in their place, and shall be moved no more; neither shall the children of wickedness waste them any more, as at the beginning,
But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah.
They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
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 ›