בָּרַךְ bârak — to kneel
Translated in the KJV as × abundantly, × altogether, × at all, blaspheme, bless, congratulate, curse, × greatly, × indeed, kneel, praise, salute.
a primitive root; to kneel; by implication to bless God (as an act of adoration), and (vice-versa) man (as a benefit); also (by euphemism) to curse (God or the king, as treason).
bârak in each stem
Pi'el
Imperfect (yiqtol) 60Wayyiqtol 54Perfect (qatal) 36Imperative 30Infinitive construct 17Sequential perfect (weqatal) 14Infinitive absolute 9Participle (active) 5Cohortative 4Jussive 4
And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
Qal (Pa'al)
Participle (passive) 71Wayyiqtol 1Cohortative 1
And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth:
And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.
Pu'al
Imperfect (yiqtol) 7Participle (passive) 6
Come now therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people; for they are too mighty for me: peradventure I shall prevail, that we may smite them, and that I may drive them out of the land: for I wot that he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed.
And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the Lord be his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath,
Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent.
Hitpa'el
Sequential perfect (weqatal) 4Imperfect (yiqtol) 2Participle (active) 1
And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.
And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;
Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood;
Niph'al
Perfect (qatal) 2Sequential perfect (weqatal) 1
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?
And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
Hiph'il
Wayyiqtol 1
And he made his camels to kneel down without the city by a well of water at the time of the evening, even the time that women go out to draw water.
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 ›