סָפַר çâphar — properly, to score with a mark as a tally or record, i.e. (by implication) to inscribe, and also to enumerate
Translated in the KJV as commune, count; declare, number, penknife, reckon, scribe, shew forth, speak, talk, tell, writer.
a primitive root; properly, to score with a mark as a tally or record, i.e. (by implication) to inscribe, and also to enumerate; intensively, to recount, i.e. celebrate.
çâphar in each stem
Pi'el
Wayyiqtol 19Imperfect (yiqtol) 17Cohortative 8Imperative 6Infinitive construct 6Perfect (qatal) 6Participle (active) 4Jussive 1
And the servant told Isaac all things that he had done.
And it came to pass, when Laban heard the tidings of Jacob his sister’s son, that he ran to meet him, and embraced him, and kissed him, and brought him to his house. And he told Laban all these things.
And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.
Qal (Pa'al)
Imperfect (yiqtol) 8Sequential perfect (weqatal) 4Perfect (qatal) 4Imperative 3Infinitive construct 3Wayyiqtol 3Participle (active) 2
And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.
And Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left numbering; for it was without number.
And when he that hath an issue is cleansed of his issue; then he shall number to himself seven days for his cleansing, and wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in running water, and shall be clean.
Niph'al
Imperfect (yiqtol) 7Wayyiqtol 1
And the angel of the Lord said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude.
And he lodged there that same night; and took of that which came to his hand a present for Esau his brother;
And thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude.
Pu'al
Imperfect (yiqtol) 4Perfect (qatal) 1
Shall it be told him that I speak? if a man speak, surely he shall be swallowed up.
They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.
Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
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 ›