חָבַל châbal — to wind tightly (as a rope), i.e. to bind
Translated in the KJV as × at all, band, bring forth, corrupt, destroy, offend, lay to pledge, spoil, travail, × very, withhold.
a primitive root; to wind tightly (as a rope), i.e. to bind; specifically, by a pledge; figuratively, to pervert, destroy; also to writhe in pain (especially of parturition).
châbal in each stem
Qal (Pa'al)
Imperfect (yiqtol) 7Perfect (qatal) 2Imperative 2Infinitive absolute 1Participle (active) 1Infinitive construct 1Participle (passive) 1
If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury.
No man shall take the nether or the upper millstone to pledge: for he taketh a man’s life to pledge.
Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless; nor take a widow’s raiment to pledge:
Pi'el
Infinitive construct 3Imperfect (yiqtol) 2Perfect (qatal) 2Sequential perfect (weqatal) 1Participle (active) 1
He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made.
Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.
Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.
Pu'al
Perfect (qatal) 1Sequential perfect (weqatal) 1
My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.
Niph'al
Imperfect (yiqtol) 1
Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded.
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 ›