חָשַׁךְ châshak — to be dark (as withholding light)
Translated in the KJV as be black, be dark, darken, cause darkness, be dim, hide.
a primitive root; to be dark (as withholding light); transitively, to darken.
châshak in each stem
Qal (Pa'al)
Perfect (qatal) 6Imperfect (yiqtol) 3Sequential perfect (weqatal) 2Wayyiqtol 1
For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt.
Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day:
The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him.
Hiph'il
Imperfect (yiqtol) 2Participle (active) 1Wayyiqtol 1Perfect (qatal) 1Sequential perfect (weqatal) 1
Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?
He sent darkness, and made it dark; and they rebelled not against his word.
Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.
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 ›