הָיָה hâyâh — to exist, i.e. be or become, come to pass (always emphatic, and not a mere copula or auxiliary)
Translated in the KJV as beacon, × altogether, be, accomplished, committed, like), break, cause, come, do, faint, fall.
a primitive root (compare H1933); to exist, i.e. be or become, come to pass (always emphatic, and not a mere copula or auxiliary).
hâyâh in each stem
Qal (Pa'al)
Wayyiqtol 1015Imperfect (yiqtol) 835Perfect (qatal) 809Sequential perfect (weqatal) 603Infinitive construct 148Jussive 114Imperative 24Infinitive absolute 6Participle (active) 1
And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Niph'al
Perfect (qatal) 17Sequential perfect (weqatal) 2Participle (active) 1
And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more.
For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it?
And Moses and the priests the Levites spake unto all Israel, saying, Take heed, and hearken, O Israel; this day thou art become the people of the Lord thy God.
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 ›