כָּבַשׁ kâbash — to tread down
Translated in the KJV as bring into bondage, force, keep under, subdue, bring into subjection.
a primitive root; to tread down; hence, negatively, to disregard; positively, to conquer, subjugate, violate.
kâbash in each stem
Qal (Pa'al)
Wayyiqtol 3Infinitive construct 2Imperative 1Participle (active) 1Imperfect (yiqtol) 1Perfect (qatal) 1
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 now ye purpose to keep under the children of Judah and Jerusalem for bondmen and bondwomen unto you: but are there not with you, even with you, sins against the Lord your God?
Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children: and, lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters are brought unto bondage already: neither is it in our power to redeem them; for other men have our lands and vineyards.
Niph'al
Sequential perfect (weqatal) 3Perfect (qatal) 1Participle (passive) 1
And the land be subdued before the Lord: then afterward ye shall return, and be guiltless before the Lord, and before Israel; and this land shall be your possession before the Lord.
And Moses said unto them, If the children of Gad and the children of Reuben will pass with you over Jordan, every man armed to battle, before the Lord, and the land shall be subdued before you; then ye shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession:
And the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of the congregation there. And the land was subdued before them.
Pi'el
Perfect (qatal) 1
Which also king David did dedicate unto the Lord, with the silver and gold that he had dedicated of all nations which he subdued;
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 ›