כָּהָה kâhâh — to be weak, i.e. (figuratively) to despond (causatively, rebuke), or (of light, the eye) to grow dull
Translated in the KJV as darken, be dim, fail, faint, restrain, × utterly.
a primitive root; to be weak, i.e. (figuratively) to despond (causatively, rebuke), or (of light, the eye) to grow dull.
kâhâh in each stem
Qal (Pa'al)
Wayyiqtol 2Imperfect (yiqtol) 2Perfect (qatal) 1Infinitive absolute 1
And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son: and he said unto him, Behold, here am I.
And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.
Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.
Pi'el
Perfect (qatal) 1Sequential perfect (weqatal) 1
For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not.
Cry and howl, son of man: for it shall be upon my people, it shall be upon all the princes of Israel: terrors by reason of the sword shall be upon my people: smite therefore upon thy thigh.
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 ›