לָעַג lâʻag — to deride
Translated in the KJV as have in derision, laugh, mock, stammering.
a primitive root; to deride; by implication (as if imitating a foreigner) to speak unintelligibly.
lâʻag in each stem
Qal (Pa'al)
Imperfect (yiqtol) 7Perfect (qatal) 2Participle (active) 2Wayyiqtol 1
This is the word that the Lord hath spoken concerning him; The virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.
If the scourge slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent.
Should thy lies make men hold their peace? and when thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed?
Hiph'il
Wayyiqtol 2Imperfect (yiqtol) 2Participle (active) 1
So the posts passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh even unto Zebulun: but they laughed them to scorn, and mocked them.
But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they laughed us to scorn, and despised us, and said, What is this thing that ye do? will ye rebel against the king?
Niph'al
Participle (passive) 1
Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than thou canst perceive; of a stammering tongue, that thou canst not understand.
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 ›