לָבַב lâbab — properly, to be enclosed (as if with fat)
Translated in the KJV as make cakes, ravish, be wise.
a primitive root; properly, to be enclosed (as if with fat); by implication (as denominative from H3824); to unheart; i.e. (in a good sense) transport (with love), or (in a bad sense) stultify; to make cakes.
lâbab in each stem
Pi'el
Perfect (qatal) 2Imperfect (yiqtol) 1Wayyiqtol 1
So Amnon lay down, and made himself sick: and when the king was come to see him, Amnon said unto the king, I pray thee, let Tamar my sister come, and make me a couple of cakes in my sight, that I may eat at her hand.
So Tamar went to her brother Amnon’s house; and he was laid down. And she took flour, and kneaded it, and made cakes in his sight, and did bake the cakes.
Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck.
Niph'al
Imperfect (yiqtol) 1
For vain man would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass’s colt.
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 ›