לָבַן lâban — to be (or become) white
Translated in the KJV as make brick, be (made, make) white.
a primitive root; also as denominative from H3843; to be (or become) white; to make bricks.
lâban in each stem
Hiph'il
Imperfect (yiqtol) 2Infinitive construct 1Perfect (qatal) 1
Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed.
Qal (Pa'al)
Infinitive construct 2Cohortative 1
And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves.
And the officers of the children of Israel, which Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten, and demanded, Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday and to day, as heretofore?
Hitpa'el
Imperfect (yiqtol) 1
Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall 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 ›