מָרַח mârach — properly, to soften by rubbing or pressure
Translated in the KJV as lay for a plaister.
a primitive root; properly, to soften by rubbing or pressure; hence (medicinally) to apply as an emollient.
mârach in each stem
Qal (Pa'al)
Simple · active — the plain action; the subject does it
Imperfect (yiqtol) 1
וְיִמְרְח֥וּ Isa 38:21 Imperfect (yiqtol), 3rd person masculine plural
For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaister upon the boil, and he shall recover.
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 ›