מָשַׁל mâshal — to liken, i.e. (transitively) to use figurative language (an allegory, adage, song or the like)
Translated in the KJV as be like, compare, use proverb, speak, utter.
denominative from H4912; to liken, i.e. (transitively) to use figurative language (an allegory, adage, song or the like); intransitively, to resemble.
mâshal in each stem
Qal (Pa'al)
Participle (active) 3Imperfect (yiqtol) 2Imperative 2Infinitive construct 1
Wherefore they that speak in proverbs say, Come into Heshbon, let the city of Sihon be built and prepared:
Tell them therefore, Thus saith the Lord God; I will make this proverb to cease, and they shall no more use it as a proverb in Israel; but say unto them, The days are at hand, and the effect of every vision.
Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this proverb against thee, saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter.
Niph'al
Perfect (qatal) 3Sequential perfect (weqatal) 2
Unto thee will I cry, O Lord my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.
This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.
Hitpa'el
Wayyiqtol 1
He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes.
Hiph'il
Imperfect (yiqtol) 1
To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like?
Pi'el
Participle (active) 1
That all flesh may know that I the Lord have drawn forth my sword out of his sheath: it shall not return any more.
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 ›