מָטַר mâṭar — to rain
Translated in the KJV as rain.
a primitive root; to rain.
mâṭar in each stem
Hiph'il
Imperfect (yiqtol) 5Participle (active) 3Wayyiqtol 3Perfect (qatal) 2Infinitive construct 2Sequential perfect (weqatal) 1
And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.
Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven;
Niph'al
Imperfect (yiqtol) 1
And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered.
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 ›