נָחַם nâcham — properly, to sigh, i.e. breathe strongly
Translated in the KJV as comfort, ease, repent(-er, -ing, self).
a primitive root; properly, to sigh, i.e. breathe strongly; by implication, to be sorry, i.e. (in a favorable sense) to pity, console or (reflexively) rue; or (unfavorably) to avenge (oneself).
nâcham in each stem
Pi'el
Imperfect (yiqtol) 13Participle (active) 13Infinitive construct 11Perfect (qatal) 6Wayyiqtol 3Sequential perfect (weqatal) 3Imperative 2
And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed.
And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him.
Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.
Niph'al
Wayyiqtol 11Perfect (qatal) 11Imperfect (yiqtol) 8Sequential perfect (weqatal) 8Infinitive construct 4Participle (active) 3Imperative 2Participle (passive) 1
And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.
Hitpa'el
Imperfect (yiqtol) 3Participle (active) 1Infinitive construct 1Wayyiqtol 1Sequential perfect (weqatal) 1
And these words of Esau her elder son were told to Rebekah: and she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said unto him, Behold, thy brother Esau, as touching thee, doth comfort himself, purposing to kill thee.
And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him.
God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
Pu'al
Perfect (qatal) 1Imperfect (yiqtol) 1
O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires.
As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
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 ›