נָהָה nâhâh — to groan, i.e. bewail
Translated in the KJV as lament, wail.
a primitive root; to groan, i.e. bewail; hence (through the idea of crying aloud), to assemble (as if on proclamation).
nâhâh in each stem
Qal (Pa'al)
Imperative 1Sequential perfect (weqatal) 1
Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, even her, and the daughters of the famous nations, unto the nether parts of the earth, with them that go down into the pit.
In that day shall one take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, and say, We be utterly spoiled: he hath changed the portion of my people: how hath he removed it from me! turning away he hath divided our fields.
Niph'al
Wayyiqtol 1
And it came to pass, while the ark abode in Kirjath–jearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years: and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.
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 ›