נָקַף nâqaph — to strike with more or less violence (beat, fell, corrode)
Translated in the KJV as compass (about, -ing), cut down, destroy, go round, inclose, round.
a primitive root; to strike with more or less violence (beat, fell, corrode); by implication (of attack) to knock together, i.e. surround or circulate.
nâqaph in each stem
Hiph'il
Perfect (qatal) 5Imperfect (yiqtol) 2Infinitive absolute 2Participle (active) 2Wayyiqtol 2Sequential perfect (weqatal) 2Imperative 1
Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard.
And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days.
So the ark of the Lord compassed the city, going about it once: and they came into the camp, and lodged in the camp.
Pi'el
Perfect (qatal) 1Sequential perfect (weqatal) 1
And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:
And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.
Qal (Pa'al)
Jussive 1
Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices.
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 ›