נָצַח nâtsach — properly, to glitter from afar, i.e. to be eminent (as a superintendent, especially of the Temple services and its music)
Translated in the KJV as excel, chief musician, oversee, set forward.
a primitive root; also as denominative from H5331; properly, to glitter from afar, i.e. to be eminent (as a superintendent, especially of the Temple services and its music); to be permanent.
nâtsach in each stem
Pi'el
Participle (active) 59Infinitive construct 5
And Mattithiah, and Elipheleh, and Mikneiah, and Obed–edom, and Jeiel, and Azaziah, with harps on the Sheminith to excel.
Of which, twenty and four thousand were to set forward the work of the house of the Lord; and six thousand were officers and judges:
And Solomon determined to build an house for the name of the Lord, and an house for his kingdom.
Niph'al
Participle (passive) 1
Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.
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 ›