רָטַב râṭab — to be moist
Translated in the KJV as be wet.
a primitive root; to be moist.
râṭab in each stem
Qal (Pa'al)
Simple · active — the plain action; the subject does it
Imperfect (yiqtol) 1
יִרְטָ֑בוּ Job 24:8 Imperfect (yiqtol), 3rd person masculine plural
They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for want of a shelter.
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 ›