רָצַץ râtsats — to crack in pieces, literally or figuratively
Translated in the KJV as break, bruise, crush, discourage, oppress, struggle together.
a primitive root; to crack in pieces, literally or figuratively.
râtsats in each stem
Qal (Pa'al)
Participle (passive) 6Perfect (qatal) 2Imperfect (yiqtol) 2Participle (active) 1
The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway:
Behold, here I am: witness against me before the Lord, and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? and I will restore it you.
And they said, Thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken ought of any man’s hand.
Pi'el
Perfect (qatal) 2Wayyiqtol 1
Then Asa was wroth with the seer, and put him in a prison house; for he was in a rage with him because of this thing. And Asa oppressed some of the people the same time.
Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not;
Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
Niph'al
Sequential perfect (weqatal) 1Imperfect (yiqtol) 1
Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
When they took hold of thee by thy hand, thou didst break, and rend all their shoulder: and when they leaned upon thee, thou brakest, and madest all their loins to be at a stand.
Hitpolel
Wayyiqtol 1
And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the Lord.
Hiph'il
Wayyiqtol 1
And a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech’s head, and all to brake his skull.
Po'el
Wayyiqtol 1
And that year they vexed and oppressed the children of Israel: eighteen years, all the children of Israel that were on the other side Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.
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 ›