שָׁבַע shâbaʻ — to seven oneself, i.e. swear (as if by repeating a declaration seven times)
Translated in the KJV as adjure, charge (by an oath, with an oath), feed to the full, take an oath, × straitly, (cause to, make to) swear.
a primitive root; properly to be complete, but used only as a denominative from H7651; to seven oneself, i.e. swear (as if by repeating a declaration seven times).
shâbaʻ in each stem
Niph'al
Perfect (qatal) 92Wayyiqtol 27Participle (active) 11Imperfect (yiqtol) 9Imperative 7Sequential perfect (weqatal) 2Infinitive absolute 2Jussive 2Infinitive construct 2
Now therefore swear unto me here by God that thou wilt not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son’s son: but according to the kindness that I have done unto thee, thou shalt do unto me, and to the land wherein thou hast sojourned.
Wherefore he called that place Beer–sheba; because there they sware both of them.
Hiph'il
Perfect (qatal) 13Wayyiqtol 7Sequential perfect (weqatal) 3Imperfect (yiqtol) 2Infinitive absolute 2Infinitive construct 2Participle (active) 2
And I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell:
And my master made me swear, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife to my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I dwell:
My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again.
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 ›