שָׁחַח shâchach — to sink or depress (reflexive or causative)
Translated in the KJV as bend, bow, bring down, couch, humble self, be low, stoop.
a primitive root; to sink or depress (reflexive or causative).
shâchach in each stem
Qal (Pa'al)
Perfect (qatal) 6Imperfect (yiqtol) 2Wayyiqtol 1Sequential perfect (weqatal) 1Infinitive construct 1
If God will not withdraw his anger, the proud helpers do stoop under him.
When they couch in their dens, and abide in the covert to lie in wait?
He croucheth, and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones.
Hitpolel
Imperfect (yiqtol) 4
O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar.
Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
Niph'al
Imperfect (yiqtol) 2Wayyiqtol 2
And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low;
And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not.
And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled:
Hiph'il
Perfect (qatal) 2
And the fortress of the high fort of thy walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust.
For he bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he layeth it low; he layeth it low, even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust.
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 ›