שָׁחָה shâchâh — to depress, i.e. prostrate (especially reflexive, in homage to royalty or God)
Translated in the KJV as bow down, crouch, fall down, humbly beseech, do obeisance, do reverence, make to stoop, worship.
a primitive root; to depress, i.e. prostrate (especially reflexive, in homage to royalty or God).
shâchâh in each stem
Hishtaph'el
Imperfect (yiqtol) 32Wayyiqtol 19Sequential perfect (weqatal) 16Participle (active) 11Imperative 7Infinitive construct 4Jussive 3Perfect (qatal) 3Cohortative 1
And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.
And I bowed down my head, and worshipped the Lord, and blessed the Lord God of my master Abraham, which had led me in the right way to take my master’s brother’s daughter unto his son.
Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee.
Hitpa'el
Wayyiqtol 63Infinitive construct 14
And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground,
And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground;
And Abraham stood up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth.
Hiph'il
Imperfect (yiqtol) 1
Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad.
Qal (Pa'al)
Imperative 1
But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.
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 ›