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תָּעָה tâʻâh — to vacillate, i.e. reel or stray (literally or figuratively)

pronounced taw-aw' · Strong's H8582 · 51 occurrences in the Hebrew Bible · 3 stems: Qal (Pa'al), Hiph'il, Niph'al

Translated in the KJV as go astray, deceive, dissemble, (cause to, make to) err, pant, seduce, stagger, wander, be out of the way.

a primitive root; to vacillate, i.e. reel or stray (literally or figuratively); also causative of both.

tâʻâh in each stem

Qal (Pa'al) 27×

Simple · active — the plain action; the subject does it

Perfect (qatal) 13Participle (active) 5Imperfect (yiqtol) 4Infinitive construct 3Wayyiqtol 1Jussive 1

וַתֵּ֔תַע Gen 21:14 Wayyiqtol, 3rd person feminine singular

And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beer–sheba. (KJV)

תֹעֶ֖ה Gen 37:15 Participle (active), masculine singular

And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the field: and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou? (KJV)

תֹּעֶ֑ה Exod 23:4 Participle (active), masculine singular

If thou meet thine enemy’s ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again. (KJV)

Hiph'il 22×

Causative · active — causing someone or something to do the action; the subject does it

Wayyiqtol 8Perfect (qatal) 6Participle (active) 5Imperfect (yiqtol) 2Sequential perfect (weqatal) 1

הִתְע֣וּ Gen 20:13 Perfect (qatal), 3rd person common plural

And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said unto her, This is thy kindness which thou shalt shew unto me; at every place whither we shall come, say of me, He is my brother. (KJV)

וַיַּתְעֵ֤ם 2Kgs 21:9 Wayyiqtol, 3rd person masculine singular

But they hearkened not: and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel. (KJV)

וַיֶּ֣תַע 2Chr 33:9 Wayyiqtol, 3rd person masculine singular

So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and to do worse than the heathen, whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel. (KJV)

Niph'al

Simple · passive — the plain action; the subject has it done to them

Perfect (qatal) 1Infinitive construct 1

נִתְעָ֑ה Job 15:31 Perfect (qatal), 3rd person masculine singular

Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for vanity shall be his recompence. (KJV)

כְּהִתָּע֥וֹת Isa 19:14 Infinitive construct

The Lord hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit. (KJV)

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 ›

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In the app, tap any Hebrew verb while reading: its root, stem and form are named, the letters of the word itself are coloured to show which is which, and the stem's meaning is put in plain English. tâʻâh in the lexicon ›

Morphology from OpenScriptures MorphHB (CC BY 4.0); definitions from Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (public domain); text from the Westminster Leningrad Codex.

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