צָפַר tsâphar — to skip about, i.e. return
Translated in the KJV as depart early.
a primitive root; to skip about, i.e. return.
tsâphar in each stem
Qal (Pa'al)
Simple · active — the plain action; the subject does it
Imperfect (yiqtol) 1
וְיִצְפֹּ֖ר Judg 7:3 Imperfect (yiqtol), 3rd person masculine singular
Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand.
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 ›