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יָלַד yâlad — to bear young

pronounced yaw-lad' · Strong's H3205 · 495 occurrences in the Hebrew Bible · 8 stems: Qal (Pa'al), Hiph'il, Niph'al, Pu'al, Pi'el, Hoph'al, Qal passive, Hitpa'el

Translated in the KJV as bear, beget, birth, born, bring forth (children, young), bring up, calve, child, come, be delivered, time of delivery.

a primitive root; to bear young; causatively, to beget; medically, to act as midwife; specifically, to show lineage.

yâlad in each stem

Qal (Pa'al) 239×

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

Perfect (qatal) 95Wayyiqtol 66Participle (active) 31Infinitive construct 19Imperfect (yiqtol) 13Sequential perfect (weqatal) 7Participle (passive) 6Jussive 1Infinitive absolute 1

תֵּֽלְדִ֣י Gen 3:16 Imperfect (yiqtol), 2nd person feminine singular

Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. (KJV)

וַתֵּ֣לֶד Gen 4:1 Wayyiqtol, 3rd person feminine singular

And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. (KJV)

לָלֶ֔דֶת Gen 4:2 Infinitive construct

And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. (KJV)

Hiph'il 176×

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

Perfect (qatal) 100Wayyiqtol 45Infinitive construct 17Imperfect (yiqtol) 8Sequential perfect (weqatal) 2Participle (active) 2Infinitive absolute 1Imperative 1

וַיּ֥וֹלֶד Gen 5:3 Wayyiqtol, 3rd person masculine singular

And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth: (KJV)

הוֹלִיד֣וֹ Gen 5:4 Infinitive construct

And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters: (KJV)

וַיּ֖וֹלֶד Gen 5:6 Wayyiqtol, 3rd person masculine singular

And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos: (KJV)

Niph'al 39×

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

Imperfect (yiqtol) 11Perfect (qatal) 10Wayyiqtol 9Participle (active) 5Infinitive construct 3Participle (passive) 1

וַיִּוָּלֵ֤ד Gen 4:18 Wayyiqtol, 3rd person masculine singular

And unto Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael: and Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech. (KJV)

וַיִּוָּלְד֥וּ Gen 10:1 Wayyiqtol, 3rd person masculine plural

Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood. (KJV)

יִוָּלֵ֔ד Gen 17:17 Imperfect (yiqtol), 3rd person masculine singular

Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? (KJV)

Pu'al 25×

Intensive · passive — the action intensified, repeated or brought about; the subject has it done to them

Perfect (qatal) 23Imperfect (yiqtol) 2

יֻלַּד Gen 4:26 Perfect (qatal), 3rd person masculine singular

And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. (KJV)

יֻלְּד֥וּ Gen 6:1 Perfect (qatal), 3rd person common plural

And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, (KJV)

יֻלַּ֖ד Gen 10:21 Perfect (qatal), 3rd person masculine singular

Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were children born. (KJV)

Pi'el 10×

Intensive · active — the action intensified, repeated or brought about; the subject does it

Participle (active) 9Infinitive construct 1

הַמְיַלֶּ֨דֶת֙ Gen 35:17 Participle (active), feminine singular

And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou shalt have this son also. (KJV)

הַמְיַלֶּ֗דֶת Gen 38:28 Participle (active), feminine singular

And it came to pass, when she travailed, that the one put out his hand: and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying, This came out first. (KJV)

לַֽמְיַלְּדֹ֖ת Exod 1:15 Participle (active), feminine plural

And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah: (KJV)

Hoph'al

Causative · passive — causing someone or something to do the action; the subject has it done to them

Infinitive construct 3

הֻלֶּ֣דֶת Gen 40:20 Infinitive construct

And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants: and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants. (KJV)

הוּלֶּ֤דֶת Ezek 16:4 Infinitive construct

And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. (KJV)

הֻלֶּ֥דֶת Ezek 16:5 Infinitive construct

None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the lothing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born. (KJV)

Qal passive

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

Participle (passive) 1Perfect (qatal) 1

הַיּוּלָּֽד Judg 13:8 Participle (passive), masculine singular

Then Manoah intreated the Lord, and said, O my Lord, let the man of God which thou didst send come again unto us, and teach us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born. (KJV)

יֻלַּ֖דְתִּי Jer 20:14 Perfect (qatal), 1st person common singular

Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed. (KJV)

Hitpa'el

Intensive · reflexive — the action intensified, repeated or brought about; the subject does it to or for themselves

Wayyiqtol 1

וַיִּתְיַֽלְד֥וּ Num 1:18 Wayyiqtol, 3rd person masculine plural

And they assembled all the congregation together on the first day of the second month, and they declared their pedigrees after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, by their polls. (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. yâlad 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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