זָכַךְ zâkak — to be transparent or clean (phys. or morally)
Translated in the KJV as be clean, be pure.
a primitive root (compare H2135); to be transparent or clean (phys. or morally).
zâkak in each stem
Qal (Pa'al)
Perfect (qatal) 3
Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.
Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight.
Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire:
Hiph'il
Sequential perfect (weqatal) 1
If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean;
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 ›