The Binyanim Verb Forms in Biblical Hebrew
In this post I suggest that the binyanim in Biblical Hebrew are best understood as functioning to indicate semantic roles rather than coding specific verbal elements such as voice. The semantics of each verb form is first considered, before I look briefly at the usage of the binyanim within the Old Testament text.
The Qal Verb Form
The Qal form of the verb is straightforward. Stative and quasi-stative verbs are conjugated for their semantic subject, and fientive verbs for their actor. For this and the the following verb forms I adopt a schematic notation to describe their semantics, with upper case letters for semantic roles and lower case for semantic relations. The Qal form of a stative verb has a subject S which is in some state denoted by s. Quasi-fientive forms, such as 'to know' may also have a theme T. Fientive verbs have an actor A and an optional patient P. The schematics for subsequent verb forms are represented in such a way that A, P and S always refer back to their roles with the corresponding Qal form.
| Qal | Stative | Ss | a subject/S is in a state/s | wᵊʾabrāhām zāqēn | 'Abraham/S was old/s' (Gen 24:1) |
| Quasi-stative | SsT | a subject/S is in a state/s with regard to a theme/T | lōʾ yādaʿtī yōm mōtī | 'I/S don't know/s the day/T of my death' (Gen 27:2) | |
| Fientive | Aa | an actor/A carries out an action/a | wayyārāṣ ʾel-ʿēlī | 'he/A ran/a to Eli' (1 Sam 3:5) | |
| AaP | an actor/A carries out an action/a on a patient/P | wayyizkōr ʾᵉlōhīm ʾeth-nōaḥ | 'God/A remembered/a Noah/P' (Gen 8:1) |
The Niphal Verb Form
The Niphal verb form is semantically straightforward for fientive verbs, where it indicates that the verb is conjugated for the patient. Stative and quasi-stative Niphal verbs can also occur, and indicate a subject that is in a state as a consequence of some external agency. Note that the Niphal form does not define the agent (indicated by 0) that gives rise to the action. In the common case with fientive verbs 0 represents an unspecified actor that may be:
i) the same as P, indicating reflexive self-interaction
ii) in the same group as P but not self-interacting, i.e. reciprocal allo-interaction
iii) distinct, i.e. non-interacting, yielding a passive translation.
i) the same as P, indicating reflexive self-interaction
ii) in the same group as P but not self-interacting, i.e. reciprocal allo-interaction
iii) distinct, i.e. non-interacting, yielding a passive translation.
The actor in the latter can of course be made explicit by a prepositional phrase. Passive senses tend to be most frequent, and reciprocal senses are characteristic of a small number of verbs, notably lxm 'to fight'. Once again we can represent these relations schematically:
| Niphal | Stative | 0xSs | a subject/S is in a state/s as a consequence of some unspecified action/x | nāšammū mᵊsillōt | 'the highways will be made/left desolate' (Isa 33:8) |
| Fientive | 0aP | a patient/P undergoes an action/a | waʿᵃmāśāʾ lōʾ-nišmar baḥereb | 'But Amasa did not guard himself [reflexive] from the sword' (2 Sam 20:10) | |
| wayyillāḥᵃmū bᵊnē-ʿammōn ʿim-yiśrāʾēl | 'the Ammonites fought [reciprocally] with the Israelites' (Judg 11:4) | ||||
| ūbᵊnōteyhā ʾᵃšer baśśādeh baḥereb tēhāragnā | 'your daughters in the fields will be killed [passive] by the sword [actor]' (Ezek 26:6) |
The Hiphil Verb Form
The Hiphil verb form is universally recognised as fundamentally causative in nature, and the verb form indicates that the verb is conjugated for the causator. For both Hiphil and Hophal the act of causation is emphasised over and above the affected state or action. Whilst the Hiphil causator is mandatorily indicated by conjugation of the verb, explicit indication of the other roles or roles is optional, and one or both may be omitted, or indirectly referenced via a prepositional phrase. This leads to the following range of possibilities:
| Hiphil | Stative | Cc0s | a causator/C causes/c a state/s | kī-hēmar šadday lī mᵊʾōd | 'Indeed the Almighty/C has caused/c [life] to be very bitter/s for me' (Ruth 1:20) |
| CcSs | a causator/C causes/c a subject/S to be in a state/s | wayyakbēd parʿōh ʾet-libbō | 'Pharaoh/C made/c his heart/S heavy/s' (Exod 8:28) | ||
| Cc0sT | a causator/C causes/c a theme/T to be in a state/s | hōdīaʿ yhwh yᵊšūʿātō | 'Yahweh/C has caused/c his salvation/T to be known/s' (Psa 98:2) | ||
| CcSsT | a causator/C causes/c a subject/S to be in a state/s with respect to a theme/T | wᵊleḥem šāmayim yaśbīʿēm | 'He/C caused/c them/S to be sated/s with the bread of heaven/T' (Psa 105:40) | ||
| Fientive | Cc0a | a causator/C causes/c an action/a | yarʿēm min-šāmayim yhwh | 'Yahweh/C causes/c [it] to thunder/a from the heavens' (2 Sam 22:14) | |
| CcAa | a causator/C causes/c an actor/A to carry out an action/a | wayyōred ʾet-hāʿām ʾel-hammāyim | 'he/C caused/c the people/A to go down/a to the water' (Judg 7:5) | ||
| Cc0aP | a causator/C causes/c a patient/P to undergo an action/a | wattāriṣ ʾet-gulgālᵊtō | 'she/C caused/c his skull/P to be crushed/a (Judg 9:53) | ||
| CcAaP | a causator/C causes/c an actor/A to carry out an action/a on a patient/P | mī yaʾᵃkilēnū bāśār | 'who/C will cause/c us/A to eat/a meat/P?' (Num 11:4) |
The Hophal Verb Form
The Hophal is to the Hiphil as the Niphal is to the Qal. The causator is omitted, and the verb is conjugated for the subject, actor or patient, i.e. the leftmost non-zero role in the schematics below:
| Hophal | Stative | 0cSs | a subject/S is caused/c to be in a state/s | wᵊragleykā lōʾ-linḥuštayim huggāšū | 'your feet/S were not caused/c to be near/s to chains' [i.e. shackled] (2 Sam 3:34) |
| 0c0sT | a theme/T is caused/c to be in a state/s | hōdaʿ ʾēlāyw ḥaṭṭāʾtō | 'his sin/T is caused/c to be made known/s to him' (Lev 4:23) | ||
| Fientive | 0cAa | an actor/A is caused/c to carry out an action/a | ʾēš tāmīd tūqad ʿal-hammizbēaḥ | 'fire/A is to be caused/c to burn/a on the altar continually' (Lev 6:6) | |
| 0c0aP | a patient/P is caused/c to undergo an action/a | bayyōm hahūʾ yūšar haššīr-hazze | 'on that day this song/P will be caused/c to be sung/a' (Isa 26:1) | ||
| 0cAaP | an actor/A is caused/c to carry out an action/a on a patient/P | wᵊlōʾ tāʿābᵊdēm | 'you/A are not to be caused/c to serve/a them/P' [don't let people entice you...] (Ex20:5) |
Note that use of the binyanim to indicate semantic roles in this way leads to a considerable degree of ambiguity, particularly with Hiphil and Hophal forms, which must be resolved from context. Some verbs can take double objects, which further complicates the picture, particularly since Biblical Hebrew is fairly lax in allowing objects to sometimes be direct arguments and at other times be referenced indirectly with prepositional phrases.
The Piel Verb Form
For the semantics of the Piel stem (and its allied forms such as the Polel) I adopt a theory first proposed by Jenni1 and further developed by Waltke & O'Connor2, that the Piel (and Pual) emphasise the result of an action rather than the action itself, i.e. loosely speaking, that they are resultatives. The Piel stem may therefore be seen as a duplex verb describing both an action and a state. The Piel functions differently with statives and quasi-statives compared with fientives, and in fact, if Piel forms are attested, the mapping of the syntactic subject of the verb defines whether a verb is to be considered stative or fientive. If the Qal verb is stative or quasi-stative, the syntactic subject of the Piel verb is a newly-introduced actor, and the semantic and syntactic subject of the Qal effectively becomes a patient. For such verbs, the Piel resembles the Hiphil, except that the resulting state is emphasised rather than the causation. When a Piel is formed from a fientive Qal verb, the actor remains as the syntactic subject of the verb, and the Piel resembles the Qal, except that once again the resulting state is emphasised rather than the action that led to it. We may therefore use the following schematics to represent Piel:
| Piel | Stative | AaSs | an actor/A carries out an action/a on a subject/S to leave it in a STATE/s | wᵊʾibbadtī bāmōtēkem | 'I/A will cause/a your high places/S to be no more/s' (Ezek 6:3) |
| AaSsT | an actor/A carries out an action/a on a subject/S to leave it in a STATE/s with respect to a theme/T | kī-naššanī ʾᵉlōhīm ʾet-kāl-ʿᵃmālī | 'indeed God/A has caused/a me/S to be forgetful of/s all my labour/T' (Gen 41:51) | ||
| Fientive | Aas | an actor/A carries out an action/a resulting in some STATE/s | ūśᵊʿīrīm yᵊraqqᵊdū-šām | 'wild goats/A will leap about/a there' [persistently frolicking/s] (Isa 13:21) | |
| AaPs | an actor/A carries out an action/a on a patient/P leaving it in some STATE/s | wᵊzērītim bāʾᵃrāṣōt | 'I/A will scatter/a them/P throughout the lands' [leaving them dispersed/s](Ezek 30:23) |
The Pual Verb Form
The Pual verb form follows the Qal/Niphal and Hiphil/Hophal patterns. Note that with fientive verbs, it often looks like a Qal passive (and is often considered to be an incorrectly vocalised instance thereof), but it is (subtly to English speakers) different from Niphal in that the state is emphasised. The observed excess of suffix conjugation Pual forms relates to its semantics, where a verb whose action is unremarkable ('being born', a universal phenomenon), but whose state may be significant ('being the child of X'), requires a Pual form of the verb. I discuss this further in a post on the Qal passive. The schematics for Pual are therefore as follows:
| Pual | Stative | 0aSs | a subject/S undergoes an action/a to leave it in a STATE/s | ūbōṭēaḥ ʿal-yhwh yᵊduššān | 'the one trusting/S in Yahweh will be caused/a to be fat/s' [leaving him prosperous/s] (Prov 28:25) |
| Fientive | 0aPs | a patient/P undergoes an action/a to leave it in some STATE/s | waykussū kāl-hehārīm haggᵊbōhīm | 'all the high hills/P were covered/a' [leaving them underwater/s] (Gen 7:19) |
The Hithpael Verb Form
The Hithpael verb form (and its allied forms such as the Hithpolel) have traditionally been considered reflexives of Piel. Whilst some uses are clearly reflexive, I suggest this is not the primary feature that distinguishes Hithpael from the other forms. Hithpael also frequently reflects persistent repeated actions, or actions carried out one after the other by large groups of people. Hithpael lexical semantics also often differ from the Qal and Piel forms. I suggest that Hithpael may be defined as describing:
'a persistent manner of acting that implies an underlying state or series of repeated actions associated with the Qal form of the verb'
The underlying state or actions may or may not be realised. In the latter case the verb usually describes behaviour designed to deceive, for example 'to pretend to be rich' or 'to act like a prophet'. The loose coupling of the Hithpael semantically to the Qal sense of the verb makes it a flexible device for speakers of Biblical Hebrew to develop new extended meaings for specific verbs. Note that with fientive verbs the derived activity may be that of the actor or patient of the associated Qal form. As with Niphal, reflexive (yithmakkᵊrū, 'to sell oneself', 2 Kgs 17:17) and reciprocal (tithrāʾū, 'to stand looking at one another', Gen 42:1) uses occur as well as passive ones. There are a number of instances of Hothpael pointing in the Old Testament, but they overlap with Hithpael semantically, as they conjugate for the Qal patient. Either they are an anomaly, or many more Hithpael should be Hothpael! The Hithpael verb form may thus be represented with the following schematics:
| Hithpael | Stative | Sa => Ss | A subject/S acts/a in a manner implying the subject/S is in some state/s | wayyithḥazzēq yiśrāʾēl | 'Israel/S [i.e Jacob] mustered his energy/a' [implying he was strong/s] (Gen 48:2) |
| wayyiškab ʾamnōn wayyithḥāl | 'Amnon/S lay down and feigned sickness/a' [implying he was ill/s] (2 Sam 13:6) | ||||
| Fientive | Aa' => Aa | An actor/A acts/a' in a manner implying the actor/A is repeatedly carrying out some action/a | wayyithhallēk ḥᵃnōk ʾet-hāʾᵉlōhīm | 'Enoch/A kept step/a' with God' [implying he kept walking/a] (Gen 5:22) | |
| wayyithgannēb hāʿām bayyōm hahūʾ | 'the people/A stole away/a' on that day' [implying each walked furtively/a like a thief] (2 Sam 19:4) | ||||
| Aa' => AaP | An actor/A acts/a' in a manner implying the actor/A is repeatedly carrying out some action/a on a patient/P | wᵊhithḥallᵊqū ʾōtāh lᵊšibʿā ḥᵃlāqīm | 'you/A are to partition/a' the land/P into seven parts' [implying repeatedly dividing/a] (Josh 18:5) | ||
| Pa' => 0aP | a patient/P acts/a' in a manner implying the patient/P has undergone some action/a | wayyithlaqqᵊṭū ʾel-yiphtāḥ | 'they/P joined one by one with Jephthah' [implying repeatedly being gleaned] (Judg 11:3) | ||
| wayyithḥappēś melek yiśrāʾēl | 'the king of Israel/P disguised himself/a' [implying repeatedly being sought/a](1 Kgs 22:30) |
A Summary of binyanim Usage
Before looking at the distribution of the verb forms in the Old Testament text, the semantics of the verb forms considered above are summarised below:
| Verb form | Stative | Fientive |
| Qal | Ss, SsT | Aa, AaP |
| Niphal | 0xSs | 0aP |
| Hiphil | Cc0s, CcSs, Cc0sT, CcSsT | Cc0a, CcAa, Cc0aP, CcAaP |
| Hophal | 0cS, 0c0sT | 0cAa, 0c0aP, 0cAaP |
| Piel | AaSs, AaSsT | Aas, AaPs |
| Pual | 0aSs | 0aPs |
| Hithpael | Sa=>Ss | Aa'=>Aa, Aa'=>AaP, Pa'=>0aP |
A=actor, C=causator, P=patient, S=subject, T=theme, 0=omitted semantic role; a, a'=action, c=causation, s=state (s=state emphasised) , x=weak causation; '=>' = 'implies'
In every case, the leftmost non-zero semantic role is the syntactic subject of the verb, and other semantic roles occur morphologically as direct objects (i.e. without a preceding preposition).
In the Old Testament corpus, Qal forms are by far the most common, Niphal, Piel and Hiphil are frequent, and the others much less so. Only one verb, xlh, 'to be ill' exhibits examples of all seven forms. Whilst the majority of verbs have Qal forms, some lack Qal but nevertheless exhibit several other verb forms. It may be difficult to determine the root meaning of the verb if Qal is absent, particularly if only a Hithpael form is attested for the verb.
The semantic schematics provide a skeleton for the verbal system, but do not completely constrain it. Many of the verb forms in Biblical Hebrew have extended or idiosyncratic meanings compared with what might be predicted from their Qal forms. However, the vast majority of verb forms in the Old Testament text fit at least approximately into the semantic schematics above.
Whereas for many verbs the selection of verb forms occurring in the (very limited) Biblical Hebrew corpus may seem rather random, certain patterns do emerge. Looking only at verbs which occur at least eight times in the OT (comprising some 700 roots), most notable is the pairing of Niphal with Hiphil for some thirty or so verb roots, with Qal absent, except sometimes as a passive participle. For example yšʿ, 'to deliver' is a fientive verb whose Qal, though absent, is confirmed by the Piel form to have the meaning 'to deliver'. The Niphal has the expected passive sense 'to be delivered' and the Hiphil acts on the patient to give the meaning 'to cause to be delivered', i.e. 'to deliver', except that the causator is specified rather than the actual agent of delivery, as would be the case with a Qal form. This pairing is found with a number of other frequently occurring verbs, such as str 'to hide', qhl 'to assemble', šmd 'to destroy' and ncl 'to rescue'.
Another group of twenty or so roots, many widely used, are only found in Hiphil form (and sometimes also in Hophal). Often the causation element is present, but hidden in the conventional English gloss, for example ʾzn, where the Hiphil 'to listen' most likely represents 'to cause [one's ears] to hear'.
Rather more than forty roots are Piel only (plus sometimes Pual and/or Hithpael). Without clear indication of the Qal meaning, it is difficult often to see whether these emphasise a state or not.
But perhaps the primary impression one should receive from the OT corpus is of how productive the binyanim verb forms are. The Old Testament corpus is so small that one would expect many verbs and verb forms which were extant in Biblical Hebrew to be unrepresented. Nevertheless, over 1500 verbs of all manner of different semantic categories make use of the different verb forms to occur in more than 3000 forms in total, providing rich prose and poetry in which the verb plays a dominant role.
1E. Jenni, Das Hebräische Piʿel: Syntaktisch-semasiologische Untersuchung einer Verbalform im Alten Testament (Zurich: EVZ, 1968)
2B. Waltke & M. O’Connor, An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1990)
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