An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

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4b.
4c.
5a.
ץרֶ א֑ ָ֫
ה־ת ָ א ֶ ינִ ֲ
Lev 26:22
א יתֹמּ ִ ִשׁ הֲ וַ
And I will lay waste (Hiphil) your land (lit., will cause
your land to be deserted).
Lev 26:32
ה ָמּ ַשּׁ ה ָ ימְ ֵ י־ל ָכּ all the time that [it] lies desolate (Hophal) (lit., of [its]
י ִכּחִ ְל ינוֹשׁ ִ ְל־קבַּ דְ ִ
5b. קיבִּ דְ א ַ ךָנוֹשׁ ְ ְלוּ
ךָ ֶכּ֫ ח־ל ִ אֶ
being caused to be deserted) 4
Lev 26:35
תּ May my tongue stick (Qal) to the roof of my mouth.
Ps 137:6
And I will make your tongue stick (Hiphil) to the roof
of your mouth.
Ezek 3:26
5c. יחוֹק ֑ ָ ְל ַמ קבָּ דְ מ ֻ ינוֹשׁ ִ ְלוּ And my tongue sticks (Hophal) (lit., is caused to stick)
to my palate.
Ps 22:16
c Qal stative verbs rarely form passive causatives, none of the putative-delocutive type.
None of the stative verbs cited in 22.4 occurs unambiguously with a stative meaning
in the Hophal stem, though some appear in the Hiphil. In the case of verbs with both a
Qal stative and Qal fientive force (e.g., םמשׁ ‘to be desolate; to lay waste,’ תומ ‘to
be dead; to die’) it seems best to construe Hophal forms as fientives.
d There is no Hophal analogue to the internal Hiphil. Even a verb that may be inwardly
transitive in the Hiphil is passive in the Hophal, with an implied agent other than
itself. This lack of use is easy to understand: the subject of the Hophal stem is
normally an implied object of a causative notion other than the agent, but in the case
of the internal Hiphil there is no such object. Contrast הלח Qal, Hiphil, and Hophal.
6a.
יתי ִ ִל֫ חָ ו ְ And I will be(come) weak (Qal).
6b.
ןִי֑יּ֫ ָמ
ִ ת ַמ ח ֲ םירִ ָשׂ וּלחֱ ֶ
6c. ׃יתי ִ ְל֫ חֳ ָ ִכּ
Judg 16:17
ה The princes are inflamed (Hiphil) with wine (lit., cause
themselves to be(come) sick with fever from wine).
Hos 7:5
ה י because I’ve been wounded (Hophal) (lit., have been
caused to be wounded)
1 Kgs 22:34
28.3 Hophals of Qal Verbs Used Transitively
4 The LXX reads a suffix on the infinitive.