Complexity of Hebrew Verbs

This post is intended to show that although using a strongs concordance can be helpful, when it comes to Hebrew verbs it is very important to understand how complex they are. There are literally numerous possible conjugations of hebrew verbs that will stem from one single root word. It is from the conjugation, and the conjugation alone that one can begin to analyze, or base any educated decision from the hebrew verb. There are many other factors as well, within these conjugations. 1st, 2nd or 3rd person, past, present, future tense, and is it masculine or feminine. To simplify this, we will keep this at a very basic level, so that anyone who may read this will begin to see how important it is to understand hebrew verbs. For the examples in this post i will utilize past tense, and future tense, stemming from the same exact root word. The bible passages in these examples are Genesis 1:2, and Exodus 3:14, and the root word is הָיָה hayah From this root word there are numerous possible conjugations, that will indicate the tense, as well as the other things i already mentioned, but for now lets focus on the tense. Recognizing the actual conjugation directly from the manuscripts is how this is done. A strongs concordance will ONLY give the root words. Below are basic hebrew verb conjugation charts that one will utilize when determining how it should be translated.




In the first example, הָיָה hayah is the root and הָיְתָה haitá is the conjugajion of this root. It is highlighted within the text at the top.

This is where it is found within the conjugation chart (circled), and notice it says "past" tense

What is derived from this is: הָיְתָה haitá is the past tense of הָיָה hayah the root word, or the past tense of: to be, which would be "was" become, which would be "became" come to pass, which would be "came to pass" exist, which would be "existed" All of which are correct, However due to context, or what is called the "gap theory", this absolutely should read "became", another study for another time. Lets do another one, where the root word הָיָה hayah is found.

In the second example, הָיָה hayah is the root and אֶֽהְיֶה eh·yeh is the conjugajion of this root. It is highlighted within the text at the top.

This is where it is found within the conjugation chart (circled), and notice it says "future" tense

What is derived from this is: אֶֽהְיֶה eh·yeh is the future tense of הָיָה hayah the root word, or the future tense of: to be which would be "will be" become, which would be "will become" come to pass, which would be "will come to pass" exist, which would be "will exist" All of which are correct.

I hope by sharing this that anyone who reads it will begin to understand how complex Hebrew verbs truly are. Imagine if we tried to find the meaning of the second example that is actually future tense from a strongs concordance. Root words are always past tense, and the conjugation of the second example is in the future tense. It is simple to see that this would be an error. This is something that one becomes aware of early in biblical hebrew language study. Translating hebrew verbs can only be done directly from the manuscripts themselves, and from the actual conjugation of the root word, and NOT, let me repeat this NOT, from the root word. This is a basic example of hebrew verbs, or an attempt to show the complexity of hebrew verbs. Hebrew verbs are actually much more complex than this, however this is the foundation of understanding hebrew verbs, charts etc.