passives of Qal. He reckons as such all those perfects, of which the Piʿēl (which ought to express the corresponding active) is either not found at all, or only (as in the case of יִלֵּד) with a different meaning, and which form their imperfect from another conjugation, generally Niphʿal. Such perfects are the quṭṭal form of the stems אבל (imperfect תְּאֻבְּלוּ Is 120), חפשׁ, טרף, ילד, יצר, לקח, עבד, שׁגל, שׁטף, שׁפךְ. Barth (see below) adds to the list the apparent Puʿal-perfects of אסר, בזז, זנה, חצב, כרת, נפח, עזב, עשה, ראה, and of verbs with middle ר (hence with ŭ of the first syllable lengthened to ō), הרג, הרה Jb 33 [זרה, see § 67 m], זרע, זרק, טרף, מרט, קרא, שׂרף; also the infinitives absolute הֹרוֹ וְהֹגוֹ Is 5913. In these cases there is no need to assume any error on the part of the punctuators; the sharpening of the second radical may have taken place in order to retain the characteristic ŭ of the first syllable (cf. Arab. qŭtĭlă as passive of qătălă), and the a of the second syllable is in accordance with the vocalization of all the other passives (see § 39 f). Cf. § 52 s and § 53 u.
[f] 2. The fundamental idea of Piʿēl, to which all the various shades of meaning in this conjugation may be referred, is to busy oneself eagerly with the action indicated by the stem. This intensifying of the idea of the stem, which is outwardly expressed by the strengthening of the second radical, appears in individual cases as—(a) a strengthening and repetition of the action (cf. the intensive and iterative nouns with the middle radical strengthened, § 84b),[1] e.g. צָחַק to laugh, Piʿēl to jest, to make sport (to laugh repeatedly); שָׁאַל to ask, Piʿēl to beg; hence when an action has reference to many, e.g. קָבַר to bury (a person) Gn 234, Piʿēl to bury (many) 1 K 1115, and often so in Syr. and Arab. Other varieties of the intensive and iterative meaning are, e.g. פָּתַח to open, Piʿēl to loose; סָפַר to count, Piʿēl to recount: [cf. כִּתֵּב, חִשֵּׁב, הִלֵּךְ, רִפֵּא, חִפֵּשׂ, תִּפֵּשׂ; מְאַהֵב, מְרַצֵּחַ].
[g] The eager pursuit of an action may also consist in urging and causing others to do the same. Hence Piʿēl has also—(b) a causative sense (like Hiphʿîl), e.g. לָמַד to learn, Piʿēl to teach. It may often be turned by such phrases as to permit to, to declare or hold as (the declarative Piʿēl), to help to, e.g. חִיָּה to cause to live, צִדֵּק to declare innocent, יִלֵּד to help in child-bearing.
[h] (c) Denominatives (see § 38 b) are frequently formed in this conjugation, and generally express a being occupied with the object expressed by the noun, either to form or to make use of it, e.g. קִנֵּן to make a nest, to nest (from קֵן), עִפֵּר to throw dust, to dust (from עָפָר),
- ↑ Analogous examples, in which the strengthening of a letter has likewise an intensive force, are such German words as reichen, recken (Eng. to reach, to rack); streichen (stringo), strecken: cf. Strich (a stroke), Strecke (a stretch); wacker from wachen; others, in which it has the causative sense, are stechen, stecken; wachen (watch), wecken (wake); τέλλω to bring to an end (cf. the stem τέλω to end, in τέλος, τελέω); γεννάω to beget, from the stem γένω to come into being (cf. γένος).
