Participles and Infinitives

The perfect, the imperfect and the volitives (lessons 11 to 13) are finite verbs: each has a person built into it, I or you or they. Hebrew also has four verb forms with no person at all. Two of them are verbal adjectives, the participles. Two are verbal nouns, the infinitives. Between them they do a great deal of work: they describe what is going on right now, name people by what they do, express purpose, tell you when something happened, and add emphasis.

Look hard at the last three. קָטוּל has shureq, וּ. קָטוֹל has holem, וֹ, and is often written without the ו, as קָטֹל. And the infinitive construct קְטֹל is spelled exactly like the masculine singular imperative of lesson 13. The forms follow Gesenius' Paradigm B; the real examples below come from the books this course loads, with the morphology code the lookup tool gives each one.

The active participle: קֹטֵל

The Qal active participle has holem after the first root letter and tsere after the second. It inflects like an adjective (lesson 8), for gender and number, not for person (Gesenius, section 50).

The feminine singular usually takes the segolate ending ֶת with the stress before it: קֹטֶלֶת. A less common feminine in ָה (קֹטְלָה) also occurs: אֹכְלָה [o-khe-LA] "consuming" (Deuteronomy 4:24). When a vowel ending is added, the tsere reduces to vocal shewa: קֹטְלִים. The holem stays, and may be written full (קוֹטֵל): Psalms 121:4 spells שׁוֹמֵר with ו, while Genesis 4:9 has שֹׁמֵר without it.

Here is the paradigm in real words:

The participle also has a construct form and takes suffixes, like any adjective used as a noun: שֹׁמְרֵי [sho-me-RE] "keepers of" (Numbers 3:28), שֹׁמְרֶךָ [sho-me-RE-kha] "your keeper" (Psalms 121:3 and 5).

What weak letters do to it

You will study weak verbs in lesson 16, but three participle shapes are so common that it pays to know them now.

• Third root letter ח or ע: a furtive patah slips in under the last letter: שֹׁמֵעַ [sho-ME-a] "hearing" (1 Samuel 3:9), יוֹדֵעַ [yo-DE-a] "knowing" (Psalms 1:6), שֹׁלֵחַ [sho-LE-ach] "sending" (Exodus 23:20). The feminine becomes בֹּרַחַת [bo-RA-khat] "fleeing" (Genesis 16:8), with patah in place of segol.
• III-he verbs end in ֶה: עֹשֶׂה [o-SE] "doing, making," רֹעֶה [ro-E] "shepherding, shepherd," תֹעֶה [to-E] "wandering."
• Hollow verbs like בּוֹא "come" have a participle that looks like the perfect: בָּא [BA] is "he came" or "coming." In Ruth 2:4 the tool tags it as a participle (Vqrmsa), and the הִנֵּה in front of it points the same way.

What the participle does

1. Ongoing action, with no verb "to be"

A participle can be the predicate of a clause, with the subject before it and no word for "is" or "was" (lesson 8 showed the same thing with adjectives). The action is in progress. The participle itself has no tense; the time comes from the context. In a story set in the past it means "was doing"; in speech it usually means "is doing"; and it can point to the near future (Gesenius, section 116).

וַיֵּרָא אֵלָיו יְהוָה בְּאֵלֹנֵי מַמְרֵא וְהוּא יֹשֵׁב פֶּתַח־הָאֹהֶל כְּחֹם הַיּוֹם׃

Genesis 18:1, Westminster Leningrad Codex

"The LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the entrance of the tent in the heat of the day." The narrative verb is the waw-consecutive וַיֵּרָא (Niphal of רָאָה, "appeared"). Then the narrator stops the clock with a וְ + subject + participle clause: וְהוּא יֹשֵׁב [ve-HU yo-SHEV] "and he (was) sitting." This pattern, a noun or pronoun followed by a participle, is the standard way to paint the scene in which the main action happens. Genesis 14:12 and 13 do the same thing twice: וְהוּא יֹשֵׁב בִּסְדֹם "he was living in Sodom," and וְהוּא שֹׁכֵן בְּאֵלֹנֵי מַמְרֵא "he was dwelling by the oaks of Mamre."

In speech, the same construction is present tense. Hagar, asked where she is going, answers מִפְּנֵי שָׂרַי גְּבִרְתִּי אָנֹכִי בֹּרַחַת "I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai" (Genesis 16:8). Joseph, asked what he is looking for, says אֶת־אַחַי אָנֹכִי מְבַקֵּשׁ "I am looking for my brothers" (Genesis 37:16; מְבַקֵּשׁ is a Piel participle, lesson 15).

A participle is negated with אֵין "there is not," usually with a suffix for the subject: וְאִם־אֵינְךָ מֵשִׁיב "and if you are not returning (her)" (Genesis 20:7; מֵשִׁיב is a Hiphil participle).

2. As an adjective or relative clause

With the article, a participle after a noun works like an English relative clause: בַּמִּנְחָה הַהֹלֶכֶת לְפָנָי [ba-min-KHA ha-ho-LE-khet le-fa-NAI] "with the gift that is going ahead of me" (Genesis 32:21). Literally "the gift, the going one." The participle agrees with מִנְחָה: feminine singular, with the article.

3. As a noun

Many everyday words for people are simply participles: the one who judges is a judge, the one who shepherds a shepherd.

• שֹׁפֵט [sho-FET] "judge" (Psalms 50:6)
• רֹעֶה [ro-E] "shepherd" (Genesis 37:2, Joseph "was shepherding," and 48:15, "the God who has shepherded me")
• אֹיֵב [o-YEV] "enemy," literally "one who is hostile" (1 Samuel 18:29); אֹיְבֶיךָ "your enemies" in Numbers 10:35 (lesson 13).
• אֹהֵב [o-HEV] "lover, friend," literally "one who loves" (Psalms 34:13 has it as "loving").
• עֹשֵׂה שָׁמַיִם וָאָרֶץ [o-SE sha-MA-yim va-A-rets] "maker of heaven and earth" (Psalms 115:15), with the participle in the construct state.

Cain's answer in Genesis 4:9 hovers between verb and noun: הֲשֹׁמֵר אָחִי אָנֹכִי [ha-sho-MER a-KHI a-no-KHI]. The ה at the front is the question marker הֲ. Word for word: "Keeping my brother, am I?" English has long rendered it "Am I my brother's keeper?" Both readings are fair, and the Hebrew does not force a choice.

4. With הִנֵּה

The particle הִנֵּה [hi-NE] "look! here is!" (וְהִנֵּה [ve-hi-NE] in a story) points at a scene, and very often what it points at is a participle. In narrative it shifts the reader into a character's eyes: "and there it was." Jacob's dream is the famous example:

וַיַּחֲלֹם וְהִנֵּה סֻלָּם מֻצָּב אַרְצָה וְרֹאשׁוֹ מַגִּיעַ הַשָּׁמָיְמָה וְהִנֵּה מַלְאֲכֵי אֱלֹהִים עֹלִים וְיֹרְדִים בּוֹ׃

Genesis 28:12, Westminster Leningrad Codex

"He dreamed, and there was a ladder set up on the ground, its top reaching to the heavens, and there were angels of God going up and coming down on it." Three participles in one verse: מֻצָּב "set up" (Hophal, tagged HVHsmsa), מַגִּיעַ "reaching" (Hiphil), and the Qal pair עֹלִים וְיֹרְדִים [o-LIM ve-yo-re-DIM] "going up and coming down." Notice the directional ending ָה twice: אַרְצָה "to the ground," הַשָּׁמָיְמָה "to the heavens."

More scenes framed with הִנֵּה and a participle:

• וַיִּמְצָאֵהוּ אִישׁ וְהִנֵּה תֹעֶה בַּשָּׂדֶה "A man found him, and there he was, wandering in the field" (Genesis 37:15).
• וְהִנֵּה עֹמֵד עַל־הַגְּמַלִּים "and there he was, standing by the camels" (Genesis 24:30).
• וְהִנֵּה רִבְקָה יֹצֵאת "and there was Rebekah, coming out" (Genesis 24:15). יֹצֵאת is the feminine of a III-aleph verb: the א is quiet and the ending is just ת.
• וְהִנֵּה־בֹעַז בָּא מִבֵּית לֶחֶם "and just then Boaz came from Bethlehem" (Ruth 2:4).

In speech, הִנֵּה with a participle often announces something about to happen, what Gesenius calls a future close at hand (Gesenius, section 116):

• הִנֵּה אָנֹכִי עֹשֶׂה דָבָר בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל [hi-NE a-no-KHI o-SE da-VAR be-yis-ra-EL] "I am about to do a thing in Israel" (1 Samuel 3:11), God to the boy Samuel.
• הִנֵּה אָנֹכִי שֹׁלֵחַ מַלְאָךְ לְפָנֶיךָ "I am going to send a messenger ahead of you" (Exodus 23:20).

The passive participle: קָטוּל

Only the Qal has this passive participle with an inner vowel change. The other stems make their participles with a מ prefix, active and passive alike (lesson 15). The pattern is qamets plus shureq (Gesenius, section 50).

When the ending takes the stress, the qamets, now two syllables before it, reduces to shewa. Two verbs give you the whole set from real texts:

Two of these have quirks you can now explain. In אֲרוּרִים the reduced vowel under א is a hateph patah, because a guttural cannot carry a simple vocal shewa (lesson 2). And בָּרַךְ "bless" is normally a Piel verb; its passive participle בָּרוּךְ is the one common Qal form of the root, used in blessings: בָּרוּךְ הוּא לַיהוָה "May he be blessed by the LORD" (Ruth 2:20), בְּרוּכָה אַתְּ לַיהוָה בִּתִּי "May you be blessed by the LORD, my daughter" (Ruth 3:10). Notice there is no verb "be" in either: the passive participle is the predicate, just as an active one was above.

The infinitive construct: קְטֹל

The infinitive construct is a verbal noun. In the Qal strong verb it has the same shape as the masculine singular imperative: קְטֹל [ke-TOL] (Gesenius, section 45). It is called "construct" because, like a noun in the construct state, it can be bound to what follows, including a subject or object (Gesenius, sections 114 and 115). It does most of its work with a preposition in front.

With לְ: to kill, in order to kill

With לְ the infinitive expresses purpose, or completes another verb: "to kill." Because the ק has shewa, the preposition takes hireq and the next letter is closed off: לִקְטֹל [lik-TOL]. The ב, כ or פ that follows keeps or loses its dagesh by the usual rules. Real examples:

• לִשְׁמֹר אֶת־דֶּרֶךְ עֵץ הַחַיִּים [lish-MOR et-DE-rekh ets ha-kha-YIM] "to guard the way to the tree of life" (Genesis 3:24). The tool lists 27 cases of לִשְׁמֹר in the loaded books.
• לִרְאוֹת טוֹב [lir-OT TOV] "to see good" (Psalms 34:13). III-he verbs end the infinitive construct in וֹת.
• לֵאמֹר [le-MOR] "saying," literally "to say." This infinitive of אָמַר introduces direct speech hundreds of times, like a spoken colon. The א has gone quiet and the preposition took tsere.
• לִשְׁאֹב מָיִם [lish-OV MA-yim] "to draw water" (1 Samuel 9:11).

With suffixes: his keeping, to keep him

Lesson 9's suffixes attach to the infinitive construct. The first syllable then usually has qamets hatuf, read o: קָטְלוֹ [kot-LO]. Whether the suffix is the subject ("his killing," that is, when he killed) or the object ("to kill him") depends on the verb and the context.

The table shows the two shapes Gesenius gives for the infinitive with a suffix. Most forms are of the qamets-hatuf type, קָטְלוֹ (לְשָׁמְרוֹ, בְּשָׁמְרָם). Before ךָ there is also a second type with shewa under the first root letter and qamets hatuf under the second, קְטָלְךָ: that is לִשְׁמָרְךָ. In אֲכָלְךָ the first letter is the guttural א, so its reduced vowel is a hateph patah; the ָ under כ is qamets hatuf.

With בְּ and כְּ: time clauses

The most frequent job of the infinitive construct in stories is to say when something happened. בְּ plus infinitive means "when, while"; כְּ plus infinitive means "when, as soon as" (Gesenius, section 114). The clause often follows וַיְהִי "and it happened," which English can usually leave out.

Notice how the subject is shown: by a suffix (בִּהְיוֹתָם "their being," כְשָׁמְעוֹ "his hearing") or by a noun right after the infinitive (בִּנְסֹעַ הָאָרֹן "the ark's setting out," כִשְׁמֹעַ אֲדֹנָיו "his master's hearing"). The object, if any, follows with אֶת as with any verb: כִּרְאֹת אֶת־הַנֶּזֶם.

בְּיוֹם with the infinitive

A common idiom puts בְּיוֹם "in the day of" in front of the infinitive: "in the day of making" means "when ... made." Genesis 2:4 has בְּיוֹם עֲשׂוֹת יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים אֶרֶץ וְשָׁמָיִם [be-YOM a-SOT a-do-NAI e-lo-HIM E-rets ve-sha-MA-yim] "when the LORD God made earth and heaven." The subject יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים follows the infinitive, the objects follow the subject.

אֵלֶּה תוֹלְדוֹת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְהָאָרֶץ בְּהִבָּרְאָם בְּיוֹם עֲשׂוֹת יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים אֶרֶץ וְשָׁמָיִם׃

Genesis 2:4, Westminster Leningrad Codex

"These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day the LORD God made earth and heaven." There are two infinitives here: בְּהִבָּרְאָם "in their being created" (Niphal of בָּרָא with suffix, lesson 15), and עֲשׂוֹת, the Qal infinitive construct of עָשָׂה. Many printed Hebrew Bibles write the ה of בְּהִבָּרְאָם small, following a scribal tradition; the plain text from the lookup tool does not show letter sizes.

The same idiom drives the warning in Eden: בְּיוֹם אֲכָלְךָ מִמֶּנּוּ "in the day of your eating from it," that is, "when you eat from it" (Genesis 2:17). You will read the whole verse below.

Negating an infinitive: לְבִלְתִּי

The infinitive construct is not negated with לֹא. It takes לְבִלְתִּי [le-vil-TI] "so as not to":

• אֲשֶׁר צִוִּיתִיךָ לְבִלְתִּי אֲכָל־מִמֶּנּוּ "which I commanded you not to eat from" (Genesis 3:11). Before maqaf the holem of אֱכֹל shortens to qamets hatuf: אֲכָל [a-khol].
• לְבִלְתִּי־לֶכֶת אַחֲרֵי הַבַּחוּרִים "not going after the young men" (Ruth 3:10). לֶכֶת is the infinitive construct of הָלַךְ, which drops its first letter like a I-yod verb (lesson 16).

The infinitive absolute: קָטוֹל

The infinitive absolute stands alone. It takes no prepositions and no suffixes, which is why it is called "absolute," loosed from other words. Its Qal form is קָטוֹל, often written defectively קָטֹל (Gesenius, section 113). It has three main jobs.

1. Before a finite verb: emphasis

Put the infinitive absolute in front of a finite verb from the same root, and the verb is strengthened. The sense depends on context: certainty ("surely"), insistence ("indeed"), completeness ("freely"), or, in a question, disbelief ("do you really mean ...?"). English has no matching construction, so translators reach for an adverb.

Genesis 37:8 is a perfect pair. Joseph's brothers, furious at his dream, ask הֲמָלֹךְ תִּמְלֹךְ עָלֵינוּ אִם־מָשׁוֹל תִּמְשֹׁל בָּנוּ "Will you really reign over us? Will you really rule us?" Two infinitives absolute, one spelled defectively (מָלֹךְ) and one fully (מָשׁוֹל). The construction drips with sarcasm. Deuteronomy 11:22 is useful because its verb is our strong model verb שָׁמַר; the ending וּן on תִּשְׁמְרוּן is an older, fuller form of וּ (lesson 12).

In מוֹת תָּמוּת the root is the hollow verb מוּת "die," so the infinitive absolute is מוֹת and the imperfect is תָּמוּת. You will meet hollow verbs in lesson 16; the construction is the same. Genesis 20:7, which you read in lesson 13, repeats the phrase: דַּע כִּי־מוֹת תָּמוּת "know that you shall surely die."

2. After a verb: keep on, more and more

An infinitive absolute after the main verb, often paired with a second one, describes continuing or gradual action. The verb הָלַךְ "go" is the usual first member, in the sense "going on."

• וַיָּשֻׁבוּ הַמַּיִם מֵעַל הָאָרֶץ הָלוֹךְ וָשׁוֹב [ha-LOKH va-SHOV] "The waters went back from the earth, going and returning," that is, "receded steadily" (Genesis 8:3).
• וְהַמַּיִם הָיוּ הָלוֹךְ וְחָסוֹר [ha-LOKH ve-kha-SOR] "and the waters kept on decreasing" (Genesis 8:5).
• וַיִּסַּע אַבְרָם הָלוֹךְ וְנָסוֹעַ הַנֶּגְבָּה [ha-LOKH ve-na-SO-a ha-NEG-ba] "Abram journeyed on, going on and on toward the Negev" (Genesis 12:9).

3. Alone: as a command

An infinitive absolute can stand at the head of a sentence as an emphatic command. The two versions of the Ten Commandments open the sabbath law this way, with different verbs:

זָכוֹר אֶת־יוֹם הַשַּׁבָּת לְקַדְּשׁוֹ׃

Exodus 20:8, Westminster Leningrad Codex

שָׁמוֹר אֶת־יוֹם הַשַׁבָּת לְקַדְּשׁוֹ כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוְּךָ יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ׃

Deuteronomy 5:12, Westminster Leningrad Codex

"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy." "Keep the sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you." [za-KHOR et-YOM ha-sha-BAT le-kad-de-SHO], [sha-MOR et-YOM ha-sha-BAT le-kad-de-SHO]. Each verse has one infinitive absolute (זָכוֹר, שָׁמוֹר) and one infinitive construct with לְ and a suffix (לְקַדְּשׁוֹ, Piel, "to make it holy"). Note that the codex at Deuteronomy 5:12 writes הַשַׁבָּת without the dagesh in ש that Exodus 20:8 has; the plain text keeps the codex as it is.

Updated October 28, 2026.