Hophal Stem (Hebrew)¶
Definition¶
The Hophal (הָפְעַל / הֻפְעַל; also spelled Hŏp̄ʿal, Hophʿal, Hopʿal) is the passive counterpart of the Hiphil — the causative-passive stem. Where Hiphil says "X caused Y to do/become Z," Hophal says "Y was caused to do/become Z" — with the causer typically unnamed. The Hophal is morphologically marked by a u-class preformative vowel (hû- / ho- / hā-) and a short-a theme vowel.
The stem is comparatively rare (~440 occurrences in BH, vs. ~9,000 Hiphil) but carries outsized theological freight because of its systematic agent-suppression. Classic "divine passive" readings cluster here.
Core functions:
- Causative passive — subject undergoes the Hiphil action from an unnamed causer ("was brought," "was struck down," "was taken away")
- Agent-occluded passive — grammar deliberately suppresses who caused the action; often theologically loaded (divine agency implied but not named, or agency deliberately ambiguous)
- Stative-result of a causation — subject is in the resulting state of a prior Hiphil action ("was set up," "was established"; esp. participle)
Form Recognition¶
Morphological markers¶
- Perfect: huqṭal / hoqṭal (הָקְטַל) — short-u or short-o preformative vowel, short-a theme: הוּרַד "was brought down" (Gen 39:1), הֻכָּה "was smitten" (Exo 22:1), הוּשַׁב "was returned" (Gen 42:28), הוּרַם "was taken away" (Dan 8:11), הֻשְׁלַךְ "was cast down" (Dan 8:11), הוּבָא "was brought" (Lev 13:2), הֻסַּר "was removed" (Dan 12:11)
- Imperfect: yuqṭal / yoqṭal (יֻקְטַל) — short-u preformative, short-a theme: יוּמָת "shall be put to death" (Exo 21:12, etc., ~17×), יֻקַּם "shall be avenged" (Gen 4:15), יֻקַּח "shall be taken" (Gen 18:4), יֻחַן "shall be favored" (Isa 26:10), תּוּקַד "shall be kept burning" (Lev 6:2)
- Wayyiqtol: wayyuqṭal: וַיֻּגַּד "and it was told" (Gen 22:20; 27:42; 31:22; 38:13, 24 — the formulaic narrative passive), וַיֻּכּוּ "and they were beaten" (Exo 5:14)
- Participle: muqṭal / moqṭal (מֻקְטָל): מֻצָּב "set up" (Gen 28:12 Jacob's ladder), מוּצֵאת "brought forth" (Gen 38:25), מֻכִּים "beaten" (Exo 5:16)
- Infinitive Construct: הֻלֶּדֶת "being born" (Gen 40:20)
- Imperative: rare — הָשְׁכְּבָה "be laid down!" (Ezek 32:19)
Diagnostic features¶
- Short-u (qibbuṣ) or short-o (qamets-ḥaṭuph) preformative vowel is the single most reliable marker — Hiphil has long-î theme; Hophal replaces this with short-a and darkens the preformative from hi-/ya- to hu-/yu-
- Often spelled full with waw: הוּ־ (hu-) for 3ms perfect (הוּרַד, הוּבָא, הוּרַם)
- No agent typically expressed — when an agent does appear it is introduced with בְּיַד or מִן (by the hand of / from), and even then is often left unnamed
- For I-w/y roots (ירד, ילד, יצא), the initial y assimilates and the form looks like hû- + CCaC (הוּרַד, הוּלַד, הוּצָא)
- For geminate roots (סבב, קלל), theme vowel often lengthens (הוּסַב "was turned")
Parser code¶
sp=verb vs=hof — any Hophal form
sp=verb vs=hof vt=perf — Hophal Perfect (huqṭal)
sp=verb vs=hof vt=impf — Hophal Imperfect (yuqṭal)
sp=verb vs=hof vt=wayq — Hophal Wayyiqtol
sp=verb vs=hof vt=ptca — Hophal Participle (muqṭal)
Total inventory: 434 occurrences across the Hebrew Bible (ETCBC/BHSA tagging, parser-verified).
Functions with Examples¶
1. Causative passive (primary function)¶
Subject undergoes the Hiphil-causative action; the causer is grammatically passive-suppressed.
| Reference | Hebrew | Parsing | KJV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gen 39:1 | הוּרַד | Hophal.Perf.3ms of ירד | "Joseph was brought down to Egypt" (causer = Ishmaelites, suppressed in the verb itself) |
| Gen 42:28 | הוּשַׁב | Hophal.Perf.3ms of שׁוב | "My money is restored" (Joseph's doing, but to the brothers it is agent-unknown) |
| Gen 12:15 | תֻּקַּח | Hophal.Wayq.3fs of לקח | "the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house" |
| Lev 13:2 | הוּבָא | Hophal.Perf.3ms of בוא | "then he shall be brought unto Aaron" (priestly-procedural passive) |
| Exo 22:1 | הֻכָּה | Hophal.Perf.3ms of נכה | "if the thief be smitten" |
| Jer 38:22 | מֻצָּאוֹת | Hophal.Ptcp.fp of יצא | "shall be brought forth to the king of Babylon's princes" |
2. Agent-occluded / legally-passive formula¶
Hophal is the workhorse of Pentateuchal legal passives — "he shall be put to death," "shall be avenged," "shall be burnt" — where the law names the crime and the penalty but not the executioner. The grammar presses the act into the impersonal.
| Reference | Hebrew | Parsing | KJV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exo 21:12 | יוּמָת | Hophal.Impf.3ms of מות | "he that smiteth a man... shall be surely put to death" (mot yûmāt formula) |
| Exo 21:15, 16, 17; 22:18 | יוּמָת | Hophal.Impf.3ms of מות | repeated capital-penalty formula (~17× Hophal of מות) |
| Gen 4:15 | יֻקָּם | Hophal.Impf.3ms of נקם | "vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold" |
| Gen 4:24 | יֻקַּם | Hophal.Impf.3ms of נקם | "Cain shall be avenged sevenfold" |
| Lev 6:2 | תּוּקַד | Hophal.Impf.3fs of יקד | "the fire shall be kept burning" (perpetual-altar formula; cultic impersonal-passive) |
The Hophal here encodes the legal third-person impersonal — Hebrew has no indefinite "one" pronoun (no man like German, no on like French), so the agent-occluded passive Hophal fills that slot.
3. Narrative reporting-formula וַיֻּגַּד ("and it was told")¶
The wayyiqtol of נגד "tell, declare" appears ~40× as a Hophal, becoming a stock narrative device: news reaches the character, reporter unnamed. This keeps the focal subject (Abraham, Jacob, Judah, Pharaoh) the grammatical patient of information-delivery rather than the doer.
| Reference | Hebrew | Parsing | KJV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gen 22:20 | וַיֻּגַּד | Hophal.Wayq.3ms of נגד | "that it was told Abraham" |
| Gen 27:42 | וַיֻּגַּד | Hophal.Wayq.3ms of נגד | "these words of Esau her elder son were told to Rebekah" |
| Gen 31:22 | וַיֻּגַּד | Hophal.Wayq.3ms of נגד | "it was told Laban on the third day" |
| Gen 38:13, 24 | וַיֻּגַּד | Hophal.Wayq.3ms of נגד | "it was told Tamar / Judah" |
| Exo 14:5 | וַיֻּגַּד | Hophal.Wayq.3ms of נגד | "it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled" |
4. Stative-result participle (muqṭal)¶
The participle describes the object in its resulting state from a prior Hiphil causation.
| Reference | Hebrew | Parsing | KJV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gen 28:12 | מֻצָּב | Hophal.Ptcp.ms of יצב | "a ladder set up on the earth" (Jacob's ladder — the ladder is in a set-up state) |
| Exo 5:16 | מֻכִּים | Hophal.Ptcp.mp of נכה | "thy servants are beaten" |
| Gen 43:18 | מוּבָאִים | Hophal.Ptcp.mp of בוא | "we are brought in" |
| Lev 6:14 | מֻרְבֶּכֶת | Hophal.Ptcp.fs of רבך | "when it is soaked [in oil]" |
5. Agent-suppressed theological passive (Daniel's preferred stem for violent reversal)¶
Daniel uses Hophal with striking density at the climactic moments of his visions — moments where the text refuses to name who acts. The grammar is the theology: something is happening to the sanctuary / the horn / the beast, and the text will not say who is doing it.
| Reference | Hebrew | Parsing | KJV | Agent-occlusion |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dan 7:4 | הֳקִימַת | Hophal.Perf.3fs of קום (Aramaic) | "[the lion] was made to stand upon the feet as a man" | passive divine forming of the beast-vision |
| Dan 7:11 | הוּבַד | Hophal.Perf.3ms of אבד (Aramaic) | "his body destroyed" | beast is destroyed; doer unnamed |
| Dan 8:11 | הוּרַם | Hophal.Perf.3ms of רום | "the daily [sacrifice] was taken away" | hûram hat-tāmîḏ — horn is the surface context, but the Hophal grammatically obscures the actor |
| Dan 8:11 | הֻשְׁלַךְ | Hophal.Perf.3ms of שׁלך | "the place of his sanctuary was cast down" | hušlaḵ məḵôn miqdāšô — paired agent-suppressed passive |
| Dan 12:11 | הוּסַר | Hophal.Perf.3ms of סור | "from the time that the daily [sacrifice] shall be taken away" | lexical bracket-partner to 11:31's Hiphil active — deliberate stem-alternation between parallel passages |
Dan 8:11 textual-critical note. The MT reads הוּרַם (Hophal "was taken away"). Some MSS and ancient versions present Hiphil-active variants ("he [the horn] took away"). The difference is one of voice-grammar and theological framing: - Hophal reading: the removal is agent-suppressed — the horn is not the grammatical subject of the verb; the text refuses to say who causes the continual to be taken away. This admits a divine-permissive reading ("the continual was taken away" — ultimately under God's overruling allowance). - Hiphil reading: the horn is the active causer ("he took away the continual") — a straightforward human-wicked-agent reading.
The Masoretic Hophal is the harder reading and is followed by most critical editions. The interpretive payoff is significant: the Hophal refuses to make the horn the uncaused agent of the desolation, leaving open the question of whose hand ultimately moves the history.
6. Rhetorical-favor passive¶
A small but pointed class where Hophal expresses that favor or a privileged state is bestowed (or refused) by an unnamed giver — typically God.
| Reference | Hebrew | Parsing | KJV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isa 26:10 | יֻחַן | Hophal.Impf.3ms of חנן | "let favor be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness" — divine-grace passive; God is the unnamed favor-giver |
| Job 38:6 | הָטְבָּעוּ | Hophal.Perf.3p of טבע | "[the earth's] foundations were fastened/sunk" — cosmic-creation passive; YHWH is the unnamed fixer |
| Ezek 32:32 | הֻשְׁכַּב | Hophal.Perf.3ms of שׁכב | "he shall be made to lie in the midst of the uncircumcised" — underworld-consignment passive |
| Ezek 32:19 | הָשְׁכְּבָה | Hophal.Impv.2ms of שׁכב | "be thou laid with the uncircumcised!" — rare Hophal imperative; addressee is commanded to be caused to lie down |
Contrast with Related Passive Stems¶
Hebrew has four passive-capable stems, each the passive of a different active stem:
| Active stem | Its passive | Semantic note | Example root: קדשׁ "be holy" |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qal (basic) | Niphal (simple passive / reflexive / middle) | generic passive | — (Qal stative for this root) |
| Piel (factitive: make-X) | Pual (intensive passive: was-made-X) | strong result-passive | qiddēš "consecrated" → quddaš "was consecrated" |
| Hiphil (causative: cause-to-X) | Hophal (causative passive: was-caused-to-X) | agent-suppressed | hiqdîš "dedicated" → huqdaš "was dedicated" |
| Hithpael (reflexive) | — (self-reflexive) | hitqaddēš "sanctify oneself" |
Hophal vs. Niphal¶
Both translate as English "was X-ed," but they are not interchangeable: - Niphal is the passive of a Qal active — a single event, one level of causation. Nothing is implied about a causer beyond the subject's own lack of agency. - Hophal is the passive of a Hiphil causative — there is a causer in the semantic frame, but the grammar suppresses naming it. The event has two levels (causer → instrument → patient), and the Hophal fronts the patient while occluding the causer.
| Hophal | Niphal of same root | Semantic difference |
|---|---|---|
| הוּרַד "was brought down" (external causer did this to him) | (Qal passive ptcp יוּרָד / Niphal not attested) | Hophal of ירד implies an agent who caused the descent (Gen 39:1 Joseph to Egypt) |
| הוּבָא "was brought in" (someone brought him) | בָא Qal "came" (of himself) | Hophal requires a causer; Qal is self-motion |
| יוּמָת "shall be put to death" (legal executioner unnamed) | נִכְרַת "shall be cut off" (divine-judicial passive, often self-effected) | Hophal mot-yumat presupposes a human executing the sentence; Niphal nikhrat often describes a state of excommunication without external execution |
Link: stem-niphal.md
Hophal vs. Pual¶
Both are passives of transitive stems (Hiphil, Piel), and for some roots both exist with distinct semantic force: - Pual = was intensively/resultatively made X (focuses on state brought about) - Hophal = was caused to perform/undergo X (focuses on external causation)
Example: גנב (steal). The parser tags Gen 40:15 gunnab gunnabtî ("I was surely stolen away") as Pual — the intensification here is on the thoroughness of the act, not the agency behind it. A Hophal of גנב is unattested. This shows the stems are not freely interchangeable.
Contrast with Hiphil (active-passive voice pair)¶
| Form | Voice | Example | Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hiphil | active causative | הֵקִים hēqîm | "he raised up" |
| Hophal | passive of Hiphil | הוּקַם hûqam | "he was raised up" |
| Hiphil | active causative | הֵבִיא hēbîʾ | "he brought" |
| Hophal | passive of Hiphil | הוּבָא hûbāʾ | "he/it was brought" |
| Hiphil | active causative | הִכָּה hikkāh | "he smote" |
| Hophal | passive of Hiphil | הֻכָּה hukkāh | "he was smitten" |
| Hiphil | active causative | הִגִּיד higgîd | "he told, declared" |
| Hophal | passive of Hiphil | הֻגַּד huggad | "it was told" |
| Hiphil | active causative | הוֹרִיד hôrîd | "he brought down" |
| Hophal | passive of Hiphil | הוּרַד hûrad | "he was brought down" |
Lexical-bracket phenomenon. Several Danielic and prophetic passages pair the Hiphil and Hophal of the same root across parallel verses to mark active/passive framing of the same event: - Dan 11:31 Hiphil active (human subject "they shall take away") ‖ Dan 12:11 Hophal passive (same event, agent-suppressed) - Dan 8:11 MT Hophal ‖ variant Hiphil (textual contest over voice, same event) - Ezek 32:32 Hophal hushkab "shall be made to lie" ‖ Ezek 32:19 Hophal imperative hoshkebah framed by a Qal imperative rědāh "go down!" (active-to-passive grammar of being driven into Sheol)
Link: stem-hiphil.md
Common Hophal Verbs¶
| Verb root | Strong's | Hiphil meaning | Hophal meaning | Representative references |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| מות (mut) | H4191 | (Hiphil hēmît) "put to death" | יוּמָת "shall be put to death" | Exo 21:12, 15, 16, 17; Lev 20:2 (~17× legal formula) |
| נגד (nagad) | H5046 | (Hiphil only) "tell, declare" | הֻגַּד "it was told" | Gen 22:20; 27:42; 31:22; 38:13, 24 (~40× narrative formula) |
| נקם (naqam) | H5358 | "avenge" | יֻקַּם "shall be avenged" | Gen 4:15, 24; Exo 21:21 |
| לקח (laqach) | H3947 | "take" | יֻקַּח "shall be taken" | Gen 12:15; 18:4 |
| בוא (bo) | H935 | "bring in" | הוּבָא "was brought" | Lev 13:2, 9; Gen 43:18 |
| ירד (yarad) | H3381 | "bring down" | הוּרַד "was brought down" | Gen 39:1 |
| שׁוב (shub) | H7725 | "restore, bring back" | הוּשַׁב "was returned" | Gen 42:28; Exo 10:8 |
| רום (rum) | H7311 | "raise, lift up" | הוּרַם "was taken away / raised" | Dan 8:11 |
| שׁלך (shalak) | H7993 | "cast down" | הֻשְׁלַךְ "was cast down" | Dan 8:11 |
| סור (sur) | H5493 | "remove, take away" | הוּסַר "was taken away" | Dan 12:11 |
| נכה (nakah) | H5221 | "smite" | הֻכָּה / מֻכִּים "was smitten / beaten" | Exo 5:14, 16; 22:1 |
| חנן (chanan) | H2603 | "show favor" | יֻחַן "be favored" | Isa 26:10 |
| שׁכב (shakab) | H7901 | "lay down" | הֻשְׁכַּב "was made to lie down" | Ezek 32:32 |
| טבע (tava) | H2883 | "sink, fasten" | הָטְבְּעוּ "were sunk/fastened" | Job 38:6; Jer 38:22 |
| יקד (yaqad) | H3344 | "kindle" | תּוּקַד "shall be kept burning" | Lev 6:2, 5, 6 |
| יצב (yatsav) | H3320 | "set, station" | מֻצָּב "set up" | Gen 28:12 |
Why Hophal matters theologically¶
The Hophal is the agent-occluded passive of Hebrew. When the grammar turns Hophal three phenomena commonly follow in the discourse:
- Divine-permissive framing. The text reports an event without making any creature its sufficient cause. The Hophal leaves room for YHWH's overruling providence without directly naming Him — the textus apertus of divine agency. This is how Daniel narrates desecrations of the sanctuary (8:11 hûram, hušlaḵ; 12:11 hûsar): the grammar refuses to credit the horn with uncaused destruction, preserving the theological point that no action against God's holy things happens except under His permission.
- Legal-impersonal framing. In Pentateuchal law the executioner of the death-penalty is almost never named as grammatical subject; the offender yûmāt "shall be put to death." Responsibility is distributed across the covenant community without being pinned on a named agent.
- Text-critical leverage. Because Hophal and Hiphil differ by only a single vowel (short-u + short-a vs. long-î), and the Masoretic pointing post-dates the consonantal text by many centuries, Hophal/Hiphil alternation is a live textual variable. Dan 8:11's hûram (Hophal MT) vs. hērîm (Hiphil variant) is a textbook case: the consonants are identical (הרים), and the voice of the verb — and thus the theological frame — depends on the pointing. Manuscripts, LXX evidence, and exegetical tradition frequently diverge at these points.
For Dan 8:11 specifically, the MT Hophal is defended by the majority of critical editions (BHS, BHQ) and is the harder reading. The Hiphil variant makes the horn the uncaused agent; the Hophal preserves the text's deliberate agency-ambiguity. This is not a minor pointing dispute — it is a voice-level theological choice.
Grammar Citations¶
- GKC §53 — Hophal conjugation, paradigms, agent-suppression functions
- GKC §53u — agent expressed with בְּיַד or מִן after Hophal
- Joüon-Muraoka §56–57 — Hophal morphology (huqṭal / hoqṭal variants), agent-neutral passive
- Waltke-O'Connor (IBHS) §28 — The Causative-Passive Stem (Hophal); §28.1 on voice-pairing with Hiphil; §28.2 on semantic functions (passive of Hiphil, rarely stative-resultative)
- van der Merwe-Naudé-Kroeze §16.6 — Hophal usage and its rarity
- BHRG §16.6 — Hophal's agent-suppression and legal-impersonal function
- BDB / HALOT — entries for verbs listed above, noting Hophal-specific glosses
Generated from: hebrew_parser.py --search "sp=verb vs=hof" (434 total occurrences across HB); --verse for Dan 8:11, Gen 40:15, Job 38:6, Isa 26:10, Ezek 32:23/32, Gen 22:20, Gen 28:12, Gen 39:1, Lev 6:2, Lev 13:2, Exo 21:12; KJV text for cross-verification; ETCBC/BHSA morphological tagging Last updated: 2026-04-19