בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע: Beersheba
proper name

raeeB. means well. [bv is the root for swear and is the number seven. Read Gen.21:24-34 to see the connection made between these meanings of the root.

לון: lodge, pass the night abide
verb, qal, prefix, third person masculine singular, vav-conv

When the vowel under the prefix pronoun is qamets, the missing root letter will be in the middle of the root and will be W or A or y i

בּוא: come in, come, go in, go
verb, qal, affix, third person masculine singular

What are the two possible forms for ab' It can be either 3 m. sg affix or the m. sg. participle. Do you think it is possible that either verb form could be used here? As none of the three participle indicators identified in Lesson 9 are present, it is more likely to be an affix.

שֶׁמֶשׁ: sun
noun, feminine and masculine singular

After looking up the words you might think that this clause means because the sun was rising. But no! vm,V,h; aAB is an idiom referring to the setting of the sun.

לקח: take
verb, qal, prefix, third person masculine singular, vav-conv

Hebrew does not require an explicit Direct Object here although one is needed in English.

מִן: from
particle: preposition

The preposition is pointed me instead of · mi (travelling dagesh rule)

שׂים: put, place, set
verb, qal, prefix, third person masculine singular, vav-conv

Hebrew does not require an explicit Direct Object here although one is needed in English.

מְרַאֲשׁוֹת: place at the head, head-place
noun, feminine plural construct with third person masculine singular suffix

This word can be found under its root var which means head, chief. This noun appears rarely, but always in the plural and with a suffix. It is usually taken to mean at his head place. In the four Biblical passages in which this noun appears, someone is asleep or is going to sleep, and something unusual happens. The placement of the stones may mean something more significant than is apparent on the surface.

סֻלָּם: ascending structure
noun, masculine singular

This word is most often translated ladder. However, this is the only time the word appears in the Hebrew Bible and its root is somewhat obscure. It is probably from the root lls which means lift up or cast up. So, even if ladder is not precise, we can assume from associated words and the context that some sort of thing-which-goes-up is meant.

נצב: take one’s stand,
verb, hophal participle, masculine singular

Can this be bc' + !mi Although there is a dagesh in the c which could represent the assimilated ! of the preposition, the m of !mi never has qibbuts  U under it, so we can exclude the possibility of that compound. That still leaves four strong letters from which we must abstract the root. We could approach the problem of finding the root the way we did with hS'nI (Gen.22:1). There we found that hsn was a root, and that the dagesh represented strengthening indicating the Piel stem. Here we find that bcm is not a root and therefore the dagesh must represent an assimilated letter, most likely n There is a root bcn so that takes care of the dagesh. Now what about the m A preformative m can be an indication of a noun; it can also be the sign of a participle in stems other than Qal and Nifal. A participle in the Hofal is characterised by qamets hatuf   ' or qibbuts  U under a preformative m (It is not among the top ten forms but you will come across it from time to time). It so happens that bC'mu can be found listed as a noun meaning palisade, but that does not fit the context here; or perhaps it does at least to the extent that it enhances the image of the verb.

אֶרֶץ: earth, land
noun, feminine singular with locative-heh

The ending looks just the same as the h-directive but this is where it’s at and is called the locative-h The important thing to remember is that both place to which and place at which or on which can be expressed by h '

נגע: touch, reach, strike
verb, hiphil, participle, masculine singular

Again you have to dig for a root. When there are too many letters for a root, a vowel letter is a good one to delete. That leaves [ggm Proceed the same way as bC'mu earlier in the verse to find the root and form. However, the pointing is different here, which means the stem is different. Just as the Hifil prefix form has patach under its prefix pronoun (Gen.22:3) so the Hifil participle has patach under its preformative m The dot vowel y I between the second and third root letters which we cast aside earlier can be brought back as further support for a Hifil form.

עלה: go up
verb, qal, participle, masculine plural

The holem after the first root letter identified the form as a participle. The endiNG is m. pl. That leaves two letters for a root. Remember, verbs which end in h always lose the h before a subject or object pronoun is added to the verb.