The Hiphil Verb Form

What can the hiphil verb form in the Hebrew language teach us about God and His character? It turns out – a great deal. Some Bible wording seems to make God responsible for very violent acts even taking many lives. For example, the flood in Noah’s day which may have killed millions. Did God cause that?- an important question as many, believing He did, view Him  as a violent, punishing God which certainly makes Him less lovable. This seems to be an incriminating verse:

“And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” (Gen 6:13)

The Hebrew language, in which the account of the flood was written, has a variety of verb forms. In this verse, as in many others, it is important to consider this factor.  The hiphil form indicates God permitting rather than causing an event.

“Destroy” is from the Hebrew word “shachath” (H7843) and is in the hiphil verb form.

“… the Form called hiphil in Hebrew often denotes only permission, and is rendered elsewhere to that sense by our translators.” (Lowth, William, A Commentary upon the Prophet Isaiah, London, W. Taylor, 1714, p501) (Commentary available here.)

I asked AI about this and below is the result I received. I added the verse for reference in each case and did some very minor formatting. Also, in two of the examples, I added a short comment (in red text) to clarify ChatGPTs comments about God’s sovereignty. The heart image is also added.

Start of interaction with AI.

My prompt: Show examples of hiphil verbs used to express that God permitted rather than caused events to happen.

ChatGPT said:

Excellent — this is a very insightful question, and it gets right to the heart of how the Hebrew Hiphil stem (often labeled “causative”) can actually express permission rather than direct causation.

Many theological misunderstandings come from reading Hiphil verbs as if God actively caused events that, in Hebrew idiom, He merely allowed or permitted.

Let’s look closely at some good examples.

The Hiphil Verb form in Exodus 9:12 — “The LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart.”

“And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had spoken unto Moses.” (Exo 9:12)

Hebrew: וַיְחַזֵּק יְהוָה אֶת־לֵב פַּרְעֹה
Verb: חָזַק (ḥāzaq) in Hiphil = “to strengthen, make firm.”

Traditional reading: God caused Pharaoh to harden his heart.
Permissive sense: God allowed Pharaoh’s heart to grow hard — that is, He ceased restraining him and permitted Pharaoh to follow his own stubborn will.

Support:
Earlier texts say Pharaoh hardened his own heart (Ex 8:15, 32). Only later does it say God hardened it — suggesting divine permission, not initiation.
The Hiphil here can mean “to let become firm,” rather than “to make firm.”

Permissive translation:

“The LORD permitted Pharaoh’s heart to become hardened.”

The Hiphil Verb form in Deuteronomy 2:30 — “The LORD your God hardened his spirit.”

“But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him: for the LORD thy God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into thy hand, as appeareth this day.” (Deut 2:30)

Hebrew: וַיַּקְשֶׁה יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֶת־רוּחוֹ
Verb: קָשָׁה (qāshāh) in Hiphil = “to make hard.”

Again, the Hiphil can be permissive:

“The LORD allowed his spirit to become hardened.”

In Hebrew idiom, actions God does not prevent are often ascribed to Him as though He did them. This reflects God’s sovereignty but not direct causation.

My comment (not part of the AI response) on the statement above: see my statement in red below in the 1 Kings 22:23 section. On the paragraph above, I would say that the Hebrew idiom reflects the misunderstanding of people about the sovereignty of God; their belief that He controls everything that others do irrespective of their free will. Such a belief, if true, would discount the principle that God is love. See https://characterofgod.org/free-will-given-by-god/

The Hiphil Verb form in 2 Samuel 24:1 — “The anger of the LORD … moved David against them.”

“And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.” (2 Sam 24:1)

Hebrew: וַיָּסֶת אֶת־דָּוִד (wayyaset et-David)
Verb: סוּת (sûth) in Hiphil = “to incite, move.”

However, in 1 Chronicles 21:1, the same event is described differently:

“And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.”

This parallel clearly shows the Hiphil “incited” in 2 Samuel must be permissive — God allowed Satan to tempt David.
Chronicles explicitly identifies the true immediate cause.

Permissive sense:

“The LORD permitted David to be moved against Israel.”

The Hiphil Verb form in Psalm 81:12 — “So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust.”

“So I gave them up unto their own hearts lust: and they walked in their own counsels.” (Psa 81:12)

Hebrew: וָאֲשַׁלְּחֵם בְּשׁרִירוּת לִבָּם
Verb: שָׁלַח (shalach) in Hiphil = “to send, release.”

Clearly permissive — God is not forcing sin but allowing people to follow their own stubborn choices.

“I let them go their own way.”

Parallel in Romans 1:24 — “God gave them up” — also permissive.

The Hiphil Verb form in 1 Kings 22:23 — “The LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets.”

“Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee.” (1 Kings 22:23)

Hebrew: נָתַן יְהוָה רוּחַ שֶׁקֶר
Verb: נָתַן (natan) in Qal = “to give,” but contextually equivalent to allow.

Here God permits a lying spirit to operate — He does not cause lying.
This is consistent with His allowing freedom to both heavenly and earthly beings, while still retaining control of outcomes.

My comment (not part of the AI response) on the statement above: God, while He does allow freedom to all (love does not force), does not control outcomes. The outcomes are determined by the free-will choices and actions of individuals. This is not inconsistent with His sovereignty. What God controls, most importantly, is Himself, His own actions and decisions. His decision, based on His character of other-centered love, has determined that individuals should have free will and therefore He does not control the actions of others. He did not want a universe of robots. See more on God’s sovereignty.

Permissive sense:

“The LORD has permitted a lying spirit…”

The Hiphil Verb form in Ezekiel 20:25 — “I gave them statutes that were not good.”

“Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live;” (Eze 20:25)

Hebrew: וְגַם־אֲנִי נָתַתִּי לָהֶם חֻקִּים לֹא טוֹבִים
Verb: נָתַן (natan) again.

God did not make evil laws — He permitted them to follow false, destructive ones after rejecting His own.
Permissive meaning: “I allowed them to follow laws that were not good.”

The Hiphil Verb form in Isaiah 63:17 — “Why, LORD, do you make us err from your ways?”

“O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.” (Isa 63:17)

Hebrew: לָמָּה תַתְעֵנוּ יְהוָה מִדְּרָכֶיךָ
Verb: תַתְעֵנוּ from תָּעָה (ta‘ah) in Hiphil = “to cause to wander.”

Isaiah’s words are lament, not literal causation. The prophet means:

“Why have You allowed us to stray from Your ways?”

This is a heartfelt confession that God permitted their rebellion as consequence — not that He forced it.

End of interaction with AI.

My Final Comments

I wanted to make it very clear what was included in the AI response. Other than the two clarifications included, AI gave a very good response to the prompt. Remember, above, it said:

“Many theological misunderstandings come from reading Hiphil verbs as if God actively caused events that, in Hebrew idiom, He merely allowed or permitted.”

It seems that, on this point, artificial intelligence had a better understanding than natural intelligence. The problem is that wrong understandings of God’s character have resulted in mistranslations with resulting biases and, unfortunately, many have turned away from God as a result. The AI response involved no pre-conceived ideas or biases.

That the hiphil verb form expresses more permission than causation and, in general, that God often is only permitting where the translators speak of Him as the active agent has been well-recognized in the past. See this page with dozens of statements by Bible students and scholars to that effect.

The page you are reading is included in the Character of God and Gospel Glossary as it explains the factor of the hiphil verb form which is very important, even critical, to understand a number of terms in the glossary.

The AI response gave seven examples where a literal reading would lead people to have wrong impressions of the character of God. I suspect there are many more. If anyone wants to add others in the comments section, you are welcome to do so. Perhaps I will endeavor to compile a more extensive list. Let’s try to

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)

Rightly dividing often means going deeper than a simple surface reading. If we use God’s vocabulary, we should also use His dictionary/glossary because you need to know the meaning of the words to understand the message.

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