Niphal is the name given to one of the seven major verb stems in biblical Hebrew

Biblical Hebrew language

Biblical Hebrew , also called Classical Hebrew , is the archaic form of the Hebrew language, a Canaanite Semitic language spoken in the area known as Canaan between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Biblical Hebrew is attested from about the 10th century BCE, and persisted through...

. The designation Niphal comes from the form niph‘al for the verb pa‘al, “to do”. The nun

Nun (letter)

Nun is the fourteenth letter of many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew and Arabic alphabet . It is the third letter in Thaana , pronounced as "noonu"...

 (נ) prefix is characteristic of the QTL (perfect) conjugation, as well as of the participle. In the YQTL (imperfect) conjugation, the nun is (where possible) assimilated into the first root consonant and appears as a dagesh forte. In the imperative and infinitive construct, the prefix is a he

He (letter)

He is the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician , Aramaic, Hebrew , Syriac and Arabic . Its sound value is a voiceless glottal fricative ....

 (ה) instead of a nun. The infinitive absolute

Infinitive

In grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. In the usual description of English, the infinitive of a verb is its basic form with or without the particle to: therefore, do and to do, be and to be, and so on are infinitives...

 may be prefixed by either the nun or the he.

The Niphal stem usually denotes the passive

Passive voice

Passive voice is a grammatical voice common in many of the world's languages. Passive is used in a clause whose subject expresses the theme or patient of the main verb. That is, the subject undergoes an action or has its state changed. A sentence whose theme is marked as grammatical subject is...

 or the reflexive voice

Reflexive verb

In grammar, a reflexive verb is a verb whose semantic agent and patient are the same. For example, the English verb to perjure is reflexive, since one can only perjure oneself...

. However, some verbs, such as nacham (meaning “to repent” in the Niphal), may be better translated with the active voice.