to sink
ta.va describes going down into a substance or place, from a stone embedded in a forehead to people, gates, and feet in sea, mud, or ground.
The attested use chiefly depicts something going down into or becoming embedded in a physical setting: a stone enters a forehead, people and feet enter sea or mud, and gates enter the ground. It also occurs in prayers and judgment language involving engulfing depths or a snare, and in descriptions of bases and mountains as sunk.
Senses in use
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Going down into a physical setting · dominant
In 1 Samuel 17:49 the sequential imperfect occurs in the clause where the stone enters the Philistine's forehead; the APB renders that the stone “sank into his forehead.” In Exodus 15:4, Jeremiah 38:6, Jeremiah 38:22, and Lamentations 2:9, the forms occur with officers in the sea, Jeremiah in mud, feet in mire, and gates in the ground.
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Engulfment or entrapment in peril · common
Psalm 69:3 uses a first-person Qal perfect in a lament whose APB rendering speaks of weariness and a scorched throat, so the term's precise English contribution is not isolated. Psalm 69:15 places the first-person cohortative amid a plea that floodwaters not overflow, the depth not swallow, and the well not close over the speaker; Psalm 9:16 occurs where the APB says the wicked is “snared by the work of his own hands.”
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Sunk bases and mountains · occasional
Job 38:6 applies a Hophal perfect plural form to the earth's bases, asking on what they were sunk. Proverbs 8:25 uses the same supplied morphology in the statement that mountains were sunk before the hills.
In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB explicitly uses “sank” for the stone, officers, Jeremiah, feet, gates, bases, and mountains in 1 Samuel 17:49, Exodus 15:4, Jeremiah 38:6, Jeremiah 38:22, Lamentations 2:9, Job 38:6, and Proverbs 8:25. In Psalm 69:3 and Psalm 9:16, its whole-verse translation does not isolate the term's contribution.