Does the second syllable of the Pi’el, 3rd person, past, sing., have a Segol or a Tzere?

vechibes begadav (Num. 19:7) (‘and he shall launder his garments’) vechibes looks very much like a Pi’el, 3rd person, past, singular verb. Except for one thing: in tables of verbs (both that of R’ M. Ch. Luzzato (Sefer HaDikduk leRamchal, ed. Brieger N.Y. 1994) and those published as school texts nowadays) we find the second letter of the Pi’el, 3rd person, past, sing. has a Tsere. However, in the Tenach it is not always so. As a free-standing word chibes occurs twice in the Tenach, once where the trop indicates a pause, and once where it does not, and in both cases the Bet has a Tsere. However, it occurs 12 times with the prefix Vav, once where the trop indicates a pause, and 11 times where it does not, and in all cases the Bet has a Segol. In diber the Bet usually has a Segol, in some occurrences when it has trop indicating a pause there is a Tsere (which is a long vowel – sometimes a pause generates a long vowel), but it requires further study
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