חָצַב
cha.tsav (H2672)
to hew
AI Word Study
# Analysis of חָצַב (chatsav): "To Hew" The Hebrew verb חָצַב carries the fundamental meaning of cutting or shaping material through forceful striking—"to hew." This is a concrete, physical action involving tool work against solid substances, primarily stone or wood. The word appears 25 times throughout the Hebrew Bible, suggesting it held practical importance in describing craftwork and construction activities in ancient Israelite society. The verb represents specialized labor that required skill and deliberate effort. When biblical writers needed to describe the fashioning of objects—whether stone tablets, wooden implements, or architectural elements—they employed this term to convey the active process of shaping raw material into finished form. This specificity distinguishes it from more general verbs for making or creating, marking חָצַב as the precise word for transformation through hewing rather than other methods of production. The 25 biblical occurrences indicate this was a vocabulary item worth maintaining in the language, likely because hewing remained a common activity in ancient Israel. The consistent presence of this word across the biblical text reflects a society where stone and wood working were regular features of daily life, construction, and religious practice—activities significant enough to warrant their own dedicated verb in Hebrew's semantic inventory.
AI synthesis uses only provided lexicon data -- never training knowledge.
and houses full of all good things which you didn’t fill, and cisterns dug out which you didn’t dig, vineyards and olive trees which you didn’t plant, and you shall eat and be full;
a land in which you shall eat bread without scarcity, you shall not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you may dig copper.
Solomon had seventy thousand who bore burdens, and eighty thousand who were stone cutters in the mountains;
and to the masons and the stone cutters, and for buying timber and cut stone to repair the damage to Yahweh’s house, and for all that was laid out for the house to repair it.
David gave orders to gather together the foreigners who were in the land of Israel; and he set masons to cut dressed stones to build God’s house.
There are also workmen with you in abundance, cutters and workers of stone and timber, and all kinds of men who are skillful in every kind of work;
Solomon counted out seventy thousand men to bear burdens, eighty thousand men who were stone cutters in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred to oversee them.
He set seventy thousand of them to bear burdens, eighty thousand who were stone cutters in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred overseers to assign the people their work.
The king and Jehoiada gave it to those who did the work of the service of Yahweh’s house. They hired masons and carpenters to restore Yahweh’s house, and also those who worked iron and bronze to repair Yahweh’s house.
He built towers in the wilderness, and dug out many cisterns, for he had much livestock; in the lowland also, and in the plain. He had farmers and vineyard keepers in the mountains and in the fruitful fields, for he loved farming.
They also gave money to the masons, and to the carpenters. They also gave food, drink, and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the grant that they had from Cyrus King of Persia.
They took fortified cities and a rich land, and possessed houses full of all good things, cisterns dug out, vineyards, olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate, were filled, became fat, and delighted themselves in your great goodness.
That with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever!
Yahweh’s voice strikes with flashes of lightning.
Wisdom has built her house. She has carved out her seven pillars.
He dug it up, gathered out its stones, planted it with the choicest vine, built a tower in the middle of it, and also cut out a wine press in it. He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.
Should an ax brag against him who chops with it? Should a saw exalt itself above him who saws with it? As if a rod should lift those who lift it up, or as if a staff should lift up someone who is not wood.
‘What are you doing here? Who has you here, that you have dug out a tomb here?’ Cutting himself out a tomb on high, chiseling a habitation for himself in the rock!”
“Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek Yahweh. Look to the rock you were cut from, and to the quarry you were dug from.
Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of Yahweh! Awake, as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. Isn’t it you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the monster?
“For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut out cisterns for themselves: broken cisterns that can’t hold water.
Therefore I have cut them to pieces with the prophets; I killed them with the words of my mouth. Your judgments are like a flash of lightning.