to hew: to cut into hard rock by striking it, breaking off or hollowing out the stone
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
This verb is the word for working rock by force. A worker swings a tool and drives it into stone, chipping and splitting it away rather than gently shaping it. From that one physical act the word spreads across a whole range of jobs: cutting blocks and pillars out of a hillside, digging a cistern or a tomb down into solid rock, prying copper ore out of the ground, and carving letters into a cliff face so they last.
The most common use names a trade. The one who does this work is a hewer, a stonecutter, and the participle form of the verb becomes the standard title for that laborer, especially in the accounts of gathering stone for the temple.
The same striking image also turns figurative. God is said to hew a people down through the words of the prophets, and to have cut the sea monster Rahab to pieces. In these places the verb keeps its violent edge: what is hewn is struck hard and broken apart.
Nuances
1ato quarry and cut stone: the work of stonecutters producing blocks and shaped pillars
the action is cutting into hard rock, as when a cistern or reservoir is carved down into stone2Ch 26:10
Both
both make a hole or hollow in the groundDeu 6:11
Only dig
dig in plain English suggests loosening or shoveling soft soil, missing that the material here is solid rock
“quarry”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“engrave”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How ḥatsav differs from similar Hebrew words
פסלcarves stone or wood into a finished shaped object, above all an idol or the stone tablets, where this word does the rougher cutting, quarrying, and hollowing.
the broad word for hewing and quarrying stone in bulk, and for cutting hollows out of rock such as cisterns and tombsDeu 6:11Isa 22:162Ch 26:10
Both
both describe dressing building stone for construction, the two words falling side by side in the account of preparing stone for Solomon's temple1Ki 5:151Ki 5:18
Cutting into rock: quarrying and dressing stone out of the mountain, the work of the mason.1Ki 5:15Isa 22:16
Digging out of the ground, hollowing wells and cisterns from the rock to hold water.Deu 6:11Jer 2:13
Both
Both are verbs for hewing raw material to prepare it for building, and both name the crews of laborers gathered for one great construction project.2Ch 2:102Ch 2:2
names skilled, deliberate cutting with tools: quarrymen cutting building stone and stonecutters preparing blocks for construction1Ki 5:151Ch 22:2
is the verb for patiently carving a hollow or shape out of rock: a cistern, a winepress, a tombJer 2:13Isa 5:2Isa 22:16
Both
both can describe breaking into hard rock, but they part on how: this word splits the rock open in one stroke to release water, while the other patiently hews a hollow out of itPsa 78:15Jer 2:13
names a sudden, forceful bursting open, often by God's power and on a grand scale: the sea splitting apart, the ground tearing open, the deep breaking upExo 14:16Num 16:31Gen 7:11
can describe a violent ripping apart with no tool at all, as when a city wall is breached in war or a body is torn open2Ki 25:42Ki 8:12
Names the work itself, so people can do it: kings raise and assign whole gangs of stonecutters to cut blocks out of the rock.1Ki 5:151Ch 22:22Ch 2:18
Reaches well beyond building blocks to any hollowing out of rock: cisterns already dug when Israel arrives in the land, a winepress cut into a vineyard's stone, a tomb carved high in a cliff face.Deu 6:11Isa 5:2Isa 22:16
Covers getting metal out of the ground, where what comes away is ore rather than usable stone.Deu 8:9
Is used for cutting a lasting inscription into rock with an iron tool, so that the words outlive the one who wrote them.Job 19:24
Carries the Bible's vivid pictures, which the plain building sense never does: God's words cutting his people down, the arm that cut the sea monster Rahab to pieces, and Israel told to look back at the rock it was cut from.Hos 6:5Isa 51:9Isa 51:1
Can set the tool against the worker to make a point about pride, asking whether an axe may boast over the arm swinging it.Isa 10:15
Both
Both belong to the trade of cutting building stone, and one verse can use the first for the men doing the cutting and the second for the blocks they supply.2Ki 12:12
Both turn up in the accounts of repairing the temple, where silver is paid out both for the labor of cutting stone and for the cut stone itself.2Ch 24:122Ch 34:11
Both assume hard rock that has to be struck and broken open, not stones gathered loose from a field, so both point back to a quarry.1Ki 5:152Ki 22:6
Names the material rather than the act: stone that has already been cut out of the rock and comes to the site as blocks ready to build with.2Ki 22:62Ch 34:11
Belongs to the account books of a building project, listed beside timber among the goods bought with the silver that was collected.2Ki 22:62Ch 34:11
Never appears in a picture or a figure of speech: every use is a plain note about supplies for repairing the temple.2Ki 12:122Ch 34:11
ḥatsav in the other biblical languages
λατομέωGreek“to hew”the Greek verb for hewing a tomb out of rock, the direct New Testament counterpart used of Jesus' burial place.
Covers the whole trade of quarrying and stonecutting, including dressing building stone for construction projects on a large scale.1Ki 5:151Ch 22:2
Reaches beyond stone to digging out cisterns and carving a winepress, the general labor of cutting into rock and earth.Deu 6:11Isa 5:2
Takes on vivid figurative force that the Greek word never carries: God cutting his people down through the prophets, striking the sea monster, and his voice splitting flames of fire.Hos 6:5Isa 51:9Psa 29:7
Both
Both name the act of hewing a tomb or sepulchre out of living rock. One describes a man carving his own resting place high in the cliff; the other describes the rock tomb prepared for Jesus.Isa 22:16Mat 27:60
In the New Testament it appears only for cutting a burial chamber out of solid rock. Both times it is the fresh tomb hewn from the cliff where Jesus was laid.Mat 27:60Mrk 15:46
What scholars say about ḥatsav
The standard lexica (BDB, HALOT, DCH) treat this as a single verb whose core sense is to hew or cut hard material, with the qal participle serving as the technical term for the stonecutter or mason. The range covers quarrying and dressing building stone, excavating cisterns, wells, tombs, and winepresses out of living rock, mining copper (Deut 8:9), and engraving (Job 19:24, niphal). The derived noun mahtsev denotes a quarry. Figurative extensions apply the violent cutting image to divine judgment (Hos 6:5) and to the defeat of the chaos monster Rahab (Isa 51:9).Psalm 29:7 is text-critically and interpretively difficult; the verb is generally read as hewing or cleaving out flames of fire.