Hebrew word · H1496

גָּזִית

gazit

cutting

Hewn, dressed, squared stone (ashlar), from gāzaz / gāzâ, 'to cut'. It is used for the foundation stones of Solomon's temple and palace (1 Kgs 5:17 [Heb 5:31]; 7:9–12) and for altar stones that must not be hewn (Exod 20:25).

Appears 11 times in 11 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

a cutting, hewing

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Amos 5:11

Range of meaning

Hewn, dressed, squared stone (ashlar), from gāzaz / gāzâ, 'to cut'. It is used for the foundation stones of Solomon's temple and palace (1 Kgs 5:17 [Heb 5:31]; 7:9–12) and for altar stones that must not be hewn (Exod 20:25).

Against the English

BSB 'stone houses' loses the 'hewn/dressed' detail. Every Israelite house had some stone. What set these apart was the cut, fitted masonry.

Used elsewhere in the period

Excavations at Samaria and Megiddo have uncovered fine ashlar masonry in royal and administrative buildings of the Israelite monarchy. Ordinary houses used fieldstone and mudbrick. Isaiah 9:10 uses the same word for showy rebuilding: 'the bricks have fallen, but we will rebuild with dressed stone'.

From the study of Isaiah 9:10

Range of meaning

Hewn or dressed stone: blocks cut and squared with tools (ashlar masonry). It is linked to a root meaning “to cut or shear.” In the Bible it is consistently a high-status material.

Against the English

“Finished stone” (BSB), “cut stone” (WEB) and “hewn stones” (KJV) are all accurate. What English loses is the status: this was luxury, royal-quality masonry, not just stronger stone.

Used elsewhere in the period

1 Kings 5:17 and 7:9–12 (Solomon's temple foundations and palace); Exodus 20:25 (no altar of hewn stone); Amos 5:11, addressed to the same northern kingdom: “you have built houses of hewn stone, but you will not live in them.” Excavations at Samaria have uncovered fine ashlar masonry from the royal acropolis of the Omride kings.

From the study of Lamentations 3:9

Range of meaning

From a root meaning "to cut." It means stone cut and squared for building (ashlar masonry), and sometimes the cut work itself, as in YLT's "hewn work."

Against the English

BSB "cut stones," KJV/NASB "hewn stone," and some modern versions "blocks of stone." All of these are accurate. "Blocks of stone" loses the sense of skilled, expensive dressed masonry. A paraphrase like "a high stone wall" keeps the sense of a solid barrier but drops the dressed stone.

Used elsewhere in the period

Exod 20:25 forbids building an altar of gāzît. Solomon's Temple and palace were built of costly gāzît (1 Kgs 5:31 [Eng 5:17]; 6:36; 7:9, 11, 12; 1 Chr 22:2). In Isa 9:9 (Eng 9:10) the proud say, "The bricks have fallen, but we will rebuild with dressed stone." Amos 5:11 condemns the rich for "houses of hewn stone." Archaeology shows that Iron Age Israel and Judah used finely dressed ashlar mainly in royal and public buildings.

Where it appears

Exodus · 1

  1. Exodus 20:25 גָּזִ֑ית hewn [stone]

    Now if you make an altar of stones for Me, you must not build it with stones shaped by tools; for if you use a chisel on it, you will defile it.

1 Kings · 5

  1. 1 Kings 5:17 גָזִֽית׃ hewn [stone]

    And the king commanded them to quarry large, costly stones to lay the foundation of the temple with dressed stones.

  2. 1 Kings 6:36 גָזִ֑ית hewn [stone]

    Solomon built the inner courtyard with three rows of dressed stone and one row of trimmed cedar beams.

  3. 1 Kings 7:9 גָּזִ֔ית hewn [stone]

    All these buildings were constructed with costly stones, cut to size and trimmed with saws inside and out from the foundation to the eaves, and from the outside to the great courtyard.

  4. 1 Kings 7:11 גָּזִ֖ית hewn [stone]

    Above these were costly stones, cut to size, and cedar beams.

  5. 1 Kings 7:12 גָּזִ֔ית hewn [stone]

    The great courtyard was surrounded by three rows of dressed stone and a row of trimmed cedar beams, as were the inner courtyard and portico of the house of the LORD.

1 Chronicles · 1

  1. 1 Chronicles 22:2 גָזִ֔ית hewn [stone]

    So David gave orders to gather the foreigners in the land of Israel, from whom he appointed stonecutters to prepare finished stones for building the house of God.

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 9:10 וְגָזִ֣ית and hewn [stone]

    “The bricks have fallen, but we will rebuild with finished stone; the sycamores have been felled, but we will replace them with cedars.”

    Here: Squared, dressed stone blocks, the expensive masonry of palaces and royal buildings. The “and” here works as a defiant “but”: bricks fell, so we will build in ashlar (squared stone).

Lamentations · 1

  1. Lamentations 3:9 בְּגָזִ֔ית with hewn [stone]

    He has barred my ways with cut stones; He has made my paths crooked.

    Here: "With cut stone": squared, dressed masonry of the kind used in palaces, the Temple and fine houses, not a pile of field rubble. The barrier is solid, deliberate and permanent.

Ezekiel · 1

  1. Ezekiel 40:42 גָזִ֗ית hewn [stone]

    There were also four tables of dressed stone for the burnt offering, each a cubit and a half long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit high. On these were placed the utensils used to slaughter the burnt offerings and the other sacrifices.

Amos · 1

  1. Amos 5:11 גָזִ֛ית hewn [stone]

    Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact from him a tax of grain, you will never live in the stone houses you have built; you will never drink the wine from the lush vineyards you have planted.

    Here: Squared, dressed masonry (ashlar). Elsewhere it is used for temple and palace building. The houses are luxury buildings of royal quality, not ordinary homes.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.