Hebrew word · H1504

גָּזַר

gazar

to cut

To cut, divide, sever (cutting the child in two, 1 Kgs 3:25; dividing the Red Sea, Ps 136:13). In the passive: to be cut off, excluded, finished. Later it also comes to mean 'decree', a 'cut' decision.

Appears 13 times in 13 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) to cut, divide, cut down, cut off, cut in two, snatch, decree

1a) (Qal)

1a1) to cut in two, divide

1a2) to cut down

1a3) to cut off, destroy, exterminate

1a4) to decree

1b) (Niphal)

1b1) to be cut off, separated, excluded

1b2) to be destroyed, cut off

1b3) to be decreed

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 Isaiah 53:8

Range of meaning

To cut, divide, sever (cutting the child in two, 1 Kgs 3:25; dividing the Red Sea, Ps 136:13). In the passive: to be cut off, excluded, finished. Later it also comes to mean 'decree', a 'cut' decision.

Against the English

'Cut off' in all major versions is accurate. It is not a soft word like 'removed'.

Used elsewhere in the period

Used of the dead cut off from God's hand (Ps 88:5, nigzārû), of the drowning speaker in Lam 3:54 ('I am cut off'), and of Uzziah 'cut off from the house of the LORD' by skin disease (2 Chr 26:21). The phrase 'land of the living' is close to Jer 11:19, where Jeremiah is 'like a gentle lamb led to slaughter' and his enemies plot to 'cut him off from the land of the living' (with a different verb, kārat).

From the study of Ezekiel 37:11

Range of meaning

In the active form: to cut or divide (the Red Sea divided, Psalm 136:13; cutting a child in two, 1 Kings 3:25). In the passive form used here: to be cut off or severed, especially from life, from the land of the living, or from God's care. Later Hebrew uses it for a decree that has been 'cut', that is, decided.

Against the English

'Cut off' in English can suggest being socially isolated or having a supply stopped. In Hebrew laments it is the language of death and the grave.

Used elsewhere in the period

Psalm 88:5: 'like the slain who lie in the grave … they are cut off (nigzaru) from your hand.' Isaiah 53:8: 'cut off from the land of the living.' Lamentations 3:54: 'waters closed over my head; I said, I am cut off (nigzarti).' 2 Chronicles 26:21: Uzziah 'cut off from the house of the LORD'.

From the study of Lamentations 3:54

Range of meaning

To cut or divide (1 Kings 3:25–26, cutting the child in two; Psalm 136:13, dividing the Red Sea). In the passive form it means to be cut off, separated or removed, usually by death. In later Hebrew and Aramaic it also means to decree (compare the noun gĕzērâ, "decree"; Job 22:28; Daniel 4:17).

Against the English

KJV, WEB and NASB: "I am cut off." ESV: "I am lost." NIV: "about to perish." BSB: "I was going to die." The paraphrases give the outcome, death, but drop the image of being severed and the link to the other "cut off" texts.

How it drifted

Today "cut off" can sound like emotional or social isolation ("cut off from friends"), and "I am lost" can sound like eternal damnation. Neither is the primary sense here.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isaiah 53:8: "he was cut off from the land of the living." Psalm 88:5: "like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more, for they are cut off from your hand." Ezekiel 37:11, from the same exilic period: "our bones are dried up, our hope is lost; we are cut off," said by the exiles as a people. Psalm 31:22 has a near-identical formula with the similar-sounding root gāraz, and some Hebrew manuscripts there actually read nigzartî.

Where it appears

1 Kings · 2

  1. 1 Kings 3:25 גִּזְר֛וּ cut

    and the king declared, “Cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other.”

  2. 1 Kings 3:26 גְּזֹֽרוּ׃ cut

    Then the woman whose son was alive spoke to the king because she yearned with compassion for her son. “Please, my lord,” she said, “give her the living baby. Do not kill him!” But the other woman said, “He will be neither mine nor yours. Cut him in two!”

2 Kings · 1

  1. 2 Kings 6:4 וַֽיִּגְזְר֖וּ and they cut down

    So Elisha went with them, and when they came to the Jordan, they began to cut down some trees.

2 Chronicles · 1

  1. 2 Chronicles 26:21 נִגְזַ֖ר he was cut off

    So King Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death. He lived in isolation, leprous and cut off from the house of the LORD, while his son Jotham had charge of the royal palace and governed the people of the land.

Esther · 1

  1. Esther 2:1 נִגְזַ֖ר it had been decreed

    Some time later, when the anger of King Xerxes had subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done, and what had been decreed against her.

Job · 1

  1. Job 22:28 וְֽתִגְזַר־ and you may decide

    Your decisions will be carried out, and light will shine on your ways.

    Here: Literally 'you will cut'. With a word or matter as its object it means to settle or resolve on something: to make up your mind about a course of action. The 'and' links it to verse 27 as one more blessing in a list that follows from returning to God.

Psalms · 2

  1. Psalm 88:5 נִגְזָֽרוּ׃ they are cut off

    I am forsaken among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom You remember no more, who are cut off from Your care.

  2. Psalm 136:13 לְגֹזֵ֣ר to [one who] cut

    He divided the Red Sea in two His loving devotion endures forever.

Isaiah · 2

  1. Isaiah 9:20 וַיִּגְזֹ֤ר and it devoured

    They carve out what is on the right, but they are still hungry; they eat what is on the left, but they are still not satisfied. Each one devours the flesh of his own offspring.

    Here: 'And he cut / hacked off.' It is a butcher's or woodcutter's verb, slicing a piece off something. Here it is someone carving off meat to eat. The supplied gloss 'devoured' reflects the context, but the verb itself means cutting, and the eating comes in the next verb.

  2. Isaiah 53:8 נִגְזַר֙ he was cut off

    By oppression and judgment He was taken away, and who can recount His descendants? For He was cut off from the land of the living; He was stricken for the transgression of My people.

    Here: Sliced off, severed. Used of a life cut short and of the dead cut off from God's care. It is a violent, final word.

Lamentations · 1

  1. Lamentations 3:54 נִגְזָֽרְתִּי׃ ס I have been cut off

    The waters flowed over my head, and I thought I was going to die.

    Here: "I have been cut off," spoken as if it has already happened. It is the language of death as being severed from "the land of the living" and from God's care (Isaiah 53:8; Psalm 88:5; Ezekiel 37:11). The ס after it is a scribal paragraph marker, not part of the wording.

Ezekiel · 1

  1. Ezekiel 37:11 נִגְזַ֥רְנוּ we have been cut off

    Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Look, they are saying, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished; we are cut off.’

    Here: The verb means to cut or sever. This form is used of the dead being cut off from the living and from God's care (Psalm 88:5; Isaiah 53:8; Lamentations 3:54). The exiles are saying, 'We are as good as dead.'

Habakkuk · 1

  1. Habakkuk 3:17 גָּזַ֤ר someone cuts off

    Though the fig tree does not bud and no fruit is on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though the sheep are cut off from the fold and no cattle are in the stalls,

    Here: 'Is cut off.' The flock is cut away from its fold, whether by death, disease or raiders. The text does not say which. The same verb is used for people 'cut off' from the land of the living (Isa 53:8; Lam 3:54).

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