Hebrew word · H6458

פָּסַל

pesol-

to hew

To hew, cut or dress stone (or wood) into a shape. The verb is rare: Exod 34:1, 4; Deut 10:1, 3; 1 Kgs 5:32 [5:18 Eng.], of Solomon's and Hiram's builders shaping temple stone; Hab 2:18, of an idol-maker shaping his image. The related noun pesel almost always means a carved cult image, an idol.

Appears 6 times in 6 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) to cut, hew, hew into shape

1a) (Qal) to hew, hew out, quarry

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 Exodus 34:1

Range of meaning

To hew, cut or dress stone (or wood) into a shape. The verb is rare: Exod 34:1, 4; Deut 10:1, 3; 1 Kgs 5:32 [5:18 Eng.], of Solomon's and Hiram's builders shaping temple stone; Hab 2:18, of an idol-maker shaping his image. The related noun pesel almost always means a carved cult image, an idol.

Against the English

“Hew” (KJV, YLT), “chisel out” (BSB, WEB, NIV), “cut (out)” (ESV, NASB). All are accurate. None can carry the echo of pesel, “carved image,” which a Hebrew hearer would catch, especially just after 20:4 (“you shall not make for yourself a pesel”) and the calf episode of chapter 32.

Used elsewhere in the period

Same verb in the parallel retelling, Deut 10:1, 3. In 1 Kgs 5:32 it is used of building stone, which shows the verb itself is neutral craft language. Hab 2:18 uses verb and noun together: “What profit is an idol (pesel) when its maker has shaped it (pesalo)?” Later rabbinic wordplay (b. Nedarim 38a) read pesol-lekha as “the chips (pesolet) are yours,” a legend that Moses grew rich from the stone chips. That is homiletic play, not the plain sense.

Where it appears

Exodus · 2

  1. Exodus 34:1 פְּסָל־ cut out

    Then the LORD said to Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the originals, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.

    Here: This is a command: cut or dress the stone into shape. It shares a root with pesel, “carved image/idol” (20:4), an echo that is hard to miss just after the golden calf. This time the stone Moses cuts will carry God's word, not stand as an image of a god.

  2. Exodus 34:4 וַיִּפְסֹ֡ל and he cut out

    So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the originals. He rose early in the morning, and taking the two stone tablets in his hands, he went up Mount Sinai as the LORD had commanded him.

Deuteronomy · 2

  1. Deuteronomy 10:1 פְּסָל־ cut out

    At that time the LORD said to me, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the originals, come up to Me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood.

  2. Deuteronomy 10:3 וָאֶפְסֹ֛ל and I cut out

    So I made an ark of acacia wood, chiseled out two stone tablets like the originals, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hands.

1 Kings · 1

  1. 1 Kings 5:18 וַֽיִּפְסְל֞וּ and they cut [them] to shape

    So Solomon’s and Hiram’s builders, along with the Gebalites, quarried the stone and prepared the timber and stone for the construction of the temple.

Habakkuk · 1

  1. Habakkuk 2:18 פְסָלוֹ֙ he has carved it

    What use is an idol, that a craftsman should carve it—or an image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak.

    Here: 'He has carved it.' This is the verb behind the noun pesel, so the sound repeats (pesel … pəsālô). The god is nothing more than what the chisel did to it.

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