Word study
Chisel
6 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: chisel, chiseled, chisels. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.
At a glance
How often each original word is translated “Chisel” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- פָּסַל pâsalhew, hew into shapetranslated this way 4 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s H6458Verb · Translated: Chisel 2, chiseled 2, quarried the stone 1, carve 1Full study and all 6 verses →
Exodus 34:1 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.
Deuteronomy 10:1 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.
- חָצַב châtsabhew, hew out, cleavetranslated this way 2 times of its 24 uses · Strong’s H2672Verb · Translated: stonecutters 7, dug 4Full study and all 22 verses →
Job 19:24 by an iron stylus on lead, or chiseled in stone forever.
Isaiah 22:16 What are you doing here, and who authorized you to carve out a tomb for yourself here — to chisel your tomb in the height and cut your resting place in the rock?
- חֶרֶב cherebswordtranslated this way 1 time of its 405 uses · Strong’s H2719Noun · Translated: sword 357, swords 27, knives 3, war 2Full study and all 368 verses →
Exodus 20:25 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.
- גַּרְזֶן garzenaxetranslated this way 1 time of its 4 uses · Strong’s H1631Noun · Translated: axe 3, chisel 1Full study and all 4 verses →
1 Kings 6:7 The temple was constructed using finished stones cut at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any other iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built.
- מַעֲצָד maătsâdaxetranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s H4621Noun · Translated: takes a tool 1, chisel 1Full study and all 2 verses →
Jeremiah 10:3 For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut down a tree from the forest; it is shaped with a chisel by the hands of a craftsman.
- מַקְצֻעָה maqtsuâhscraping tooltranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H4741Noun · Translated: chisels 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Isaiah 44:13 The woodworker extends a measuring line; he marks it out with a stylus; he shapes it with chisels and outlines it with a compass. He fashions it in the likeness of man, like man in all his glory, that it may dwell in a shrine.
How to study a word well
- Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
- Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.
Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.