פָּסַל

# Analysis of פָּסַל (pasal) — "to hew" The Hebrew verb פָּסַל (pasal) carries the basic meaning "to hew," describing the action of cutting or shaping material through forceful striking. This is a concrete, physical action rather than an abstract one, involving the deliberate carving or fashioning of something from a larger mass. The word appears six times throughout the biblical text, suggesting it was a recognized but not frequently employed term in Hebrew, likely because it referred to a specific craftwork activity rather than an everyday occurrence. The relative rarity of this word—appearing only six times in the entire Bible—indicates it was used for particular contexts where the act of hewing held significance. These limited occurrences suggest the word was preserved primarily when the text needed to describe skilled work involving stone, wood, or similar materials that required cutting and shaping. The consistent meaning across its uses points to a stable semantic field related to craftsmanship and material transformation, though without access to the specific biblical passages, the exact contexts and their theological or historical importance cannot be determined from the lexical data alone.