HEWER

hu'-er (choTebh): Applies especially to a wood-worker or wood-gatherer (compare Arabic chattab, "a woodman") (Joshua 9:21, 23, 17 2 Chronicles 2:10 Jeremiah 46:22). Gathering wood, like drawing water, was a menial task. Special servants were assigned to the work (Deuteronomy 29:11). Joshua set the Gibeonites to hewing wood and drawing water as a punishment for their trickery, whereas were it not for the oath which the Israelites had sworn, the Gibeonites would probably have been killed.

See DRAWER OF WATER.

chatsbh, from the root "to cut" or "to carve," applies to hewers of stone in 1 Kings 5:15 2 Kings 12:12; 1 Chronicles 22:15 2 Chronicles 2:18.

James A. Patch