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

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.