חָטַב châṭab — to chop or carve wood
Translated in the KJV as cut down, hew, polish.
a primitive root; to chop or carve wood.
châṭab in each stem
Qal (Pa'al)
Participle (active) 6Infinitive construct 1Imperfect (yiqtol) 1
As when a man goeth into the wood with his neighbour to hew wood, and his hand fetcheth a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slippeth from the helve, and lighteth upon his neighbour, that he die; he shall flee unto one of those cities, and live:
Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel,
And the princes said unto them, Let them live; but let them be hewers of wood and drawers of water unto all the congregation; as the princes had promised them.
Pu'al
Participle (passive) 1
That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace:
What the stems mean
A Hebrew verb is its root letters set into a pattern. The pattern — the binyan — is the grammar's way of saying three things at once: whether the action is simple, intensive or causative, and whether its subject is active, passive or reflexive. That is why one Hebrew word can need six English ones. All seven binyanim, explained ›