Biblical Hebrew Forum

["UUC" <unikom AT paco.net>]

Dear Harold,

hzv, again, has positive, creative connotation. The example you offered, 
Hos6:5, only proves my point: 

I hewed (hzv) them by the prophets

Prophets didn't kill or cut to pieces, they hewed people into good Jews.

Now, returning to Is51:9,

mahzevet is causative of hzv, so, made the one to hew, therefore,

Are not you the one who made the rahab (Egypt) who hews the stones (made 
pyramids?), [and the one who] shocks the crocodile (pharaoh; makes him 
tremble, or empties)

The meaning is that the power of Almighty is two-folded, to give and to empty 
of, to help and to make tremble.


Sincerely,

Vadim Cherny