Cut; Cutting

(karath, gadha`, kachadh, nathach; apokopto, ekkopto): Many Hebrew words are translated "cut." Of these karath, "to cut down, out, off," is the most frequent. As "cut off" it is used in the sense of laying or destroying (Ge 9:11; De 12:29; 1Ki 11:16; Ps 101:8, etc.), also for cutting off transgressors from the community of Yahweh, which meant probably separation, or exclusion, rather than death or destruction (Ge 17:14; Ex 12:15,19). Other words are damam, "to be silent," "cease" Jer 25:37 the King James Version; Jer 48:2); tsamath "to destroy" (Ps 54:5 the King James Version; Ps 94:23, etc.); gadhadh, "to cut, one's self," is used of the cutting of one's flesh before heathen gods and in mourning for the dead, which was forbidden to the Israelites, (De 14:1; 1Ki 18:28; Jer 16:6; 41:5; 47:5); sereT, sareTeth, "incision," are also used of those "cuttings of the flesh" (Le 19:28; compare Le 21:5). See CUTTINGS IN THE FLESH. The cutting of the hair of head and beard in mourning for the dead is referred to in Isa 15:2; "Every, beard is cut off" (gadha`), and Jer 7:29, gazaz, "Cut off thy hair (the Revised Version, margin "thy crown"), O Jerusalem (compare Isa 22:12; Jer 16:6; Eze 7:18; Am 8:10). This early and widespread practice was also forbidden to the Israelites as being unworthy of them in their relation to Yahweh (Le 19:27; De 14:1).

Charosheth, "carving," "engraving," is used for the cutting of stones (Ex 31:5; 35:33).

In the New Testament we have apokopto "to cut away" (Mr 9:43,15; Ga 5:12 the King James Version; see CONCISION); diaprio, "to saw through" (Ac 5:33, "they were cut to the heart"); dichotomeo, "to cut in two" (Mt 24:51); suntemno, "to cut together" (Ro 9:28), "finishing it and cutting it short," i.e; "making it conclusive and brief."

Among the changes of the Revised Version (British and American) are "brought to silence" for "cut down" (Jer 25:37), also for "cut off" (Jer 49:26; 50:30); "sore wounded" for "cut in pieces" (Zec 12:3); for "cut off," "pass through" (Job 11:10), "gone" (Ps 90:10); "rolled up" (Isa 38:12); "cut off" for "destroy" (Ps 18:40; 69:4; 118:10-11,12); for "cut them in the head" (Am 9:1), "break them in pieces on the head of"; for "in the cutting off of my days" (Isa 38:10; Hebrew demi, "silence," "rest"), "noontide," margin "Or, tranquillity" (Gesenius, Delitzsch, etc., "in the quiet of my days"); instead of, "I would that they were even cut off which trouble you" (Ga 5:12), the English Revised Version has "cut themselves off," margin "mutilate themselves," the American Standard Revised Version "go beyond circumcision," margin, Greek: "mutilate themselves."

W. L. Walker