Saw

The saw appears in the canon as a cutting-tool worked in three distinct settings: a forced-labor implement laid on a conquered city, a precision stone-dressing tool for palace-quality masonry, an instrument turned against the body in martyrdom, and a figure of pride for the prophet's rhetoric.

A Forced-Labor Implement

After Rabbah falls to David, the saw heads the inventory of iron tools laid on the conquered Ammonite population. "And he brought forth the people who were in it. And he put [them to work] with saws, and with harrows of iron, and with axes of iron. And he made them serve making bricks" (2Sa 12:31). Saws stand first in the tool-triple, the iron-tool forced-labor regime is named explicitly, and brick-making closes the inventory.

Stone-Cut by Saws

In the description of Solomon's palace masonry, the saw is the dressing-tool for stone. "All these were of costly stones, even of cut stone, according to measure, sawed with saws, inside and outside, even from the foundation to the coping, and so on the outside to the great court" (1Ki 7:9). The sawed-with-saws phrase names the tool and the cutting-action, the cut-to-measure clause fixes the precision, and the inside-and-outside spread shows the same dressed finish on both faces of the wall.

Sawn Apart in the Faith-Witness List

In the Hebrews catalogue of those who suffered for faith, sawing is named as one of the deaths endured. "They were stoned, they were sawn apart, they were slain with the sword: they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated" (Heb 11:37). The sawn-apart predicate stands second in a stoning / sawing / sword-slaying triplet of execution-modes set inside a wider deprivation-list.

The Saw Against Its Wielder

Isaiah's rhetorical question turns the saw into a figure for pride against rightful authority. "Will the ax boast itself against him who cuts with it? Will the saw magnify itself against him who wields it? As if a rod should wield those who lift it up, [or] as if a staff should lift up [him who is] not wood" (Isa 10:15). The saw stands as one of two named carpenter-tools — paired with the ax — and the absurdity of the tool magnifying itself against its wielder is mapped onto the rod-of-anger Assyrian who has lifted himself up against Yahweh.