H6456 — פְּסִיל (pesiyl)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: H6456
Original: פְּסִיל
Transliteration: pesiyl
Pronunciation: pes-eel'
Part of Speech: Masculine noun
Root: H6458 פָּסַל (pasal) — to carve, hew (wood or stone)
Occurrences: 24 unique verses (29 tokens) across 9 books
First Occurrence: Deut 7:5 — "ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire"
Hapax Legomenon: No

Lexicon Definition¶

From H6458 (pasal); an idol: carved (graven) image, quarry.

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Translation	Verses	%
graven image(s)	18	75.0%
carved image(s)	4	16.7%
quarries	2	8.3%

Note: The "quarries" rendering in Judges 3:19, 26 is debated; many scholars understand these as carved stones or sculptured monuments near Gilgal, not quarries.

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
Micah	2	1.9
2 Chronicles	5	0.6
Judges	3	0.5
Hosea	1	0.5
Deuteronomy	3	0.3
Isaiah	4	0.3
Jeremiah	4	0.3
2 Kings	1	0.1
Psalms	1	0.0

Concentrated in the Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Micah = 11 of 24 verses) and the Deuteronomistic history (Deuteronomy, Judges, 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles = 12 of 24). Absent from the Pentateuch outside Deuteronomy. The near-synonym H6459 (pesel) dominates in Exodus, Isaiah 40-48, and the Decalogue; pesiyl fills the slot in Deuteronomic reform language and prophetic denunciations.

Semantic Categories¶

1. Commanded Destruction of Pagan Images¶

Deut 7:5 — "ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire"
Deut 7:25 — "The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire"
Deut 12:3 — "ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place"

2. Royal Reforms — Physical Destruction of Idols¶

2 Chr 34:3 — Josiah "began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images"
2 Chr 34:4 — "the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images, he brake in pieces"
2 Chr 34:7 — "had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel"
2 Chr 33:19 — Manasseh "set up groves and graven images, before he was humbled"

3. Prophetic Judgment on Nations' Idols¶

Isa 21:9 — "Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground"
Jer 50:38 — "it is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols"
Jer 51:47 — "I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon"
Jer 51:52 — "I will do judgment upon her graven images"

4. Prophetic Denunciation of Israel/Judah's Idolatry¶

Isa 10:10 — "the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem"
Isa 42:8 — "my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images"
Mic 1:7 — "all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces"
Mic 5:13 — "Thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee"
Hos 11:2 — "they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images"
Psa 78:58 — "they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images"

5. Personal Repentance — Voluntary Defilement/Rejection of Idols¶

Isa 30:22 — "Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth"

6. Narrative — Cultic Objects in Judges¶

Judg 18:17 — "took the graven image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image"
Judg 3:19 — "turned again from the quarries that were by Gilgal" (possibly sculptured stones/idols)
Judg 3:26 — "passed beyond the quarries, and escaped unto Seirath"

7. Generational Idolatry¶

2 Ki 17:41 — "these nations feared the LORD, and served their graven images, both their children, and their children's children"
2 Chr 33:22 — "Amon sacrificed unto all the carved images which Manasseh his father had made"

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Typical Pattern
אֲשֵׁרָה (asherah)	H842	6x (25%)	Listed alongside asherah poles as items to destroy
מַסֵּכָה (massekah)	H4541	4x (17%)	"carved images and molten images" — paired contrasts
מִזְבֵּחַ (mizbeach)	H4196	4x (17%)	Altars and images destroyed together
שָׂרַף (saraph)	H8313	4x (17%)	"burn the graven images with fire"
אֵשׁ (esh)	H784	4x (17%)	Fire as means of idol destruction
גָּדַע (gada)	H1438	4x (17%)	"cut down" the graven images
נָתַץ (nathats)	H5422	4x (17%)	"break down" / "overthrow" the images
שָׁבַר (shabar)	H7665	4x (17%)	"break in pieces" the images
בָּמָה (bamah)	H1116	3x (12%)	High places as context for idol worship

The collocations paint a clear picture: pesiyl appears overwhelmingly in destruction contexts — burning (saraph + esh), breaking (shabar, nathats), cutting down (gada) — alongside other cult objects (asherah poles, altars, high places, molten images).

Word Family / Cognates¶

H6458 פָּסַל (pasal) — root verb: to carve, hew (6 occurrences; used for hewing the stone tablets in Exod 34:1, 4; Deut 10:1, 3; and for idol-making in Hab 2:18)
H6459 פֶּסֶל (pesel) — sibling noun from same root: carved/graven image (31 occurrences). The more common form; appears in the Decalogue (Exod 20:4; Deut 5:8), Deuteronomy 27:15, and heavily in Isaiah 40-48

Synonyms¶

אֲשֵׁרָה (H842)
הֶבֶל (H1892)
מַסֵּכָה (H4541)
מַצֵּבָה (H4676)
עָצָב (H6091)

Antonyms¶

No antonyms were returned by search_relationships.py for H6456.

Easily Confused Words¶

Word	Strong's	Shared Translation	Key Difference
פֶּסֶל (pesel)	H6459	"graven image"	Same root, nearly synonymous. Pesel is the standard/dominant form (31v); pesiyl is a variant form concentrated in Deuteronomic history and prophetic denunciation
מַסֵּכָה (massekah)	H4541	"molten image"	Massekah = a cast/poured metal image; pesiyl = a carved image. Often paired as complementary terms (2 Chr 34:3-4; Isa 30:22)
עָצָב (atsab)	H6091	"idol" / "image"	Atsab emphasizes the crafted product of human labor; pesiyl emphasizes the carving/sculpting process. Atsab is Hosea/Psalms-heavy
גִּלּוּלִים (gillulim)	H1544	"idols"	Contemptuous Ezekiel term (from "dung pellet" or "log"); conveys repulsiveness. Pesiyl is more neutral, describing the manufacturing method

Semantic Domains¶

UBS / Relationship Domains¶

[001002008001010] Images — the primary idolatrous-image field returned by search_relationships.py.
[001002008001006] Cult Objects — the broader cult-object field that groups pesiyl with other false-worship artifacts.

LXX Mapping¶

Greek Equivalent	Co-occurrences	PMI Score	Notes
εἴδωλον (eidolon) G1497	4	9.64	"idol" — highest-scoring alignment
ὑψηλός (hypselos) G5308	4	7.40	"high/lofty" — contextual (high places)
συντρίβω (syntribo) G4937	4	7.36	"crush/shatter" — destruction verb, not translation
κατακαίω (katakaio) G2618	3	7.17	"burn down" — destruction verb, not translation

The LXX primarily renders pesiyl as εἴδωλον (idol), the generic Greek term for idol images. The other high-PMI alignments reflect the destruction context rather than direct translation of pesiyl itself.