Look to the rock you were hewn
from. Although “rock” (tsur) in biblical poetry is often an epithet
for God, the reference to Abraham and Sarah in the next verse suggests that the
poet has in mind here the human forefather and foremother of the people of
Israel. “Quarry” is never an epithet for God, and the fact that a rock juts up
(and is a masculine Hebrew noun) while a quarry is a cavity in the ground (and
a feminine Hebrew noun) further aligns the two metaphors with Abraham and Sarah
respectively. (Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, 3 vols. [New York: W. W.
Norton & Company, 2019], 2:793)
