sa.qal denotes killing or attacking by throwing stones, and in two passages clearing stones from land or a roadway.

The dominant attested use concerns stoning persons or an animal, often as an act resulting in death; the term also describes a threatened or hostile throwing of stones and, in two Piel passages, removing stones from cultivated ground or a highway.

1. Stoning as a lethal penalty · dominant

   In Deuteronomy 17:5, the Qal sequential perfect occurs in the instruction to bring the guilty man or woman to the gates; the APB renders the ensuing action, “you shall stone them to death with stones.” The same lethal outcome is explicit in the Pual perfects of 1 Kings 21:14 and 1 Kings 21:15, where Naboth “has been stoned and is dead,” and in Exodus 21:28 the ox “shall surely be stoned.”

   Deuteronomy 17:5Deuteronomy 22:21Deuteronomy 22:24Exodus 19:13Exodus 21:281 Kings 21:14
2. Throwing stones in hostility or threat · occasional

   In 2 Samuel 16:6, the Piel sequential imperfect describes Shimei's action against David and those with him; the APB renders that he “stoned David with stones.” In 1 Samuel 30:6, the Qal infinitive construct names what the distressed people were speaking of doing to David, while Exodus 17:4 presents Moses saying that the people were nearly ready to do so to him.

   2 Samuel 16:62 Samuel 16:131 Samuel 30:6Exodus 17:4
3. Clearing stones away · rare

   In Isaiah 5:2, the Piel sequential imperfect occurs in preparing a vineyard; the APB renders the clause “cleared it of stones.” In Isaiah 62:10, the Piel imperative directs the people preparing a highway to “clear it of stones.”

   Isaiah 5:2Isaiah 62:10

In the Anselm Project Bible: Across the legal and narrative contexts, the APB commonly renders the action with “stone” or “stoned,” often adding “with stones” and death. In Isaiah 5:2 and Isaiah 62:10 it renders the Piel clauses as clearing stones away; these renderings reflect whole-verse translation rather than word-by-word alignment.