Bible Dictionaries
Half

　　A. Noun.

　　 Chêtsı̂y (חֲצִי, Strong's #2677), “half; halfway; middle.” This word appears about 123 times and in all periods of biblical Hebrew. First, the word is used to indicate “half” of anything. This meaning first occurs in Exod. 24:6: “And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basins; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.” Second, chêtsı̂y can mean “middle,” as it does in its first biblical appearance: “And it came to pass, that at midnight [literally, “the middle of the night”] the Lord smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt …” (Exod. 12:29). In Exod. 27:5, the word means “halfway”: “And thou shalt put it under the compass of the altar beneath, that the net may be even to the midst [i.e., up to the middle] of the altar.”

　　 B. Verb.

　　 Châtsâh (חָצָה, Strong's #2673), “to divide, reach unto.” This verb appears about 15 times in biblical Hebrew and has cognates in Phoenician, Moabite, and Arabic. The word most commonly means “to divide,” as in Exod. 21:35: “… Then they shall sell the live ox, and divide the money of it.…”