Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898)
SAW. This tool, among the Hebrews, probably resembled that so often depicted upon the Egyptian monuments. It was only single-handled; the teeth ran in the opposite direction to ours, therefore the workman pushed the saw from him, as is the custom now in the East. Besides a saw for wood, Isa 10:15, there is mention of a kind for stone. 1 Kgs 7:9. Saws were used likewise as instruments of torture. 2 Sam 12:31; cf. 1 Chr 20:3; Heb 11:37.
Tradition asserts that in this manner the prophet Isaiah was killed, and history recounts instances of this use of the saw among the Egyptians, Persians, and Romans.