hewers of wood and drawers of water

Those who are used solely for manual labor or menial tasks at the behest of others. An allusion to a passage in the Bible (Joshua 9:21), in which the Gibeonites were condemned to servitude under the Israelites. This scholarship intends to show that, given the right tools and opportunities, the people in this region are destined to become more than hewers of wood and drawers of water. Under the dictatorship, members of the religious minority were not allowed to be anything but hewers of wood and drawers of water to the ruling class. The poor in the region have few options available to them—that's why they're usually hewers of wood and drawers of water for the wealthy.

hewers of wood and drawers of water

menial drudges; labourers.

This expression refers to Joshua 9:21, which tells the story of how the Israelites were tricked into sparing the lives of some of the indigenous inhabitants of the Promised Land: ‘And the princes said unto them, Let them live; but let them be hewers of wood and drawers of water unto all the congregation’.