” Asah is used to refer to the creation of man in 16 and 26,..”
The two ideas, create and make are distinguished by two different words in Hebrew and translators for 400 years have recognized this difference by using two different English words.
No where in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament), that I have found, (perhaps you have?) is the word bara’ used except to mean create or bring into existence by God something that did not already exist.
Nor is ‘asah used to refer to creating. Rather ‘asah is used to to mean perform, to do, bring to pass, function.
Isa. 45:18 is such an example where bara’ and ‘asah are used,
“For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed1 it to be inhabited: I [am] the LORD; and [there is] none else.”
Create and made, not create equals made. Over and over there is a distinguishing between the two, not an interchange of meaning.
God can ‘asah, humans can ‘asah, but only God can bara’.
That is how the words are used, one distinguished from the other and a Bible dictionary will recognize this difference as I pointed to in Strong’s.
That all depends on the context. For instance, not only is asah used to refer to the creation of man (day six) in Genesis 1:16 and 1:26, but as I said before, asah and bara are also interchangeably used to refer to the creation of heaven and earth (day four) in Genesis 2:4:
"4 This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created (bara), in the day that the Lord God made (asah) the earth and the heavens,"
The context suggests that God means he was both creating and making, and thus either word can be used to refer to day four of creation. And in any case, neither word undermines a straightforward reading of Genesis re: creation week.
==Isa. 45:18 is such an example where bara’ and ‘asah are used,
Again, it would seem that God is indicating that he was both creating and making during creation week. As such, He can use both bara and asah to refer to the same creation event.
PS Synonyms can either be identical or similar.