STONE Stones
Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897) · International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)
THE DICTIONARY — Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897)
were commonly used for buildings, also as memorials of important events (Genesis 28:18; Joshua 24:26, 27; 1 Samuel 7:12, etc.). They were gathered out of cultivated fields (Isaiah 5:2; comp. 2 Kings 3:19). This word is also used figuratively of believers (1 Peter 2:4, 5), and of the Messiah (Psalm 118:22; Isaiah 28:16; Matthew 21:42; Acts 4:11, etc.). In Daniel 2:45 it refers also to the Messiah. He is there described as “cut out of the mountain.” (See ROCK.) A “heart of stone” denotes great insensibility (1 Samuel 25:37). Stones were set up to commemorate remarkable events, as by Jacob at Bethel (Genesis 28:18), at Padan-aram (35:4), and on the occasion of parting with Laban (31:45-47); by Joshua at the place on the banks of the Jordan where the people first “lodged” after crossing the river (Joshua 6:8), and also in “the midst of Jordan,” where he erected another set of twelve stones (4:1-9); and by Samuel at “Ebenezer” (1 Samuel 7:12).
THE FULL ARTICLE — from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), general editor James Orr — public domain, printed whole.
ston, stonz:
1. Hebrew and Greek Words:
(1) Chiefly 'ebhen, and lithos; but also, occurring rarely, 'eshekh (Le 21:20); tsur (Job 22:24), usually "rock"; tseror (2Sa 17:13); petros (Joh 1:42); psephos (Re 2:17). For cela`, usually "cliff," "crag," "rock," the King James Version, in Ps 137:9; 141:6, has "stone," but the Revised Version (British and American) "rock." For the King James Version "stones," cheres (Job 41:30), the Revised Version (British and American) has "potsherds."
See SELA.
2. Literal Usage:
The word is used of great stones (Ge 29:2); of small stones (1Sa 17:40); of stones set up as memorials (1Sa 7:12, "Eben-ezer," "stone of help"); of precious stones (Ex 35:9, etc.); of hailstones (Jos 10:11).
3. Figurative Usage: Of hardness: "I will take the stony heart out of their flesh" (Eze 11:19); of one smitten: "(Nabal's) heart died within him, and became as a stone" (1Sa 25:37); of weight: "A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty" (Pr 27:3); of dumbness: "Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise!" (Hab 2:19); of Jerusalem: "I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all the peoples" (Zec 12:3); of the corner-stone as a figure of high position:
"The stone which the builders rejected
Is become the head of the corner" (Ps 118:22).
(2) Used also anatomically of the testicles (Le 21:20; De 23:1; Job 40:17, pachadh, the Revised Version (British and American) "thighs").
Alfred Ely Day