Stone, Stones

STONE, STONES [ISBE]

STONE, STONES - ston, stonz:

1. Hebrew and Greek Words:

(1) Chiefly 'ebhen, and lithos; but also, occurring rarely, 'eshekh (Lev 21:20); tsur (Job 22:24), usually "rock"; tseror (2 Sam 17:13); petros (Jn 1:42); psephos (Rev 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 (Gen 29:2); of small stones (1 Sam 17:40); of stones set up as memorials (1 Sam 7:12, "Eben-ezer," "stone of help"); of precious stones (Ex 35:9, etc.); of hailstones (Josh 10:11).

3. Figurative Usage:

Of hardness: "I will take the stony heart out of their flesh" (Ezek 11:19); of one smitten: "(Nabal's) heart died within him, and became as a stone" (1 Sam 25:37); of weight: "A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty" (Prov 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).

See FLINT; ROCK.

(2) Used also anatomically of the testicles (Lev 21:20; Dt 23:1; Job 40:17, pachadh, the Revised Version (British and American) "thighs").

Alfred Ely Day