Reference: Stone
American
The allusion in Re 2:17 may be to the practice at the Olympic games of giving the successful competitor a white stone, inscribed with his name and the value of his prize; or to the mode of balloting with black and white stones on the question of the acquittal of an accused person, or his admission to certain privileges; if the stones deposited in the urn by the judges were all white, the decision was favorable. In early ages, flint-stone knives were in common use, instead of steel, Ex 4:25; Jos 5:2. It was also customary to raise a heap or mound of stones in commemoration of any remarkable event, Ge 31:46; Jos 4:5-7; 7:26; 8:29; 2Sa 18:17. The same custom still prevails in Syria, and passing travellers are wont to add each one a stone to the heap. See CORNER STONE.
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Jacob said to his relatives, "Gather stones." They took stones, and made a heap. They ate there by the heap.
Then Zipporah took a flint, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet; and she said, "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me."
Joshua said to them, "Pass over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you pick up a stone and put it on your shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel; that this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask in time to come, saying, 'What do you mean by these stones?' read more. then you shall tell them, 'Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever.'"
At that time, the LORD said to Joshua, "Make flint knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time."
They raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day. The LORD turned from the fierceness of his anger. Therefore the name of that place was called "The valley of Achor" to this day.
He hanged the king of Ai on a tree until the evening, and at the sundown Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree, and threw it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised a great heap of stones on it that remains to this day.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows but he who receives it.
Easton
Stones were commonly used for buildings, also as memorials of important events (Ge 28:18; Jos 24:26-27; 1Sa 7:12, etc.). They were gathered out of cultivated fields (Isa 5:2; comp. 2Ki 3:19). This word is also used figuratively of believers (1Pe 2:4-5), and of the Messiah (Ps 118:22; Isa 28:16; Mt 21:42; Ac 4:11, etc.). In Da 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 (1Sa 25:37).
Stones were set up to commemorate remarkable events, as by Jacob at Bethel (Ge 28:18), at Padan-aram (Ge 35:4), and on the occasion of parting with Laban (Ge 31:45-47); by Joshua at the place on the banks of the Jordan where the people first "lodged" after crossing the river (Jos 6:8), and also in "the midst of Jordan," where he erected another set of twelve stones (Jos 4:1-9); and by Samuel at "Ebenezer" (1Sa 7:12).
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And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head, and set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it.
And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head, and set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it.
Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar. Jacob said to his relatives, "Gather stones." They took stones, and made a heap. They ate there by the heap. read more. Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed.
They gave to Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hands, and the rings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.
It happened, when all the nation had completely passed over the Jordan, that the LORD spoke to Joshua, saying, "Take twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man, read more. and command them, saying, 'Take from out of the middle of the Jordan, out of the place where the priests' feet stood firm, twelve stones, and carry them over with you, and lay them down in the lodging place, where you will lodge tonight.'" Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man. Joshua said to them, "Pass over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you pick up a stone and put it on your shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel; that this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask in time to come, saying, 'What do you mean by these stones?' then you shall tell them, 'Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever.'" The children of Israel did as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the middle of the Jordan, as the LORD spoke to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel; and they carried them over with them to the place where they lodged, and laid them down there. Joshua set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests who bore the ark of the covenant stood; and they are there to this day.
It was so, that when Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams' horns before the LORD advanced, and blew the trumpets; and the ark of the covenant of the LORD followed them.
Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God; and he took a great stone, and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the LORD. Joshua said to all the people, "Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us; for it has heard all the words of the LORD which he spoke to us. It shall be therefore a witness against you, lest you deny your God."
Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, "The LORD helped us until now."
It happened in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, that his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.
You shall strike every fortified city, and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree, and stop all springs of water, and mar every good piece of land with stones.'"
The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
He dug it up, gathered out its stones, planted it with the choicest vine, built a tower in its midst, and also cut out a winepress therein. He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.
Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. He who believes shall not be put to shame.
Because you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God has made known to the king what shall happen hereafter: and the dream is certain, and its interpretation sure."
Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the Scriptures, 'The stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the head of the corner. This was from the Lord. It is marvelous in our eyes?'
He is 'the stone which was regarded as worthless by you, the builders, which has become the head of the corner.'
coming to him, a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God, precious. You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Hastings
STONE
I. In OT.
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They said one to another, "Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly." They had brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar.
And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head, and set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it.
And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head, and set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it.
then this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, will be God's house. Of all that you will give me I will surely give the tenth to you."
He looked, and behold, a well in the field, and, behold, three flocks of sheep lying there by it. For out of that well they watered the flocks. The stone on the well's mouth was large.
Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he spoke with him, a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink offering on it, and poured oil on it.
Then Zipporah took a flint, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet; and she said, "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me."
The LORD said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, 'Take your rod, and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, over their streams, and over their pools, and over all their ponds of water, that they may become blood; and there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.'"
But Moses' hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side. His hands were steady until sunset.
If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of cut stones; for if you lift up your tool on it, you have polluted it.
"If men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone, or with his fist, and he doesn't die, but is confined to bed;
The LORD said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain, and stay here, and I will give you the tables of stone with the law and the commands that I have written, that you may teach them."
You shall take two onyx stones, and engrave on them the names of the children of Israel:
With the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet, you shall engrave the two stones, according to the names of the children of Israel: you shall make them to be enclosed in settings of gold.
and in cutting of stones for setting, and in carving of wood, to work in all manner of workmanship.
They shall take other stones, and put them in the place of those stones; and he shall take other mortar, and shall plaster the house.
or hunchbacked, or a dwarf, or one who has a defect in his eye, or an itching disease, or scabs, or who has damaged testicles;
If he struck him with a stone in the hand, by which a man may die, and he died, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death.
then you shall bring forth that man or that woman, who has done this evil thing, to your gates, even the man or the woman; and you shall stone them to death with stones. At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he who is to die be put to death; at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death. read more. The hand of the witnesses shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall put away the evil from the midst of you.
You shall not remove your neighbor's landmark, which they of old time have set, in your inheritance which you shall inherit, in the land that the LORD your God gives you to possess it.
He who is wounded in the stones, or has his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the assembly of the LORD.
Take heed in the plague of leprosy, that you observe diligently, and do according to all that the priests the Levites shall teach you: as I commanded them, so you shall observe to do.
It shall be on the day when you shall pass over the Jordan to the land which the LORD your God gives you, that you shall set yourself up great stones, and plaster them with plaster:
There you shall build an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of stones: you shall lift up no iron on them. You shall build the altar of the LORD your God of uncut stones; and you shall offer burnt offerings thereon to the LORD your God:
Joshua said, "Why have you troubled us? The LORD will trouble you this day." All Israel stoned him with stones, and they burned them with fire and stoned them with stones.
He hanged the king of Ai on a tree until the evening, and at the sundown Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree, and threw it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised a great heap of stones on it that remains to this day. Then Joshua built an altar to the LORD, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal,
Joshua said, "Roll large stones to the mouth of the cave, and set men by it to guard them;
The border went up to Beth Hoglah, and passed along by the north of Beth Arabah; and the border went up to the stone of Bohan the son of Reuben.
Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God; and he took a great stone, and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the LORD.
The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh, and stood there, where there was a great stone: and they split the wood of the cart, and offered up the cows for a burnt offering to the LORD.
David put his hand in his bag, took a stone, and slung it, and struck the Philistine in his forehead; and the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth.
Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, and carpenters, and masons; and they built David a house.
He cast stones at David, and at all the servants of king David, and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left.
So David and his men went by the way; and Shimei went along on the hillside opposite him, and cursed as he went, threw stones at him, and threw dust.
The king commanded, and they cut out great stones, costly stones, to lay the foundation of the house with worked stone.
The king commanded, and they cut out great stones, costly stones, to lay the foundation of the house with worked stone.
and to the masons and the stone cutters, and for buying timber and cut stone to repair the breaches of the house of the LORD, and for all that was laid out for the house to repair it.
King Ahaz cut off the panels of the bases, and removed the basin from off them, and took down the sea from off the bronze oxen that were under it, and put it on a pavement of stone.
All the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in the place of his father Amaziah.
He made in Jerusalem engines, invented by skillful men, to be on the towers and on the battlements, with which to shoot arrows and great stones. His name spread far abroad; for he was marvelously helped, until he was strong.
and they conspired all of them together to come and fight against Jerusalem, and to cause confusion therein.
He moves his tail like a cedar. The sinews of his thighs are knit together.
The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
And he will be a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock that makes them fall to both the houses of Israel, for a trap and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Therefore the word of the LORD will be to them precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little; that they may go, fall backward, be broken, be snared, and be taken.
For the stone will cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the woodwork will answer it.
Who are you, great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you are a plain; and he will bring out the capstone with shouts of 'Grace, grace, to it.'"
And others fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of earth.
Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the Scriptures, 'The stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the head of the corner. This was from the Lord. It is marvelous in our eyes?'
They spat on him, and took the reed and struck him on the head.
And others fell on the rocky ground, where it had little soil, and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of soil.
And these are those who are sown on the rocky places, who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with joy.
But he looked at them, and said, "Then what is this that is written, 'The stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the chief cornerstone?'
He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him, and said, "You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas" (which is translated, Peter).
Now there were six water pots of stone set there after the Jewish manner of purifying, containing two or three metretes apiece.
He is 'the stone which was regarded as worthless by you, the builders, which has become the head of the corner.'
They threw him out of the city, and stoned him. The witnesses placed their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
coming to him, a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God, precious. You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. read more. Because it is contained in Scripture, "Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, chosen, and precious: He who believes in him will not be put to shame." For you who believe therefore is the honor, but for those who do not believe, "The stone which the builders rejected, has become the chief cornerstone," and, "a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense." For they stumble at the word, being disobedient, to which also they were appointed.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows but he who receives it.
Watsons
STONE. This word is sometimes taken in the sense of rock, and is applied figuratively to God, as the refuge of his people. See Rock. The Hebrews gave the name of "stones" to the weights used in commerce; no doubt because they were originally formed of stone. "Just weights," is therefore in Hebrew, "just stones." "The corner stone," or "the head stone of the corner," is a figurative representation of Christ. It is the stone at the angle of a building, whether at the foundation or the top of the wall. Christ was that corner stone, which, though rejected by the Jews, became the corner stone of the church, and the stone that binds and unites the synagogue and the Gentiles in the unity of the same faith. Some have thought the showers of stones cast down by the Lord out of heaven, mentioned several times in the Old Testament, to be showers of hail of extraordinary size; which was probably the case, as they even now sometimes occur in those countries in a most terrific and destructive form, and show how irresistible an agent this meteor is in the hands of an offended God. The knives of stone that were made use of by the Jews in circumcision, were not enjoined by the law; but the use of them was founded, either upon custom, or upon the experience that this kind of instrument is found to be less dangerous than those made of metal. Zipporah made use of a stone to circumcise her sons, Ex 4:25. Jos 5:2, did the same, when he caused such of the Israelites to be circumcised at Gilgal, as had not received circumcision during their journey in the wilderness. The Egyptians, according to Herodotus, made use of knives of stone to open dead bodies that were to be embalmed; and Pliny assures us, that the priests of the mother of the gods had sharp stones, with which they cut and slashed themselves, which they thought they could not do with any thing else without danger. Great heaps of stones, raised up for a witness of any memorable event, and to preserve the remembrance of some matter of great importance, are among the most ancient monuments. In those elder ages, before the use of writing, these monuments were instead of inscriptions, pyramids, medals, or histories. Jacob and Laban raised such a monument upon Mount Gilead in memory of their covenant, Ge 31:46. Joshua erected one at Gilgal, made of stones taken out of the Jordan, to preserve the memorial of his miraculous passage over this river, Jos 4:5-7. The Israelites that dwelt beyond Jordan also raised one upon the banks of the river, as a testimony that they constituted but one nation with their brethren on the other side, Jos 22:10. Sometimes they heaped up such a collection of stones upon the burying place of some odious persons, as was none in the case of Achan and Absalom, Jos 7:26; 2Ki 18:17.
A "heart of stone" may be understood several ways. Job 41:24, speaking of the leviathan, says, that "his heart is as firm as a stone, yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone:" that is, he is of a very extraordinary strength, boldness, and courage. It is said, 1Sa 25:37, that Nabal's heart died within him, and he became as a stone, when he was told of the danger he had incurred by his imprudence; his heart became contracted or convulsed, and this was the occasion of his death. Eze 36:26, says, that the Lord will take away from his people their heart of stone, and give them a heart of flesh; that is, he will render them contrite, and sensible to spiritual things. "I will give him a white stone," Re 2:17; that is, I will give him full and public pardon and absolution. It is spoken in allusion to an ancient custom of delivering a white stone to such as they acquitted in judgment. They used likewise to give a white stone to such as conquered in the Grecian games.
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Jacob said to his relatives, "Gather stones." They took stones, and made a heap. They ate there by the heap.
Then Zipporah took a flint, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet; and she said, "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me."
Joshua said to them, "Pass over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you pick up a stone and put it on your shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel; that this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask in time to come, saying, 'What do you mean by these stones?' read more. then you shall tell them, 'Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever.'"
At that time, the LORD said to Joshua, "Make flint knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time."
They raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day. The LORD turned from the fierceness of his anger. Therefore the name of that place was called "The valley of Achor" to this day.
When they came to the region about the Jordan, that is in the land of Canaan, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by the Jordan, a great altar to look at.
It happened in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, that his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.
I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows but he who receives it.