Reference: Stumbling Block
Morish
mikshol, ?????????. Anything placed in the way of another over which he might stumble and fall. It was forbidden in the law, and such things were to be removed out of the way of Israel. Le 19:14; Isa 57:14. Their iniquity, however, became a stumbling block to them. Eze 7:19; 14:3-7. In the church there should be care that nothing is practised by one that might cause another to stumble. Ro 14:13; 1Co 8:9.
Jehovah of hosts was to be a sanctuary for the believing remnant, but He would be "for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel," that is, He would become such through their unbelief in Jehovah's intervention through the virgin's child. Isa 8:14 (where the word is negeph, 'the act of stumbling'). When the Lord was on earth He became this stone of stumbling to the Jews, and remains the same to them and to the house of Israel where, through disobedient unbelief, He is still rejected. Ro 9:32-33; 1Pe 2:8. Any who through grace receive the gospel become Christians and are merged in the church. In connection with the same, the word ????????? is employed: this is literally 'the catch of a trap,' which being touched ensnares. Ro 9:33 (offence); Ro 11:9; 1Co 1:23; 1Pe 2:8 (offence).
The same word is used for the snare that Balaam taught Balak to lay for the Israelites. Re 2:14. It is also the word employed for the 'offences,' or snares, that must, by the nature of things, exist in the world for the feet of the saints. Mt 18:7; Lu 17:1; and in the remarkable instance when the Lord said to Peter, "Thou art an 'offence' unto me." Mt 16:23.