Stone
Stones were commonly used for buildings, also as memorials of important events (Gen 28:18; Josh 24:26, Josh 24:27; 1 Sam 7:12, etc.). They were gathered out of cultivated fields (Isa 5:2; comp. 2 Kgs 3:19). This word is also used figuratively of believers (1 Pet 2:4, 1 Pet 2:5), and of the Messiah (Ps 118:22; Isa 28:16; Matt 21:42; Acts 4:11, etc.). In Dan 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 Sam 25:37).
Stones were set up to commemorate remarkable events, as by Jacob at Bethel (Gen 28:18), at Padan-aram (Gen 35:4), and on the occasion of parting with Laban (Gen 31:45–47); by Joshua at the place on the banks of the Jordan where the people first “lodged” after crossing the river (Josh 6:8), and also in “the midst of Jordan,” where he erected another set of twelve stones (Josh 4:1–9); and by Samuel at “Ebenezer” (1 Sam 7:12).
From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), by Matthew George Easton.
