Stones were used for buildings, memorials, boundary or covenant signs, and graves. Figuratively, Scripture uses stone for hardness of heart, firmness, believers as living stones, and Christ as the chief cornerstone.
Definition
A stone is a hard natural material used in building, memorials, boundaries, graves, and other practical purposes. Stones could also be gathered from cultivated fields or arranged in groups to mark significant events and agreements.
Biblical Usage
Scripture uses stone figuratively for hardness or insensibility, firmness, believers as living stones, and the Messiah as the chief cornerstone. Stones were raised as memorials by Jacob, Joshua, and Samuel, while the Messiah is described as the stone cut from the mountain and as the rejected yet foundational stone.
Historical Background
Stone memorials marked events at Bethel, Padan-aram, the Jordan, and Ebenezer. Stones were also used in treaty heaps and placed over graves. Their practical use in buildings and fields formed the basis for these symbolic applications.
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
Stones were commonly used for buildings, also as memorials of important events (Gen. 28:18; Josh. 24:26, 27; 1 Sam. 7:12, etc.). They were gathered out of cultivated fields (Isa. 5:2; comp. 2 Kings 3:19). This word is also used figuratively of believers (1 Pet. 2:4, 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 (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 (Josh. 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 Sam. 7:12).
