Bible Dictionary
STONE, STONES
Stones are rocks or pieces of stone used in buildings, memorials, altars, weapons, precious objects, and signs. Scripture also uses stone figuratively for hardness, heaviness, dumbness, judgment, and the exalted cornerstone.
Definition
A stone is a piece of rock used in many ways, including construction, memorials, altars, weapons, and ornament. Biblical usage includes great and small stones, precious stones, hailstones, and stones used as landmarks or signs. The word can also be used anatomically for the testicles.
Biblical Usage
Stone represents hardness, a heart made resistant, emotional collapse, heaviness, dumbness, and a burdensome power. The rejected stone becoming the head of the corner represents exalted position. Stones also serve as memorials, including Ebenezer, “stone of help.”
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>ston, stonz:</p><p>1. Hebrew and Greek Words:</p><p>(1) Chiefly 'ebhen, and lithos; but also, occurring rarely, 'eshekh (Le 21:20); tsur (Job 22:24), usually "rock"; tseror (2Sa 17:13); petros (Joh 1:42); psephos (Re 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."</p><p>See SELA.</p><p>2. Literal Usage:</p><p>The word is used of great stones (Ge 29:2); of small stones (1Sa 17:40); of stones set up as memorials (1Sa 7:12, "Eben-ezer," "stone of help"); of precious stones (Ex 35:9, etc.); of hailstones (Jos 10:11).</p><p>3. Figurative Usage: Of hardness: "I will take the stony heart out of their flesh" (Eze 11:19); of one smitten: "(Nabal's) heart died within him, and became as a stone" (1Sa 25:37); of weight: "A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty" (Pr 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:</p><p>"The stone which the builders rejected</p><p>Is become the head of the corner" (Ps 118:22).</p><p>See FLINT; ROCK.</p><p>(2) Used also anatomically of the testicles (Le 21:20; De 23:1; Job 40:17, pachadh, the Revised Version (British and American) "thighs").</p><p>Alfred Ely Day</p>