CORNER, CORNER-STONE.1. The special sanctity which in the Hebrew mind attached to corners is to be regarded as an inheritance from certain primitive and widely-spread animistic conceptions. Several of these were taken up and, so to say, regularized in the later legislation (cf. the remarks on Azazel under Atonement [Day of]). Examples will be found in the ideas associated with the corners of the altar (Zec_9:15), usually termed the horns (Altar, § 7), the unreaped corners of the field (Lev_19:9; Agriculture, § 3), the corners of the beard and head-hair (Lev_19:27) and of the upper garment or cloak (Fringes).
2. Another illustration is found in the importance attached among many peoples to the corner-stone in the foundation course of every important building, which was laid with religious rites, including, in early times, the burial beneath it of a human victim (see House, § 3). The corrected text of Isa_28:16 speaks of a precious foundation corner-stone, which is neither Zion (as usually interpreted), nor the future Messiah, but a calm trust in J″ [Note: Jahweh.] ; hence the prophet adds he that trusts shall not be moved or put to shame (LXX [Note: Septuagint.] , cf. 1Pe_2:6 and Kittel, Bib. Heb.). Jer_51:26 and Job_38:6 both associate the corner-stone with the foundations. Hence the figurative use of the word for the chief men of the State, as its corners, i.e. supports and defences (Jdg_20:2, 1Sa_14:38 [cf. marg.], Isa_19:13 RV [Note: Revised Version.] , Zec_10:4). On the other hand, the stone of Psa_118:22 which became the head of the corner (RV [Note: Revised Version.] )the reference is to Zionis understood by many to be the corner-stone of the topmost course. (cf. the head stone of Zec_4:7, which is different from the foundation of Zec_4:9). In NT this passage and Isa_28:16 receive a Messianic application, Jesus Christ being both the foundation and the head of His Church (Mat_21:42 ||, Act_4:11, 1Pe_2:6 f.).
A. R. S. Kennedy.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909