Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MASONS

Workers skilled in cutting stone for use in walls and buildings. Although ordinary men cut stone for use in their homes and other small-scale projects, skilled masons (Heb. gāḏar, ḥāṣaḇ, ḥāraš) were employed for special building projects. Well-dressed stones were used in royal constructions such as palaces, temples, and defensive city walls, projects that could afford workers specialized in the craft.

Phoenician masons were sent by Hiram of Tyre to build David’s palace in Jerusalem (2 Sam. 5:11 = 1 Chr. 14:1). Structures dating to the Solomonic period show high-quality work in the cutting of stones, as do the palaces of Omri and Ahab uncovered at Samaria. Hezekiah’s tunnel (2 Kgs. 20:20; 2 Chr. 32:30) shows high stone-cutting skills, as the masons carved into solid rock from both ends and worked toward the middle. Herod’s buildings in Jerusalem and elsewhere show high-quality masonry skills in both the cutting and laying of stones.

Skilled masons were able to cut stones for walls so accurately that they did not need mortar. As relatively soft stone was available in Palestine for building projects, it was used extensively in the foundations of building and city walls at many sites. At Hazor the native basalt (a hard, volcanic stone) was used to make orthostats for use in wall foundations and thresholds. In Egypt, where it was costly, stone was used to build temples and royal monuments, most notably the Giza pyramids. The limestone blocks used to build the Great Pyramid at Giza show high skill in stone-cutting; in many instances, the blocks were cut and laid so accurately that a razor cannot be passed through the seams between them.

Jennie R. Ebeling

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MASONS

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)