Corner
Corner
The words thus translated in our version of the Bible are the following:
1. , pinnah’, signifies properly a pinnacle, as shooting tap (2Ch 26:15; Zep 1:16; Zep 3:6); hence an angle, properly exterior, as of a house (Job 1:19), of a street (Pro 7:8); also interior, as of a roof (Pro 21:9; Pro 25:24), of a court (Eze 42:20), of a city (2Ch 28:24). It is put metaphorically for a prince or chief of the people (1Sa 14:38; Jdg 20:2; Isa 19:13). The abbreviated form, , pen, occurs Pro 7:8; Zec 14:10.
2. , peah, properly the mouth, then the face; hence, generally, a side of anything (especially a point of the compass, as on the east side, i.e. eastward, the four corners standing for the whole extent), or region, as of the face (part, Lev 13:41); of country (corners, Neh 9:22, i.e. various districts of the promised land allotted to the Israelites; so corner of Moab, Jer 48:15, i.e. that country: and in the plural, corners [literally, the two sides] of Moab, Num 24:17, the whole land). Secondarily it denotes the extreme part of anything, as of a field (Lev 19:9; Lev 23:22), of the sacred table (Exo 25:26; Exo 37:13), of a couch or divan, the place of honor (Amo 3:12). The corners of the head and beard (Lev 19:27; Lev 21:5) were doubtless the extremities of the hair and whiskers running around the ears, which the Jews were forbidden to cut or shave off round, like the clipped ear-locks (mistranslated utmost corners, Jer 9:26; Jer 25:23; Jer 49:32) of the heathen and the ancient Arabs of the desert (Herod. 3, 8). Illustrations of this fashion are still extant; indeed, Mr. Osburn (in his Ancient Egypt, p. 125) seems to have identified some figures on the Egyptian monuments with the ancient Hittites, one of the very tribes here alluded to, and who are exhibited as wearing helmets or skull-caps of a peculiar form, so as to leave exposed this peculiar national badge. They appear to have had a hideous custom of shaving a square place just above the ear, leaving the hair on the side of the face and the whiskers, which hung down in a plaited lock.
3. , kanaph’, a wing (as elsewhere often), is used in Isa 11:12; Eze 7:7, to express the four corners of the earth, or the whole land.
4. , katheph’, a shoulder or side (as often elsewhere), occurs in 2Ki 11:11, in speaking of the opposite parts of the Temple.
5. , miktso’ (literally cut off or bent), an angle, spoken of the external extremities of the tabernacle (Exo 26:24; Exo 36:29), and the internal ones of a court (Eze 41:22; Eze 46:21-22); also of a bend or turning of a wall, conventionally applied apparently to the intersection of the internal wall of Jerusalem skirting Mount Zion on the east, with the continuation of that on the northern brow towards the Temple (2Ch 26:9; Neh 3:19-20; Neh 3:24-25). A kindred form occurs in the last clause of Eze 41:22, where some render four-square.
6. , PA’AM (literally a step, usually a time or instance), spoken of the four corners of the sacred ark (Exo 25:12), and of the brazen laver (1Ki 7:30).
7. , tsela’ (literally a rib or side, as often elsewhere), spoken of either extremity of each side of the altar of incense (Exo 30:4; Exo 37:27).
8. , katsah’, an end (as elsewhere usually), spoken of the four corners of the same (Exo 27:4).
9. , zavith’, spoken of the corners of the altar (Zec 9:15); fig. of the corner colunmns of a palace (Psa 144:12, that our daughters may be as cornerstones), finely sculptured, in allusion probably to the caryatides, or columns, representing female figures, so common in Egyptian architecture (the point of comparison lying in the slenderness and tallness combined with elegance, comp. Son 5:15; Son 7:8).
10. The Greek word signifies properly an angle, either exterior, as when streets meet, forming a square or place of public resort (Mat 6:5), or interior, a dark recess, put for secrecy (Act 26:26). The four corners of the earth denote the whole land or world, as in No. 1 above (Rev 7:1; quarters, 20:8). On the head of the corner, SEE CORNERSTONE below.
11. The corners of the great sheet in Peter’s vision (Act 10:11; Act 11:5) represent a different word in the original, , which has elsewhere usually the signification of beginning.
The , peah’, or corner,’ i.e. of the field, was not allowed (Lev 19:9) to be wholly reaped. The law gave a right to the poor to carry off what was so left, and this was a part of the maintenance from the soil to which that class were entitled. Similarly the gleaning of fields and fruit-trees, and the taking of a sheaf accidentally left on the ground, were secured to the poor and the stranger by law (23:22; Deu 24:19-21). SEE GLEANING.
These seem to us, amid the sharply defined legal rights of which alone civilization is cognizant, loose and inadequate provisions for the relief of the poor. But custom and common law had probably ensured their observance (Job 24:10) previously to the Mosaic enactment, and continued for a long but indefinite time to give practical force to the statute. Nor were the poor,’ to whom appertained the right, the vague class of sufferers whom we understand by the term. On the principles of the Mosaic polity, every Hebrew family had a hold on a certain fixed estate, and could by no ordinary and casual calamity be wholly beggared. Hence its indigent members had the claims of kindred on the corners,’ etc., of the field which their landed brethren reaped. Similarly the stranger’ was a recognized dependent; within thy gates’ being his expressive description, as sharing, though not by any tie of blood, the domestic claim. There was thus a further security for the maintenance of the right in its definite and ascertainable character. Neither do we discover in the earlier period of the Hebrew polity, closely detailed as its social features are, any general traces of agrarian distress and the unsafe condition of the country which results from it such, for instance, as is proved by the banditti of the Herodian period. David, a popular leader (1Sa 18:30; 1Sa 21:11), could only muster from four to six hundred men out of all Judah, though every one that was in distress, in debt, and every one that was discontented,’ came to him (1Sa 22:2; 1Sa 25:13). Further, the position of the Levites, who had themselves a similar claim on the produce of the land, but no possession in its soil, would secure their influence as expounders, teachers, and, in part, administrators of the law, in favor of such a claim. In the later period of the prophets their constant complaints concerning the defrauding of the poor (Isa 10:2; Amo 5:11; Amo 8:6) seem to show that such laws had lost their practical force. (These two passages, speaking of taking burdens of wheat from the poor,’ and of selling the refuse [] of the wheat,’ i.e. perhaps the gleanings, seem to point to some special evasion of the harvest laws.)
Still later, under the Scribes, minute legislation fixed one sixtieth as the portion of a field which was to be left for the legal corner,’ but provided also (which seems hardly consistent) that two fields should not be so joined as to leave one corner only where two should fairly be reckoned. The proportion being thus fixed, all the grain might be reaped, and enough to satisfy the regulation subsequently separated from the whole crop. This corner’ was, like the gleaning, tithe-free. Certain fruit-trees, e.g. nuts, pomegranates, vines, and olives, were deemed liable to the law of the corner. Maimonides, indeed, lays down the principle (Constitutiones de donis pauperam, cap. 2:1) that whatever crop or growth is fit for food, is kept, and gathered all at once, and carried into store, is liable to that law. A Gentile holding land in Palestine was not deemed liable to the obligation. As regards Jews, an evasion seems to have been sanctioned as follows: Whatever field was consecrated to the Temple and its services was held exempt from the claim of the poor; an owner might thus consecrate it while the crop was on it, and then redeem it, when in the sheaf, to his own use. Thus the poor would lose the right to the corner.’ This reminds us of the Corban’ (Mar 7:11). For further information, SEE AGRICULTURE. The treatise Peak, in the Mishna, may likewise be consulted, especially chap. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; II, 4:7; also the above-quoted treatise of Maimonides. SEE HARVEST.
The CORNER-GATE ( ) of Jerusalem, spoken of in 2Ki 14:13; 2Ch 26:9; Jer 31:38, was on the N.W. side of the ancient city, in Josephus’s second wall, and between the present sites of Calvary and the Damascus Gate. (See Strong’s Harmony and Exposition of the Gospels, Appendix 2, p. 17.) SEE JERUSALEM.
CORNER-STONE ( , Job 38:6; Isa 28:16; Sept. and N.T. ), a quoin or block of great importance in binding together the sides of a building. (On Psa 144:12, see No. 9 above.) Some of the corner-stones in the ancient work of the temple foundations are 17 or 19 feet long, and 7.5 feet thick (Robinson, Researches, 1:422). Cornerstones are usually laid sideways and endways alternately, so that the end of one appears above or below the side-face of the next. At Nineveh the corners are sometimes formed of one angular stone (Layard, Nineveh, 2:201). The corresponding expression, head of the corner ( ), in Psa 118:22, is by some understood to mean the coping or ridge, coign of, vantage, i.e. topstone of a building; but as in any part a corner- stone must of necessity be of great importance, the phrase corner-stone is sometimes used to denote any principal person, as the princes of Egypt (Isa 19:13), and is thus applied to our Lord, who, having been once rejected, was afterward set in the highest honor (Mat 21:42; see Grotius on Psalms 118; comp. Harmer, Obs. 2:356). The symbolical title of chief corner-stone ( ) is also applied to Christ in Eph 2:20, and 1Pe 2:8; 1Pe 2:16, which last passage is a quotation from Isa 28:16, where the Sept. has the same words. The cornerstone, or half-underlying buttress, properly makes no part of the foundation, from which it is distinguished in Jeremiah 2:56; though, as the edifice rests thereon, it may be so called. Sometimes it denotes those massive slabs which, being placed towards the bottom of any wall, serve to bind the work together, as in Isa 28:16. Of these there were often two layers, without cement or mortar (Bloomfield, Recens. Synop. on Eph 2:20). Christ is called a corner-stone,
(1.) In reference to his being the foundation of the Christian faith (Eph 2:20);
(2.) In reference to the importance and conspicuousness of the place he occupies (1Pe 2:6); and
(3.) Since men often stumble against a projecting corner-stone, Christ is therefore so called, because his gospel will be the cause of aggravated condemnation to those who reject it (Mat 21:44). SEE STUMBLING-STONE.
The prophet (Zec 10:4), speaking of Judah, after the return from the exile, says, out of him came [i.e. shall come] forth the corner [i.e. prince], out of him the nail; probably referring ultimately to the corner- stone, the Messiah.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Corner
The angle of a house (Job 1:19) or a street (Prov. 7:8). “Corners” in Neh. 9:22 denotes the various districts of the promised land allotted to the Israelites. In Num. 24:17, the “corners of Moab” denotes the whole land of Moab. The “corner of a field” (Lev. 19:9; 23:22) is its extreme part, which was not to be reaped. The Jews were prohibited from cutting the “corners,” i.e., the extremities, of the hair and whiskers running round the ears (Lev. 19:27; 21:5). The “four corners of the earth” in Isa. 11:12 and Ezek. 7:2 denotes the whole land. The “corners of the streets” mentioned in Matt. 6:5 means the angles where streets meet so as to form a square or place of public resort.
The corner gate of Jerusalem (2 Kings 14:13; 2 Chr. 26:9) was on the north-west side of the city.
Corner-stone (Job 38:6; Isa. 28:16), a block of great importance in binding together the sides of a building. The “head of the corner” (Ps. 118:22, 23) denotes the coping, the “coign of vantage”, i.e., the topstone of a building. But the word “corner stone” is sometimes used to denote some person of rank and importance (Isa. 28:16). It is applied to our Lord, who was set in highest honour (Matt. 21:42). He is also styled “the chief corner stone” (Eph. 2:20; 1 Pet. 2:6-8). When Zechariah (10:4), speaking of Judah, says, “Out of him came forth the corner,” he is probably to be understood as ultimately referring to the Messiah as the “corner stone.” (See TEMPLE, SOLOMON’S
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Corner
A merciful provision of the law left the grainers of the fields and whatever crop was on them to be enjoyed by the poor (Lev 19:9). So also gleanings of fields and fruit trees (Lev 23:22; Deu 24:19-21). Such regulations diminished, much the amount of poverty. In David’s time only 500 or 600 in debt or distress joined him out of all Judaea (1Sa 21:11). Later the prophets constantly complain of the rich defrauding the poor (Isa 3:14-15; Isa 10:2; Amo 5:11).
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
Corner
korner (, mikcoa, , pe’ah, , pinnah; , arche, , gona, , akrogoniaos): In Exo 26:24; Eze 41:22; Eze 46:21, Eze 46:22, mikcoa, angle is translated corner; pe’ah, side, quarter and pinnah corner, front, chief, are more frequently so translated, e.g. Exo 25:26; Lev 19:9; Jer 9:26; Jer 25:23; and Exo 27:2; 1Ki 7:34; Psa 118:22; Isa 28:16 (corner-stone); Jer 51:26. Other words are kanaph, wing (Isa 11:12; Eze 7:2); katheph, shoulder (2Ki 11:11 the King James Version, twice); paam, foot (Exo 25:12 the King James Version); zawyoth, corner-stones (Psa 144:12; Zec 9:15, translated corners).
For corner the Revised Version (British and American) has side (Exo 36:25), corner-stone (Zec 10:4), also for stay (Isa 19:13); instead of teacher removed into a corner (Isa 30:20), be hidden, hide themselves; for corners we have feet (Exo 25:12; 1Ki 7:30); ribs (Exo 30:4; Exo 37:27); for divide into corners (Neh 9:22), allot after their portions; for into corners (Deu 32:26), afar; the words to Israel (Isa 41:9) called thee from the chief men ‘aclm thereof are rendered by the Revised Version (British and American) called thee from the corners thereof (of the earth).
In the New Testament we have gonia (angle, corner), in the corners of the streets (Mat 6:5), the head of the corner (Mat 21:42), the four corners of the earth (Rev 7:1; Rev 20:8); arche (a beginning) (Act 10:11; Act 11:5); chief corner stone (Eph 2:20; 1Pe 2:6), is a translation of akrogoniaios (at the extreme angle).
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Corner
Corner. According to the Mosaic law, it was forbidden to reap the corners of the field, so that there might be gleanings for the poor. Lev 19:9; Lev 23:22. The “corner of the house-top,” Pro 21:9, is a narrow place exposed to sun and rain, contrasted with the wide room or house below. The word “corner” in the phrase “corners of Moab,” or of any other country, Num 24:17; Jer 48:45, means the length and breadth of the country, and also of the world. “Corner of a bed,” Amo 3:12, the corner of a room; was on the elevated part (used by night for a bed or couch), and contained the most honorable seat, in the passage last cited it figuratively denotes the most proud and luxurious of the Israelites in Samaria. In Zec 10:4 the word “corner” is used to denote either the cornerstone or the most conspicuous part of a building, and evidently refers to Christ, Mat 21:42.
Cornerstone. Job 38:6. Christ is called “the corner-stone of the Church,” because he gives strength and unity to the whole structure of God’s house. Comp. Eph 2:20; 1Pe 2:6; Mat 21:42; Rom 9:32-33; 1Co 1:23.
Fuente: People’s Dictionary of the Bible
Corner
Corner. The “corner” of the field was not allowed, Lev 19:9, to be wholly reaped. It formed a right of the poor to carry off what was so left, and this was a part of the maintenance from the soil to which that class were entitled. Under the scribes, minute legislation fixed one-sixtieth as the portion of a field which was to be left for the legal “corner.” The proportion being thus fixed, all the grain might be reaped, and enough to satisfy the regulation, subsequently, separated from the whole crop. This “corner” was, like the gleaning, tithe-free.
Fuente: Smith’s Bible Dictionary
Corner
Amo 3:12. Sitting in the corner is a stately attitude. The place of honour is the corner of the room, and there the master of the house sits and receives his visitants.
Fuente: Biblical and Theological Dictionary
Corner
Isa 11:12 (b) This expression is used to describe every part of the earth. It is an idiom easily understood. (See also Eze 7:2; Rev 7:1).
Mat 6:5 (b) This indicates any place of prominence which a religious person takes for his own advantage.
Mat 21:42 (a) This refers to the foundation of the church, and in fact all of GOD’s purposes. Everything that GOD does rests and centers in His Son, the Lord JESUS. As a stone we see His permanence in strength. He remains unchanged through the centuries. (See also Psa 118:22; Mar 12:10; Act 4:11; 1Pe 2:7).
Act 26:26 (a) This type is used to illustrate the fact that Paul’s work was not done slyly, secretly nor quietly, but out in the open and before the public. Neither did CHRIST live, suffer and die hidden in obscurity. All of this was done openly and plainly in the sight of all the people.