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Quarries
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kwor'-iz ((Pesilim) graven images, (pacal) to carve, (shabhar) to break)
RELATED: Ehud, Shebarim |
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Easton's Bible Dictionary
The "Royal Quarries" (not found in Scripture) is the
name given to the vast caverns stretching far underneath the northern hill, Bezetha,
on which Jerusalem is built. Out of these mammoth caverns stones, a hard lime-stone,
have been quarried in ancient times for the buildings in the city, and for the
temples of Solomon, Zerubbabel, and Herod. Huge blocks of stone are still found
in these caves bearing the marks of pick and chisel. The general appearance of
the whole suggests to the explorer the idea that the Phoenician quarrymen have
just suspended their work. The supposition that the polished blocks of stone for
Solomon's temple were sent by Hiram from Lebanon or Tyre is not supported by any
evidence (Compare 1
Kings 5:8 ). Hiram sent masons and stone-squarers to Jerusalem to assist Solomon's
workmen in their great undertaking, but did not send stones to Jerusalem, where,
indeed, they were not needed, as these royal quarries abundantly testify.
The "quarries" (Hebrew pesilim) by Gilgal ( Judges
3:19 ), from which Ehud turned back for the purpose of carrying out his design
to put Eglon king of Moab to death, were probably the "graven images" (as the
word is rendered by the LXX. and the Vulgate and in the marg. A.V. and RSV), or
the idol temples the Moabites had erected at Gilgal, where the children of Israel
first encamped after crossing the Jordan. The Hebrew word is rendered "graven
images" in Deuteronomy
7:25 , and is not elsewhere translated "quarries."
Hitchcock's Dictionary of Bible Names
(no entry)
Smith's Bible Dictionary
(no entry)
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
kwor'-iz (pecilim (Judges 3:19 , 26, "graven images"),
shebharim (Joshua 7:5, "Shebarim," the Revised Version margin "the quarries")):
Pesilim is elsewhere translated "graven images" (Deuteronomy 7:5 ; Psalms 78:58
; Isaiah 10:10 ; Micah 5:13, etc.) and is a plural form of pecel, "graven image"
(Exodus 20:4 , etc.), from pacal, "to carve." It occurs in the story of Ehud and
Eglon and refers to images or hewn stones in the vicinity of Gilgal, Shebharim
is plural of shebher, "breach," "fracture," more often "destruction" (e.g. Proverbs
16:18), from shabhar, "to break." The form shebarim is also found in Job 41:25,
"consternation," the King James Version "breakings." In Joshua 7:5 Shebarim is
the point to which the Israelites were chased after their first attack upon Ai.
See SHEBARIM.
Quarries in Palestine are not usually very deep because there is plenty of good
stone to be found at the surface. The quarryman seeks a thick stratum of firm
limestone which has a favorable exposure. The vertical joint-planes divide the
stratum into large blocks which the quarryman dislodges with the aid of crowbars.
These great blocks he skillfully cleaves by inserting several wedges in a line
in holes made by a pick, and driving the wedges in with a heavy hammer. In these
days gunpowder is occasionally used, especially when there are not favorable joint-planes
producing blocks capable of being moved by the crowbar.
Another method, which is employed where stones of great size are wanted, is to
carve the stones out of the rock by cutting channels around them with the pick.
In the limestone quarries of Ba'albek and the granite quarries of Acwan at the
first cataract of the Nile, enormous stones may be seen which were abandoned while
in process of being removed by this method. The channels are wide enough to admit
the body of the workman, and the marks of the picks on the sides of the channels
are plainly visible.
Alfred Ely Day
Tags:
bible commentary, bible history, bible reference, bible study, define, quarries
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