Isaiah 28:16

28:16 Therefore, this is what the sovereign master, the Lord, says:

“Look, I am laying ¹  a stone in Zion,

an approved ²  stone,

set in place as a precious cornerstone for the foundation. ³ 

The one who maintains his faith will not panic. ⁴ 

Daniel 2:34

2:34 You were watching as ⁵  a stone was cut out, ⁶  but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its iron and clay feet, breaking them in pieces.

Daniel 2:45

2:45 You saw that a stone was cut from a mountain, but not by human hands; it smashed the iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold into pieces. The great God has made known to the king what will occur in the future. ⁷  The dream is certain, and its interpretation is reliable.”

Zechariah 3:9

3:9 As for the stone ⁸  I have set before Joshua – on the one stone there are seven eyes. ⁹  I am about to engrave an inscription on it,’ says the Lord who rules over all, ‘to the effect that I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. ¹⁰ 

Zechariah 4:7

Oracle of Response

4:7 “What are you, you great mountain? ¹¹  Because of Zerubbabel you will become a level plain! And he will bring forth the temple ¹²  capstone with shoutings of ‘Grace! Grace!’ ¹³  because of this.”

¹ tc The Hebrew text has a third person verb form, which does not agree with the first person suffix that precedes. The form should be emended to יֹסֵד (yosed), a Qal active participle used in a present progressive or imminent future sense.

² tn Traditionally “tested,” but the implication is that it has passed the test and stands approved.

³ sn The reality behind the metaphor is not entirely clear from the context. The stone appears to represent someone or something that gives Zion stability. Perhaps the ideal Davidic ruler is in view (see 32:1). Another option is that the image of beginning a building project by laying a precious cornerstone suggests that God is about to transform Zion through judgment and begin a new covenant community that will experience his protection (see 4:3-6; 31:5; 33:20-24; 35:10).

⁴ tn Heb “will not hurry,” i.e., act in panic.

⁵ tn Aram “until.”

⁶ tc The LXX, Theodotion, and the Vulgate have “from a mountain,” though this is probably a harmonization with v. 45.

⁷ tn Aram “after this.”

⁸ sn The stone is also a metaphor for the Messiah, a foundation stone that, at first rejected (Ps 118:22-23; Isa 8:13-15), will become the chief cornerstone of the church (Eph 2:19-22).

⁹ tn Some understand the Hebrew term עַיִן (’ayin) here to refer to facets (cf. NAB, NRSV, NLT) or “faces” (NCV, CEV “seven sides”) of the stone rather than some representation of organs of sight.

¹⁰ sn Inscriptions were common on ancient Near Eastern cornerstones. This inscription speaks of the redemption achieved by the divine resident of the temple, the Messiah, who will in the day of the Lord bring salvation to all Israel (cf. Isa 66:7-9).

¹¹ sn In context, the great mountain here must be viewed as a metaphor for the enormous task of rebuilding the temple and establishing the messianic kingdom (cf. TEV “Obstacles as great as mountains”).

¹² tn The word “temple” has been supplied in the translation to clarify the referent (cf. NLT “final stone of the Temple”).

¹³ sn Grace is a fitting response to the idea that it was “not by strength and not by power” but by God’s gracious Spirit that the work could be done (cf. v. 6).