Sand
(, chol, from its tendency to slide or roll; ). A similitude taken from the aggregate sand of the sea is often used to express a very great multitude or a very great weight; or from a single sand, something very mean and trifling. God promises Abraham and Jacob to multiply their posterity as the stars of heaven and as the sand of the sea (Gen 22:17; Gen 32:12). Job (6:3) compares the weight of his misfortunes to that of the sand of the sea. Solomon says (Pro 27:3) that though sand and gravel are very heavy things, yet the anger of a fool is much heavier. Ecclesiasticus says that a fool is more insupportable than the weight of sand, lead, or iron (Sir 22:15). The prophets magnify the omnipotence of God, who has fixed the sand of the shore for the boundaries of the sea, and has said to it, Hitherto shalt thou come; but here thou shalt break thy foaming waves, and shalt pass no farther (Jer 5:22). Our Savior tells us (Mat 7:26) that a fool lays the foundation of his house on the sand; whereas a wise man founds his house on a rock. Ecclesiasticus says (18:8) that the years of the longest life of man are but as a drop of water or as a grain of sand. Wisdom says (7:9) that all the gold in the world, compared to wisdom, is but as the smallest grain of sand. SEE DUST.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Sand
SAND ().Sand, which, however closely packed and hard, seems almost to melt at the touch of water, is a foundation on which only a fool would build (Mat 7:26). St. Luke in the parallel passage gives , on the earth (6:49). The surface of the earth, baked hard in the heat, goes swiftly to soft mud when the rains come.
W. Ewing.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Sand
SAND.Minute particles of silex, mica, felspar, etc., easily rolled before the wind; hence, probably, its Heb. name, chl. It lies in great stretches along the Palestinian and Egyptlan sea-boardan apt symbol of the incalculably vast or numerous (Gen 22:17; Gen 41:49, Jer 33:22 etc.). For sand, in Job 29:18, we should probably read, with RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] , phnix. However compact and firm, sand at once becomes soft at the touch of water (Mat 7:26 etc.).
W. Ewing.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Sand
(, hol; , ammos; a variant of the more usual , psammos; compare , amathos, , psamathos):
Sand is principally produced by the grinding action of waves. This is accompanied by chemical solution, with the result that the more soluble constituents of the rock diminish in amount or disappear and the sands tend to become more or less purely silicious, silica or quartz being a common constituent of rocks and very Insoluble. The rocks of Palestine are so largely composed of limestone that the shore and dune sands are unusually calcareous, containing from 10 to 20 per cent of calcium carbonate. This is subject to solution and redeposition as a cement between the sand grains, binding them together to form the porous sandstone of the seashore, which is easily worked and is much used in building. See Rock, III, (2).
Figurative:
(1) Used most often as a symbol of countless multitude; especially of the children of Israel (Gen 22:17; Gen 32:12; 2Sa 17:11; 1Ki 4:20; Isa 10:22; Isa 48:19; Jer 33:32; Hos 1:10; Rom 9:27; Heb 11:12); also of the enemies of Israel (Jos 11:4; Jdg 7:12; 1Sa 13:5; compare Rev 20:8). Joseph laid up gram as the sand of the sea (Gen 41:49); God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding and largeness of heart as the sand that is on the seashore (1Ki 4:29); Job says I shall multiply my days as the sand (Job 29:18); the multitude of quails provided for the Israelites in the desert is compared to the sand (Psa 78:27); the Psalmist says of the thoughts of God, They are more in number than the sand (Psa 139:18); Jeremiah, speaking of the desolation of Jerusalem, says that the number of widows is as the sand (Jer 15:8). (2) Sand is also a symbol of weight (Job 6:3; Pro 27:3), and (3) of instability (Mat 7:26).
It is a question what is meant by the hidden treasures of the sand in Deu 33:19.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
SAND
Sand of the Sea may be considered two ways; either implicitly, as the sand of the sea is the same as the sea shore; or else as it is an aggregate body of innumerable individuals.
Sand of the sea in the first sense implies, according to Artemidorus, Lib. ii. c. 43, hope and safety to persons in distress, upon the account of persons tossed in a tempest being glad when they can see the shore. The second sense of the sand of the sea is obvious, to signify any great multitude, or indefinite number. So God promised to Abraham, that his seed should be without number, under this similitude, Gen 22:17; Gen 32:12. And the similitude is often used of Israel, as 1Ki 4:20; and in general of any multitude, as in Gen 41:49; Isa 10:22; Jos 11:4; 1Sa 13:5; 2Sa 17:11; Jer. xv. 8; Hos. i. 10.
The similitude is also used by Homer, Il. L. ii. ver. 307. And Pindarf1 gives this reason of the similitude, “because the sand is to us innumerable.” Therefore in Euripidesf2 , the numberless, are the common people which are of no account.
F1 Pind. Olymp. 2.
F2 Eur. Helen. 1695. Idem. Ion. ver. 837.
Fuente: A Symbolical Dictionary
SAND
of the sea (figurative)
Gen 22:17; Hos 1:10; Heb 11:12; Rev 20:8
Fuente: Thompson Chain-Reference Bible
Sand
“sand” or “sandy ground,” describes (a) an insecure foundation, Mat 7:26; (b) numberlessness, vastness, Rom 9:27; Heb 11:12; Rev 20:8; (c) symbolically in Rev 13:1, RV, the position taken up by the Dragon (not, as in the AV, by John), in view of the rising of the Beast out of the sea (emblematic of the restless condition of nations; see SEA).
Fuente: Vine’s Dictionary of New Testament Words
Sand
Gen 22:17 (a) This refers to the prevalence of Israel all over the world, as sand is found all over the world. The nation of Israel is compared not only to sand, but also to dust and to the stars. (See under these words). (See also Gen 32:12; Heb 11:12).
Deu 33:19 (b) Probably sand is used to convey the thought of a multitude of people throughout the earth from whose enterprise, property and business Zebulon and Issachar would become rich.
Jdg 7:12 (a) Here is a type of the very great multitude of the enemy in the army. The enemies were so numerous that they covered the hills, the valleys, the roads and the fields as sand covers all those places. (See also 1Sa 13:5; 2Sa 17:11; 1Ki 4:20; Isa 10:22; Isa 48:19; Jer 15:8; Jer 33:22).
Psa 139:18 (a) This is a description of the great number of GOD’s wonderful thoughts of peace and love toward David. In His mind they were as numerous as the grains of sand.
Hos 1:10 (a) This represents the great number of people of Israel and their diversified beauty as the grains of sand. Also represents their power to control the nations of the world (the sea and its waves), as will one day be true when Israel is the head of the nations. Only GOD can make sand, and GOD Himself made the nation of Israel.
Mat 7:26 (b) This is a picture of the transient and unsafe character of anything outside of CHRIST on which men may build their hopes and plans for the future.
Rev 20:8 (a) This is a type of the countless number of the unsaved, and their prevalence all over the earth. It is also a picture of the shifting and shiftless character of the ungodly.