CORNERSTONE

A stone placed at an angle or corner of a building where two walls meet, of great importance in joining and binding them together. Usually cut as rectangular blocks, cornerstones are customarily laid endways and sideways alternately from the foundation to the top or roof of a structure. Thus, at an angle or corner, the side of one stone appears below or above the end of the next stone.

The principal cornerstone was the foundation cornerstone, a particularly strong one generally being chosen for public buildings and city walls. The foundation cornerstone would be used as a guide as other stones were put in place, a plummet being dropped to it to align them. Every other stone had to conform to the foundation cornerstone for the building to be properly constructed. Sometimes, foundation cornerstones were quite massive. The foundation cornerstone also served to bind the parts of a structure together.

Figurative and Symbolic Use. Concerning the founding of the earth, God asked Job: “Who laid its cornerstone?” The earth, on which man resides and has erected many buildings, was thus likened to a gigantic edifice, a building with a cornerstone. The laying of it, which could be ascribed to no man, for mankind had not yet been created, made the heavenly “sons of God” shout in applause.​—Job 38:4-7.