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Answer
In Leviticus 26:1, we read about a sacred stone: “Do not make idols or set up an image or a sacred stone for yourselves, and do not place a carved stone in your land to bow down before it. I am the LORD your God.” While we can easily visualize an “idol” and an “image,” a “sacred stone” is a bit more challenging to imagine. What is it that designates a stone as “sacred”?
Given that the sacred stone is mentioned alongside the idol and the image, it is likely that this sacred stone was a rock with carvings on it used in idol worship. The same Hebrew word is also translated as “sacred pillar” or “sacred memorial.” One commentary describes this sacred stone as “an obelisk, inscribed with hieroglyphical and superstitious characters; the former representing the common and smaller pillars of the Syrians or Canaanites; the latter indicating the large and elaborate obelisks that the Egyptians worshipped as guardian divinities, or used as stones of adoration to encourage religious worship” (Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, The Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, public domain).
In Deuteronomy 28:64, the Lord predicted a time when Israel’s disobedience would lead them to worship stone idols: “The LORD will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known” (see also Deuteronomy 4:28).
The prophets condemned the Israelites of their time for following stone idols. Their words sometimes derided the practice: “They say to wood, ‘You are my father,’ and to stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ They have turned their backs to me and not their faces; yet when they are in trouble, they say, ‘Come and save us!’ Where then are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them come if they can save you when you are in trouble! For you, Judah, have as many gods as you ha
ve towns” (Jeremiah 2:27-28; see also Isaiah 44:9-20).
In Daniel, the gods of stone are mentioned in a list of idols worshiped by King Belshazzar «They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone. », (Daniel 5:4). Daniel condemned the king, saying, “You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways” «but hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified: », (Daniel 5:23).
Idol worship, including giving reverence to decorated stones, has always been forbidden by the Lord. Leviticus 26 affirms the command made earlier in the Ten Commandments: “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God” (Exodus 20:4-5).
