Corner

The angle of a house ( Job 1:19 ) or a street ( Proverbs 7:8 ). "Corners" in Nehemiah 9:22 denotes the various districts of the promised land allotted to the Israelites. In Numbers 24:17 , the "corners of Moab" denotes the whole land of Moab. The "corner of a field" ( Leviticus 19:9 ; 23:22 ) is its extreme part, which was not to be reaped. The Jews were prohibited from cutting the "corners," i.e., the extremities, of the hair and whiskers running round the ears ( Leviticus 19:27 ; 21:5 ). The "four corners of the earth" in Isaiah 11:12 and Ezekiel 7:2 denotes the whole land. The "corners of the streets" mentioned in Matthew 6:5 means the angles where streets meet so as to form a square or place of public resort.

The corner gate of Jerusalem ( 2 Kings 14:13 ; 2 Chr 26:9 ) was on the north-west side of the city.

Corner-stone ( Job 38:6 ; Isaiah 28:16 ), a block of great importance in binding together the sides of a building. The "head of the corner" ( Psalms 118:22 Psalms 118:23 ) denotes the coping, the "coign of vantage", i.e., the topstone of a building. But the word "corner stone" is sometimes used to denote some person of rank and importance ( Isaiah 28:16 ). It is applied to our Lord, who was set in highest honour ( Matthew 21:42 ). He is also styled "the chief corner stone" ( Ephesians 2:20 ; 1 Peter 2:6-8 ). When ( Zechariah 10:4 ), speaking of Judah, says, "Out of him came forth the corner," he is probably to be understood as ultimately referring to the Messiah as the "corner stone." (See TEMPLE, SOLOMON'S.)

The "corner" of the field was not allowed, ( Leviticus 19:9 ) to be wholly reaped. It formed a right of the poor to carry off what was so left, and this was a part of the maintenance from the soil to which that class were entitled. Under the scribes, minute legislation fixed one-sixtieth as the portion of a field which was to be left for the legal "corner." The proportion being thus fixed, all the grain might be reaped, and enough to satisfy the regulation subsequently separated from the whole crop. This "corner" was, like the gleaning, tithe-free. [E] indicates this entry was also found in Easton's Bible Dictionary

CORNER

kor'-ner (miqtsoa`, pe'ah, pinnah; arche, gonia, akrogoniaios):

In Exodus 26:24; Ezekiel 41:22; 46:21,22, miqtsoa`, "angle" is translated "corner"; pe'ah, "side," "quarter" and pinnah "corner," "front," "chief," are more frequently so translated, e.g. Exodus 25:26; Leviticus 19:9; Jeremiah 9:26; 25:23; and Exodus 27:2; 1 Kings 7:34; Psalms 118:22; Isaiah 28:16 ("corner-stone"); Jeremiah 51:26. Other words are kanaph, "wing" (Isaiah 11:12; Ezekiel 7:2); katheph, "shoulder" (2 Kings 11:11 the King James Version, twice); pa`am, "foot" (Exodus 25:12 the King James Version); zawiyoth, "corner-stones" (Psalms 144:12; Zechariah 9:15, translated "corners"). For "corner" the Revised Version (British and American) has "side" (Exodus 36:25), "corner-stone" (Zechariah 10:4), also for "stay" (Isaiah 19:13); instead of "teacher removed into a corner" (Isaiah 30:20), "be hidden," "hide themselves"; for "corners" we have "feet" (Exodus 25:12; 1 Kings 7:30); "ribs" (Exodus 30:4; 37:27); for "divide into corners" (Nehemiah 9:22), "allot after their portions"; for "into corners" (Deuteronomy 32:26), "afar"; the words to Israel (Isaiah 41:9) "called thee from the chief men 'atsilim thereof" are rendered by the Revised Version (British and American) "called thee from the corners thereof" (of the earth).

In the New Testament we have gonia ("angle," "corner"), "in the corners of the streets" (Matthew 6:5), "the head of the corner" (Matthew 21:42), "the four corners of the earth" (Revelation 7:1; 20:8); arche ("a beginning") (Acts 10:11; 11:5); "chief corner stone" (Ephesians 2:20; 1 Peter 2:6), is a translation of akrogoniaios ("at the extreme angle").

W. L. Walker