שיד, Deut. xxvii, 2, 4; Isaiah xxxiii, 12; Amos ii, 1; a soft
friable substance, obtained by calcining or burning stones, shells, or
the like. From Isa. xxxiii, 12, it appears that it was made in a kiln
lighted with thorn bushes; and from Amos ii, 1, that bones were
sometimes calcined for lime. The use of it was for plaster or cement,
the first mention of which is in Deut. xxvii, where Moses directed the
elders of the people, saying, Keep all the commandments which I command
you this day. And it shall be on the day when you shall pass over Jordan
unto the land which the Lord your God giveth you, that you shall set up
great stones, and plaster them with plaster, and shall write upon them
all the words of this law,” &c. The book of the law, in order to render
it the more sacred, was deposited beside the ark of the covenant. The
guardians of the law, to whom was entrusted the duty of making faithful
transcripts of it, were the priests. But Moses did not account even this
precaution sufficient for the due preservation of his law in its
original purity; for he commanded that it should beside be engraven on
stones, and these stones kept on a mountain near Sichem, in order that a
genuine exemplar of it might be transmitted even to the latest
generations.
friable substance, obtained by calcining or burning stones, shells, or
the like. From Isa. xxxiii, 12, it appears that it was made in a kiln
lighted with thorn bushes; and from Amos ii, 1, that bones were
sometimes calcined for lime. The use of it was for plaster or cement,
the first mention of which is in Deut. xxvii, where Moses directed the
elders of the people, saying, Keep all the commandments which I command
you this day. And it shall be on the day when you shall pass over Jordan
unto the land which the Lord your God giveth you, that you shall set up
great stones, and plaster them with plaster, and shall write upon them
all the words of this law,” &c. The book of the law, in order to render
it the more sacred, was deposited beside the ark of the covenant. The
guardians of the law, to whom was entrusted the duty of making faithful
transcripts of it, were the priests. But Moses did not account even this
precaution sufficient for the due preservation of his law in its
original purity; for he commanded that it should beside be engraven on
stones, and these stones kept on a mountain near Sichem, in order that a
genuine exemplar of it might be transmitted even to the latest
generations.