Sand

Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types

 Genesis 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  Genesis 32:12;  Hebrews 11:12).

 Deuteronomy 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.

 Judges 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 also1Sa  13:5;  2 Samuel 17:11;  1 Kings 4:20;  Isaiah 10:22;  Isaiah 48:19;  Jeremiah 15:8;  Jeremiah 33:22).

 Psalm 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.

 Hosea 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.

 Matthew 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.

 Revelation 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.

Webster's Dictionary

(1): ( v. t.) To bury (oysters) beneath drifting sand or mud.

(2): ( v. t.) To mix with sand for purposes of fraud; as, to sand sugar.

(3): ( n.) The sand in the hourglass; hence, a moment or interval of time; the term or extent of one's life.

(4): ( n.) A single particle of such stone.

(5): ( v. t.) To drive upon the sand.

(6): ( v. t.) To sprinkle or cover with sand.

(7): ( n.) Courage; pluck; grit.

(8): ( n.) Tracts of land consisting of sand, like the deserts of Arabia and Africa; also, extensive tracts of sand exposed by the ebb of the tide.

(9): ( n.) Fine particles of stone, esp. of siliceous stone, but not reduced to dust; comminuted stone in the form of loose grains, which are not coherent when wet.

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

1: Ἄμμος (Strong'S #285 — Noun Feminine — ammos — am'-mos )

"sand" or "sandy ground," describes (a) an insecure foundation,  Matthew 7:26; (b) numberlessness, vastness,  Romans 9:27;  Hebrews 11:12;  Revelation 20:8; (c) symbolically in  Revelation 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).

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

SAND . Minute particles of silex, mica, felspar, etc., easily rolled before the wind; hence, probably, its Heb. name, chôl . It lies in great stretches along the Palestinian and Egyptlan sea-board an apt symbol of the incalculably vast or numerous (  Genesis 22:17;   Genesis 41:49 ,   Jeremiah 33:22 etc.). For ‘sand,’ in   Job 29:18 , we should probably read, with RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] , ‘phÅ“nix.’ However compact and firm, sand at once becomes soft at the touch of water (  Matthew 7:26 etc.).

W. Ewing.

King James Dictionary

SAND, n.

1. Any mass or collection of fine particles of stone, particularly of fine particles of silicious stone, but not strictly reduced to powder or dust.

That finer matter called sand, is no other than very small pebbles.

2. Sands, in the plural, tracts of land consisting of sand, like the deserts of Arabia and Africa as the Lybian sands.

SAND,

1. To sprinkle with sand. It is customary among the common people in America, to sand their floors with white sand. 2. To drive upon the sand.

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

SAND ( ἄμμος).—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 ( Matthew 7:26). St. Luke in the parallel passage gives ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν, ‘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.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

( חול , ḥōl  ; ἄμμος , ámmos  ; a variant of the more usual ψάμαθος , psámmos  ; compare ἄμαθος , ámathos , ψάμαθος , psámathos ):

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).

(1) Used most often as a symbol of countless multitude; especially of the children of Israel ( Genesis 22:17;  Genesis 32:12;  2 Samuel 17:11;  1 Kings 4:20;  Isaiah 10:22;  Isaiah 48:19; Jer 33:32;  Hosea 1:10;  Romans 9:27;  Hebrews 11:12 ); also of the enemies of Israel ( Joshua 11:4;  Judges 7:12;  1 Samuel 13:5; compare  Revelation 20:8 ). Joseph laid up gram as the sand of the sea ( Genesis 41:49 ); God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding and largeness of heart as the sand that is on the seashore ( 1 Kings 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 ( Psalm 78:27 ); the Psalmist says of the thoughts of God, "They are more in number than the sand" ( Psalm 139:18 ); Jeremiah, speaking of the desolation of Jerusalem, says that the number of widows is as the sand ( Jeremiah 15:8 ). (2) Sand is also a symbol of weight ( Job 6:3;  Proverbs 27:3 ), and (3) of instability ( Matthew 7:26 ).

It is a question what is meant by "the hidden treasures of the sand" in  Deuteronomy 33:19 .

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

( חוֹל , Chol, from its tendency to Slide or Roll; Ἄμμος ). 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 ( Genesis 22:17;  Genesis 32:12). Job (6:3) compares the weight of his misfortunes to that of the sand of the sea. Solomon says ( Proverbs 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 ( Sirach 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" ( Jeremiah 5:22). Our Savior tells us ( Matthew 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).