Looking for the Builders Chief Cornerstone

The Jews had a legend based on a statement of the psalmist. According to that legend, when the Temple of Solomon was being built, the masons sent up from the quarry below a stone different in size and shape from all the rest they had sent up.Looking at it, the builders said: “There is no place for this stone. There must be some mistake.” So they rolled it down the edge of the cliff into the valley of Kidron below the Temple area. As time went on (for the Temple was seven years in building), they were ready for the chief cornerstone. When they asked for it they were told, “We sent it up to you long ago."One of the workmen said: “I recall it now. There was a stone altogether different from the rest, and we thought there was no place for it and rolled it down to the valley below.” Men were sent down to the valley to find the stone. They succeeded in doing so; and when the stone was brought up it fitted perfectly into its place-the headstone of the corner. (Encyclopedia of Illustrations #6229)