The Hebrew Bible refers in numerous places to standing stones. These stones had a special use, and a special name as well. The ordinary Hebrew word for “stone” is even (אֶבֶן); examples include the stones picked up by Joshua’s men (Josh 4:5), or stones thrown on agricultural ground to ruin it (2 Kgs 3:25). By contrast, a standing stone, which was a stone planted upright in the ground, was called a matzebah (מַצֵבָה). English versions sometimes render this as a “pillar,” a “sacred pillar,” a “sacred stone,” a “monument,” or a “standing-stone.”......