Sand

A fine granular substance formed by the erosion of rocks, and found especially in the deserts and by the sea. It is often used as a symbol of innumerability and occasionally as a symbol of instability.

Sand as a fine granular substance

In the desert

Exodus 2:12 See also Job 39:13–15; Isaiah 35:6–7

After looking this way and that and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand.

At the sea

Jeremiah 5:22 See also Deuteronomy 33:18–19; Acts 27:39

Do you not fear Me?” declares the LORD. “Do you not tremble before Me, the One who set the sand as the boundary for the sea, an enduring barrier it cannot cross? The waves surge, but they cannot prevail. They roar but cannot cross it.

Sand-bars

Acts 27:41 See also Acts 27:17

But the ship struck a sandbar and ran aground. The bow stuck fast and would not move, and the stern was being broken up by the pounding of the waves.

The weight of sand

Job 6:2–3 See also Proverbs 27:3

“If only my grief could be weighed and placed with my calamity on the scales. For then it would outweigh the sand of the seas — no wonder my words have been rash.

Sand representing innumerability

God promised that Israel would be as innumerable as sand

Genesis 22:15–18 See also Genesis 32:9–12; 1 Kings 4:20; Isaiah 10:20–22, Isaiah 48:17–19; Jeremiah 33:19–22; Hosea 1:8–10; Romans 9:22–27; Hebrews 11:11–12

And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time, saying, “By Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will multiply your descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will possess the gates of their enemies. And through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

Armies described as being as innumerable as sand

1 Samuel 13:5 See also Joshua 11:1–5; Judges 7:12; 2 Samuel 17:11; Revelation 20:7–8

Now the Philistines assembled to fight against Israel with three thousand chariots, six thousand horsemen, and troops as numerous as the sand on the seashore. They went up and camped at Michmash, east of Beth-aven.

Other comparisons with the innumerability of sand

Genesis 41:49 See also 1 Kings 4:29; Job 29:18; Psalm 78:27–29, Psalm 139:17–18; Jeremiah 15:8; Habakkuk 1:8–9

So Joseph stored up grain in such abundance, like the sand of the sea, that he stopped keeping track of it; for it was beyond measure.

The instability and impermanence of sand

Matthew 7:24–27 parallel Luke 6:46–49

Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because its foundation was on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell— and great was its collapse!”