saqal

This is the common Hebrew word for putting someone to death by throwing stones. It runs through Israel's laws and its stories: the goring ox that has killed a person, the one who lures others into worshiping false gods, the unfaithful bride, and framed men like Naboth are all handled with this verb. It regularly pictures not a single executioner but the whole community acting together. No special weapon and no professional are needed, so any bystander can take part, and the death is carried out beyond the edge of the settlement so that the place of worship is not defiled.

A softer use shades toward assault rather than execution. When Shimei trailed the fleeing David, cursing him and flinging stones at him along the road, the word describes a steady, contemptuous pelting rather than a formal killing. The dividing line between the two is intent: to end a life under sentence, or simply to hurl stones at someone in scorn.

Hebrew has a second, nearly identical word for stoning, רגם. The two overlap almost completely, and translators normally render both the same way.

In two places in Isaiah the same verb points the other direction: not throwing stones at a person, but taking stones out of the ground. In the Song of the Vineyard, God the farmer does everything right for his vineyard, digging it, clearing it of stones, and planting the best vines, only to get sour grapes in return. In the second passage, workers are told to clear a road of stones so that a highway stands ready for the exiles to come home.

The wording removes any doubt: the command is to clear the ground "of stone," that is, to strip the stones out and set them aside. The stones taken out would usually be stacked into the low walls that edged a terraced field.