a pillar: an upright column that holds something up or stands as a fixed, towering marker
This word comes straight from the verb "to stand," and that picture governs every use: something set upright that stays put and bears weight or marks a place. Most often it is a literal column of wood, bronze, or stone, the kind that held up the tabernacle's curtains, framed the temple, and lined a king's palace.
From that concrete image the word stretches in two natural directions. It can name a column-shaped mass that rises into the sky, the towering shaft of cloud and fire by which God led Israel, or a column of smoke climbing from a burning city. And it can be used of the unseen supports that keep the world steady, the pillars on which the earth and the sky are imagined to rest.
Because a pillar is the very image of something fixed and unmovable, the word also works as a picture of steadfastness: God promises to make the prophet Jeremiah "an iron pillar" against a whole nation. In each case the reader should hear the same root idea, an upright thing that stands firm.
Nuances
Whether "by the pillar" names a literal column that served as the king's customary station or a raised platform/dais for the king.
- contestedA specific pillar in the temple court marked the king's standing place.; BDB, s.v. עַמּוּד
- contestedThe term here denotes a raised platform or station rather than an architectural column.; HALOT, s.v. עַמּוּד