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STOOL.—‘In older English (including AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ) “stool” was used freely for any kind of seat’ (DB [Note: Dictionary of the Bible.] iv. 621); similarly the Heb. kissç’ includes both chairs and stools, see House, § 8. In the difficult passage Exo_1:16 the word rendered ‘stools’ in the sense of birth-stools (sella parturientis) must be pointed to read ‘stones’ (’abnáyim for ’obnáyim, both dual number), the reference being to the two stones or bricks on which a woman sat during her accouchement. This widely spread custom has been conclusively shown to have existed in ancient Egypt by Spiegelberg (Ægypt. Randglossen, 19–25), from the realistic representation preserved in an early hieroglyphic sign for birth, confirmed by literary references.
A. R. S. Kennedy.