Dictionary of Bible Themes: 5574 tablet

5574 tablet

Dictionary of Bible Themes

Dictionary of Bible Themes » 5000 Humanity » 5200 Human civilisation » 5574 tablet

A flat, usually rectangular, surface used for writing. Stone tablets, symbolising permanence, were usually engraved with an iron tool. Tablets of moist clay and writing boards of wood or ivory containing a layer of wax were inscribed with a stylus. The term is also used figuratively to refer to the human heart.

Tablets engraved with an iron tool

Job 19:23-24 See also Jeremiah 17:1

The Ten Commandments were inscribed on stone tablets

The tablets were inscribed by God

Deuteronomy 9:9-11 In keeping with ancient Near Eastern practice, the two tablets may have been duplicates of a single covenant document. See also Exodus 24:12; Exodus 31:18; Deuteronomy 4:13; Deuteronomy 5:22

The tablets were broken

Exodus 32:15-19 See also Deuteronomy 9:15-17

New tablets were inscribed by God

Deuteronomy 10:1-4 See also Exodus 34:4,28-29

The new tablets were put into the ark

Deuteronomy 10:5 See also 1 Kings 8:9 pp 2 Chronicles 5:10; Hebrews 9:4

God's commands were copied onto altar stones

Deuteronomy 27:2-8 See also Joshua 8:30-32

Writing tablets

Tablets of unspecified material

Habakkuk 2:2 See also Isaiah 30:8; Luke 1:63

Other surfaces used for writing

1 Kings 7:36 The bases of the bronze lavers in Solomon's temple were engraved; Isaiah 8:1 Isaiah's inscription is with a pen on a scroll; Ezekiel 4:1 Ezekiel draws a plan of Jerusalem on a clay tablet. This was a common medium for plans in Babylon.

Tablets of the heart

The commands and teachings of Proverbs

Proverbs 3:3 See also Proverbs 6:21; Proverbs 7:3

The new covenant

Jeremiah 31:33 Under the new covenant God's law will be inward, written on human hearts rather than on tablets of stone. See also Ezekiel 36:26-27; 2 Corinthians 3:3; Hebrews 8:10; Hebrews 10:16