Tablet Table
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible [1]
TABLE, Tablet . 1 . Writing tablet is indicated by the Heb. lûach , which is also applied to wooden boards or planks ( Exodus 27:8; Exodus 38:7 in the altar of the Tabernacle, Ezekiel 27:5 in a ship, Song of Solomon 8:9 in a door) and to metal plates (in the bases of the lavers in Solomon’s Temple. 1 Kings 7:36 ). It is, however, most frequently applied to tables of stone on which the Decalogue was engraven ( Exodus 24:12; Exodus 31:18 etc.). It is used of a tablet on which a prophecy may be written ( Isaiah 30:8 , Habakkuk 2:2 ), and in Proverbs 3:3; Proverbs 7:3 and Jeremiah 17:1 figuratively of the ‘tables of the heart.’ In all these passages, when used of stone, both AV [Note: Authorized Version.] and RV [Note: Revised Version.] translate ‘table’ except in Isaiah 30:8 where RV [Note: Revised Version.] has ‘tablet.’ lûach generally appears in LXX [Note: Septuagint.] and NT as plax ( 2 Corinthians 3:3 , Hebrews 9:4 ). The ‘writing table’ (RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘tablet’) of Luke 1:63 was probably of wax.
2. A female ornament is indicated by Heb. kûmâz , AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘tablets,’ RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘armlets,’ RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ‘necklaces,’ Exodus 35:22 , Numbers 31:50 probably a pendant worn on the neck.
The word ‘tablets’ is also the tr. [Note: translate or translation.] of bottç hannephesh in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] Isaiah 3:20 (RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘perfume boxes,’ lit. ‘houses of the soul’). It is doubtful if nephesh actually means ‘odour,’ but from meaning ‘breath’ it may have come to mean scent or smell. On the other hand, the idea of life may suggest that some life-giving elixir, scent, or ointment was contained in the vessels; but the meaning is doubtful.
The ‘tablet’ ( gillâyôn ) inscribed with a stylus to Maher-shalal-hash-baz , Isaiah 8:1 (‘AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ’ roll’), signifies a polished surface. The word occurs again in Isaiah 3:23 where it probably refers to ‘tablets of polished metal’ used as mirrors (AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘glasses’).
W. F. Boyd.
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament [2]
TABLE,TABLET ( Luke 1:63 πινακίδιον, 2 Corinthians 3:3 and Hebrews 9:4 πλάξ).—The word πινακίδιον, not wholly unknown in classical Greek, although it is not commonly used, occurs but once in the NT and not at all in the Septuagint. When it is used in Luke 1:63 it denotes, in all probability, a wax-covered wooden writing-tablet. The ordinary LXX Septuagint word for ‘tablet.’ or ‘table’ is the word πλάξ which is found also, as mentioned above, in the NT in two passages. In Isaiah 30:8 we find πυξίον (ἐπὶ πυξίον), which is a writing-tablet of box-wood, and in Jeremiah 17:1 we have στῆθος (ἐπὶ τοῦ στήθους τῆς καρδἱας), ‘breast,’ ‘surface.’ Both πυξίον and στῆθος, however, stand, for the Heb. לוּהַ, which is the ordinary word for ‘tablet’ or ‘table,’ and is used, e.g. in Exodus 31:18, in reference to the tables of the Law. נִּלָּיוֹן ( Isaiah 8:1), rendered in the Authorized Version ‘roll,’ is in the Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 more suitably rendered ‘tablet.’ Tablets were in almost universal use in the ancient world alike for purposes of correspondence and for literary purposes in general, and were formed of various materials, such as stone, clay, and wood, the wood being sometimes whitewashed, sometimes covered with wax. Bronze also was employed for tablets, at least in some of the countries about the Mediterranean, but seemingly only for such tablets as contained inscriptions of an official nature.
Literature.—The Commentaries; artt. in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible and Encyc. Bibl. ; works on Assyria, Babylon, and Egypt in general; allusions in Ramsay’s Letters to the Seven Churches .
Geo. C. Watt.
