About…
tablets in the Bible

Hebrew: לוּח —transliteration: luach —meaning: a tablet, a board or plank, a plate —occurrences: 43 (in Exodus and Deuteronomy)

Greek: πλάξ —transliteration: plax —meaning: a tablet or a flat surface, anything flat and broad —occurrences: 3 (in 2 Corinthians and Hebrews)

Tablets are mentioned many times in Scripture.

• God’s 10 commandments written on stone tablets

  Now Yahweh said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and remain there, and I will give you the stone tablets with the law and the commandment which I have written for their instruction.” —Exodus 24:12 LSB

  The two tablets of stone were kept in the Ark of the Covenant, where they were put by Moses at Horeb (2 Chronicles 5:10).

  • What are the 10 Commandments?
  • The Decalogue
  • Ark
  • Covenant
  • Sinai
  • Horeb

• The figurative tablet of the heart

  Do not let lovingkindness and truth forsake you;
  Bind them around your neck,
  Write them on the tablet of your heart. —Proverbs 3:3 LSB

  My son, keep my words
  And treasure my commandments within you.
  Keep my commandments and live,
  And my law as the apple of your eye.
  Bind them on your fingers;
  Write them on the tablet of your heart. —Proverbs 7:1-3 LSB

  being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, ministered to by us, having been written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of hearts of flesh. —2 Corinthians 3:3 LSB

• King James Version of Exodus 35:22

  The King James Version of Exodus 35:22 includes the word “tablets,” which is not appropriate.

  Hebrew: כּוּמָז —transliteration: kumaz

  And they came, both men and women, as many as were willing hearted, and brought bracelets, and earrings, and rings, and tablets, all jewels of gold: and every man that offered offered an offering of gold unto the LORD.

  Other Bible translations do not use the word “tablet,” but rather “necklaces” or “bracelets”. Compare the Legacy Standard Bible:

  Then all whose hearts were willing, both men and women, came and brought brooches and earrings and signet rings and bracelets, all articles of gold; so did every man who waved it as a wave offering of gold to Yahweh. —Exodus 35:22 LSB

  The Hebrew word kumaz also appears in Numbers 31:50 and is translated by modern Bibles as “necklaces”.

• King James Version of Isaiah 3:20

  Hebrew: הַנֶּ֖פֶשׁ —transliteration: han·ne·p̄eš (nephesh)

  In the following context, this word refers to “perfume boxes” in Isaiah 3:20, however the KJV translates it as “tablets”.

  The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the earrings —Isaiah 3:20 KJV

  From the Revised King James Version on, the Hebrew word is translated as “perfume boxes”.

  The Legacy Standard Bible translates this verse as follows:

  headdresses, ankle chains, sashes, perfume boxes, enchanted charms —Isaiah 3:20 LSB

More information

• EBLA TABLETS—In what ways have the discoveries of archaeology verified the reliability of the Bible?
• Nimrod and the Gilgamesh Epic on clay tablets
• Assyrian clay tablets at Nineveh
• cuneiform
• writing
• scribes
• clay