tablet

Concise Bible Dictionary:

In the Old Testament the word kumaz signifies ornaments (Ex. 35:22²²And 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. (Exodus 35:22); Num. 31:50⁵⁰We have therefore brought an oblation for the Lord, what every man hath gotten, of jewels of gold, chains, and bracelets, rings, earrings, and tablets, to make an atonement for our souls before the Lord. (Numbers 31:50)). In Isaiah 3:20²⁰The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the earrings, (Isaiah 3:20) they are supposed to be receptacles for perfume. The margin reads “houses of the soul,” which agrees with the Hebrew beth nephesh. See TABLE.

Strong’s Dictionary of Hebrew Words:

Number:

3558 (find all occurrences in KJV Bible)

Transliteration:

kuwmaz

Phonic:

koo-mawz’

Meaning:

from an unused root meaning to store away; a jewel (probably gold beads)

KJV Usage:

tablet

From Manners and Customs of the Bible:

Luke 1:63⁶³And he asked for a writing table, and wrote, saying, His name is John. And they marvelled all. (Luke 1:63). He asked for a writing table, and wrote, saying, His name is John.

Writing tablets were in use among various ancient nations. They are referred to in Isaiah 30:8⁸Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever: (Isaiah 30:8) and in Habakkuk 2:2²And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. (Habakkuk 2:2), and metaphorically in Proverbs 3:3³Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: (Proverbs 3:3), Jeremiah 17:1¹The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars; (Jeremiah 17:1) and 2 Corinthians 3:3³Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. (2 Corinthians 3:3). They are yet to be seen in modern Greece. Among the Romans they were occasionally made of ivory or of Citron-wood, but generally of beach, fir, or some other common wood. They were covered with a thin coating of wax, in which the letters were formed by a stylus, an instrument corresponding to the modern pen. It was made of gold, silver, brass, iron, copper, ivory, or bone. One end was pointed for writing, while the other was smooth, fiat, and circular, for erasing, and for smoothing the waxed surface so that it might be used again for writing. The outside part of the tablet, which was held in the hand, was not coated with wax, and around the edge of the inside there was a thin, narrow ledge, so that when two tablets came together the waxed surfaces would not touch each other and become marred.

A book was often made of several of these tablets combined, sometimes as many as five or six being fastened together at the backs by means of wires, which also served as hinges. Tablets were used for almost every species of writing, where the document was not of great length. Letters, or even wills, were written upon them. For the purpose of sealing these, and other documents which might require it, holes were made in the outer edge, through which a triple thread was passed and fastened with a seal.