Tablets of Stone

According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tablets of the Law (also Tablets of Stone, Stone Tablets, or Tablets of Testimony; Biblical Hebrew: לוּחֹת הַבְּרִית lûḥōt habbǝrît "tablets of the covenant", לֻחֹת הָאֶבֶן lūḥōt hāʾeben or לֻחֹת אֶבֶן lūḥōt eben or לֻחֹת אֲבָנִים lūḥōt ʾăbānîm "stone tablets", and לֻחֹת הָעֵדֻת lūḥōt hāʿēdūt "tablets of testimony", Arabic: أَلْوَاحُ مُوسَى) were the two stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments when Moses ascended Mount Sinai as written in the Book of Exodus.

According to the biblical narrative, the first set of tablets, inscribed by the finger of God, (Exodus 31:18) were smashed by Moses when he was enraged by the sight of the Children of Israel worshiping a golden calf (Exodus 32:19) and the second were later chiseled out by Moses and rewritten by God (Exodus 34:1).

According to traditional teachings of Judaism in the Talmud, the stones were made of blue sapphire as a symbolic reminder of the sky, the heavens, and ultimately of God's throne. Many Torah scholars, however, have opined that the biblical sapir was, in fact, lapis lazuli (see Exodus 24:10, lapis lazuli is a possible alternate rendering of "sapphire" the stone pavement under God's feet when the intention to craft the tablets of the covenant is disclosed Exodus 24:12).

According to Exodus 25:10–22, the tablets were stored in the Ark of the Covenant. Scott Noegel argued in 2015 that the Ark had Egyptian origins and was retroactively merged into the the Exodus narrative. Thomas Römer argued in 2015 that “clearly…the tablets of the law are a substitute for something else.” After extensive archaeological investigation and detailed biblical exegesis, he concluded in 2023 that “the original Ark contained a statue [i.e. a cult image] of Yhwh” and that it was “brought into the Jerusalem temple under Josiah.” He specifically suggested that it “transported two betyles (sacred stones), or two cult image statues symbolizing Yhwh and his female companion Ashera or a statue representing Yhwh alone.”