Where did the phrase ‘carved in stone’ come from and how it is related
to the Torah?
“The LORD said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the
commandment, which I have written for their instruction.”
(Exodus 24:12)
In Hebrew, it is customary to refer to the “Tablets of Stone” as “Luchot
Ha-brit” meaning “the Tablets of the Covenant” and it is only natural that the Tablets were placed in “Aron Ha-brit” meaning the Ark of the Covenant as recorded in the Book of 1 Kings:
“There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone that Moses put there at Horeb, where the LORD made a covenant with the
people of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.” (1 Kings 8:9)
In the original Hebrew, the word ‘instruction’ (last word in the verse
above) is “Le-horotam” and this word shares the same root and concept as the Hebrew word “Torah” and that is also the meaning of the Torah – instruction or teaching