What is the Biblical meaning of 'table'?

Answer 1

A smooth, flat surface, like the side of a board; a thin, flat, smooth piece of anything; a slab., A thin, flat piece of wood, stone, metal, or other material, on which anything is cut, traced, written, or painted; a tablet, a memorandum book., Any smooth, flat surface upon which an inscription, a drawing, or the like, may be produced., Hence, in a great variety of applications: A condensed statement which may be comprehended by the eye in a single view; a methodical or systematic synopsis; the presentation of many items or particulars in one group; a scheme; a schedule., A view of the contents of a work; a statement of the principal topics discussed; an index; a syllabus; a synopsis; as, a table of contents., A list of substances and their properties; especially, a list of the elementary substances with their atomic weights, densities, symbols, etc., Any collection and arrangement in a condensed form of many particulars or values, for ready reference, as of weights, measures, currency, specific gravities, etc.; also, a series of numbers following some law, and expressing particular values corresponding to certain other numbers on which they depend, and by means of which they are taken out for use in computations; as, tables of logarithms, sines, tangents, squares, cubes, etc.; annuity tables; interest tables; astronomical tables, etc., The arrangement or disposition of the lines which appear on the inside of the hand., An article of furniture, consisting of a flat slab, board, or the like, having a smooth surface, fixed horizontally on legs, and used for a great variety of purposes, as in eating, writing, or working., Hence, food placed on a table to be partaken of; fare; entertainment; as, to set a good table., The company assembled round a table., One of the two, external and internal, layers of compact bone, separated by diploe, in the walls of the cranium., A stringcourse which includes an offset; esp., a band of stone, or the like, set where an offset is required, so as to make it decorative. See Water table., The board on the opposite sides of which backgammon and draughts are played., One of the divisions of a backgammon board; as, to play into the right-hand table., The games of backgammon and of draughts., A circular plate of crown glass., The upper flat surface of a diamond or other precious stone, the sides of which are cut in angles., A plane surface, supposed to be transparent and perpendicular to the horizon; -- called also perspective plane., The part of a machine tool on which the work rests and is fastened., To form into a table or catalogue; to tabulate; as, to table fines., To delineate, as on a table; to represent, as in a picture., To supply with food; to feed., To insert, as one piece of timber into another, by alternate scores or projections from the middle, to prevent slipping; to scarf., To lay or place on a table, as money., In parliamentary usage, to lay on the table; to postpone, by a formal vote, the consideration of (a bill, motion, or the like) till called for, or indefinitely., To enter upon the docket; as, to table charges against some one., To make board hems in the skirts and bottoms of (sails) in order to strengthen them in the part attached to the boltrope., To live at the table of another; to board; to eat.

Answer 2

It depends on the translation and the context. The New International Version, for example, has 86 occurrences of the word "table," and 18 of the plural form. A quick skim of the verses indicate that the word refers to what we think of as a "table," though perhaps not quite in the same form. The King James Version, on the other hand, uses the word "tables" to refer to the two tablets of stone Moses brought down from the mountain ... the tablets on which were inscribed God's commandments. The word "table" here is more a 17th century British usage of the word that would refer to a flat solid object. (According to Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, the Hebrew word could also be translated as "board" or "plate;" literally it referred to a polished tablet of stone, wood or metal. In this context, specifically Exodus 24:12, it says the tables/tablets were made of stone.) Several other translations, including the Amplified Bible and the Revised Standard Version, among others, also translates the word as "tables."