And the Lord answered me
As he does his ministers and people sooner or later, in one way
or another, when they call upon him with humility and reverence,
with faith and fervency: and said, Write the
vision;
which the prophet now had from him, concerning the coming of the
Messiah, and the destruction of the enemies of the church and
people of God: and this he has orders to "write"; not only to
tell it to the people then present, for their particular
information and satisfaction; but to write it, that it may be
read over and over, and that it may remain, and be of use in
times to come: and make [it] plain upon tables,
engrave it in plain legible letters on tables of wood; on box
tree, as the Septuagint version; on which they used to write
before paper was found out and used. Writing tables are of
ancient use; they were used in and before the times of Homer, for
he speaks F15 of writing very pernicious things
on a two leaved table; wherefore Josephus must be mistaken when
he suggests F16 that letters were not found out in
the times of Homer. These tables were made of wood, sometimes of
one sort, and sometimes of another; sometimes they were made of
the pine tree, as appears from Euripides F17 but,
for the most part, of box F18, according to the Greek
version as above; and consisted sometimes of two leaves, for the
most part of three or five, covered with wax F19, on
which impressions were easily made, and continued long, and were
very legible; and these impressions or letters were formed with
an iron style or pen; see ( Jeremiah
17:1 ) this the Greeks and Tuscans first used, but was
afterwards forbidden by the Romans, who, instead of it, ordered
an instrument of bone to be used F20: hence these tables were
wont to be called "wax", because besmeared with it; and so, in
wills and testaments written on them, the heirs are said to be
written either in the first wax, or in the bottom of the wax
F21, that is, of the will, or in the
lowest part of the table, or what we should call the bottom of
the leaf or page: and it was a custom among the Romans, as Cicero
F23 relates, that the public affairs of
every year were committed to writing by the Pontifex Maximus, or
high priest, and published on a table, and set to view within
doors, that the people might have an opportunity and be able to
know them; yea, it was usual to hang up laws, approved and
recorded, in tables of brass, in their market places, and in
their temples, that F24 they might be seen and read; the
same we call annals. In like manner the Jewish prophets used to
write and expose their prophecies publicly on tables, either in
their own houses, or in the temple, that everyone that passed by
might read them. That he may run that readeth
it;
may run through the whole without any difficulty, without making
any stop, being written in such large capital letters; and those
cut so well, and made so plain, that a man might run it over at
once with ease, or even read it as he was running; nor need he
stop his pace, or stand to read. The Targum is,
``write the prophecy, and explain it in the book of the law, that he may hasten to obtain wisdom, whoever he is that reads in it.''