Engraver

Engraving and the craftsmen who practiced it (Hebrew ḥārash, a general artisan term, and pattîsh for inscriber) played important roles in the production of sacred objects in ancient Israel. The stones of the high priest's ephod were engraved with the names of the twelve tribes, and the gold plate of the high priest's mitre was engraved with the inscription HOLINESS TO THE LORD. Bezalel, the chief craftsman of the tabernacle, was specifically endowed with skill in engraving stones and in carving wood for the sanctuary's appointed furnishings.

Engraving extended beyond sacred objects to personal seals, which were used to authenticate documents and authority. Signet rings bore engraved emblems or names, as did the seal stones of the high priest's breastplate, each engraved with a tribe's name as a seal is engraved. The metaphor of engraving on the heart (Jeremiah 17:1; Proverbs 3:3) employed this technical skill as an image of indelible inscription, contrasting the permanence of engraving with the transience of writing on perishable materials.