STYLUS

A writing instrument used in making impressions on materials such as clay or wax. (Ps 45:1; Isa 8:1; Jer 8:8) The stylus used for cuneiform writing had either a square or a wedge-shaped tip and was commonly made of reed or hardwood.

A stylus or chisel of metal or some other hard material was needed to cut or carve letters into stone or metal. The patriarch Job declared: “O that now my words were written down! O that in a book they were even inscribed! With an iron stylus and with lead, forever in the rock O that they were hewn!” (Job 19:23, 24) Apparently it was Job’s desire that his words be cut into rock and the inscribed letters filled with lead to make them more enduring. Centuries later, Jehovah spoke of Judah’s sins as being written down with an iron stylus, that is, indelibly recorded.​—Jer 17:1.