Bible Dictionary
PLATE
A plate in biblical usage is generally a tablet or sheet of metal, such as the gold plate worn on the high priest’s headpiece or metal plates used in temple furnishings.
Definition
A plate in biblical usage is generally a tablet or sheet of metal rather than a dish. It may be a gold plate, a hammered metal sheet, a stone tablet, or a metal plate forming part of temple furnishings.
Biblical Usage
The high priest wore a gold plate on the front of his mitre, inscribed with words declaring holiness to Yahweh. Metal plates also formed parts of the temple bases and other furnishings.
Historical Background
The biblical terms include words for radiant gold plates, hammered sheets of metal, and tablets or tables of stone. In one temple passage, “plate” is corrected to “axle.”
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>plat: A term seemingly not used in the Bible for a dish as it is so commonly used at present, but always for a tablet or sheet of metal.</p><p>(1) tsits (Ex 28:36; 39:30; Le 8:9), a plate of gold on the front of the mitre of the high priest. The name seems to have been given because of the radiance of the object.</p><p>(2) pach (Ex 39:3; Nu 16:38), of plates or sheets of metal produced by hammering.</p><p>(3) luach, used for tablets or tables of stone (Ex 24:12, etc.), but in 1Ki 7:36 for the metal plates on the bases of the lavers in the temple. The word ceren, is rendered "plate" in 1Ki 7:30 the King James Version, manifestly incorrectly, the Revised Version (British and American) "axle."</p><p>Walter R. Betteridge</p>