Frontlets: Occurs only in
(Exodus 13:16; Deuteronomy 6:8; Deuteronomy 11:18) The meaning of the
injunction to the Israelites, with regard to the statues and precepts
given them, that they should "bind them for a sign upon their hand,
and have them as frontlets between their eyes," was that they should
keep them distinctly in view and carefully attend to them. But soon
after their return from Babylon they began to interpret this
injunction literally, and had accordingly portions of the law written
out and worn about their person. These they called tephillin, i.e.,
"prayers." The passages so written out on strips of parchment were
these,
(Exodus 12:2-10; 13:11-21; Deuteronomy 6:4-9; 11:18-21) They were then "rolled
up in a case of black calfskin, which was attached to a stiffer piece
of leather, having a thong one finger broad and one cubit and a half
long. Those worn on the forehead were written on four strips of
parchment, and put into four little cells within a square case, which
had on it the Hebrew letter called shin, the three points of which
were regarded as an emblem of God." This case tied around the
forehead in a particular way was called "the tephillah on the head."
