PELONITE (pero-nite), (Heb. ";lt fiel-o-nee', separate).
The appellation of Helez and Ahijah, two of David's mighty men (1 Chron. xi:27, 36; xxvii : to). No place or person is mentioned from which this adjective could be derived, and it is possibly a corruption.
PEN (pen), (Heb. ate, pen).
The instruments with which the characters were formed in the writing of the ancients varied with the materials upon which the letters were to be traced. Upon hard substances, such as stone or metallic plates, a graver of steel was used, the same which Job calls "an iron pen" ( Job xix :24).
Upon tablets of wax a metallic pen or stylus was employed, having one end pointed to trace the letters, the other broad and flat to erase any erroneous marks by smoothing the wax.
Upon paper, linen, cotton, skins, and parch ments it was in very early times common to paint the letters with a hair-pencil brought to a fine point. The reed pen was introduced afterward, and at first used without being split at the point.
The reed pen is used by the modern Turks, Sy rians, Persians, Abyssinians, Arabs, and other Orientals, as their languages could not be writ ten without difficulty with pens made from quills. A particular kind of knife is used to split the reed ( Jer. xxxvi :23). (See WRITING.) FiguratiVe. (I) lt is possible that an instru ment pointed with diamond, such as glaziers now use, was not unknown, as "the sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diatnond; it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars" ( Jer. xvii :1). (2) Isaiah wrote "with a man's pen," in characters easy to be read, not like those writ ten by the angel on Belshazzar's wall (Is. viii:r). (3) The saints' tongues are like "the pen of a ready writer," when their hearts promptly con ceive and their mouths in an agreeable manner proclaim the praises of God (Ps. xlv