diff --git a/tools/tabulate/angle_harmonic_tabulate.py b/tools/tabulate/angle_harmonic_tabulate.py
index 665b392198..f867acc391 100755
--- a/tools/tabulate/angle_harmonic_tabulate.py
+++ b/tools/tabulate/angle_harmonic_tabulate.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env python3
+#!/usr/bin/env python
 
 from tabulate import AngleTabulate
 
diff --git a/tools/tabulate/bond_morse_tabulate.py b/tools/tabulate/bond_morse_tabulate.py
index 2301343d4e..14b6a2adf5 100755
--- a/tools/tabulate/bond_morse_tabulate.py
+++ b/tools/tabulate/bond_morse_tabulate.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env python3
+#!/usr/bin/env python
 
 from tabulate import BondTabulate
 
diff --git a/tools/tabulate/dihedral_harmonic_tabulate.py b/tools/tabulate/dihedral_harmonic_tabulate.py
index 085cc73c3b..29fc59dad2 100755
--- a/tools/tabulate/dihedral_harmonic_tabulate.py
+++ b/tools/tabulate/dihedral_harmonic_tabulate.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env python3
+#!/usr/bin/env python
 
 from tabulate import DihedralTabulate
 
diff --git a/tools/tabulate/pair_hybrid_tabulate.py b/tools/tabulate/pair_hybrid_tabulate.py
index dabc0c7e85..98e2814233 100755
--- a/tools/tabulate/pair_hybrid_tabulate.py
+++ b/tools/tabulate/pair_hybrid_tabulate.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env python3
+#!/usr/bin/env python
 
 from tabulate import PairTabulate
 
diff --git a/tools/tabulate/tabulate.py b/tools/tabulate/tabulate.py
index 58b7055791..3bba7c2ecf 100755
--- a/tools/tabulate/tabulate.py
+++ b/tools/tabulate/tabulate.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
 # ----------------------------------------------------------------------
 #   LAMMPS - Large-scale Atomic/Molecular Massively Parallel Simulator
 #   https://www.lammps.org/ Sandia National Laboratories
@@ -277,3 +278,7 @@ class DihedralTabulate(Tabulate):
         self.writetable(table, 0.0)
         if self.args.filename != '-':
             self.fp.close()
+
+################################################################################
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    sys.exit("The tabulate module is not meant to be executed directly")