diff --git a/modules/lang/emacs-lisp/config.el b/modules/lang/emacs-lisp/config.el
index 0eb8756fa..dcbc77df3 100644
--- a/modules/lang/emacs-lisp/config.el
+++ b/modules/lang/emacs-lisp/config.el
@@ -46,7 +46,11 @@ employed so that flycheck still does *some* helpful linting.")
                ("describe" "xdescribe")))
 
   (setq-hook! 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook
-    tab-width (or lisp-indent-offset 2)
+    ;; Emacs' built-in elisp files use a hybrid tab->space indentation scheme
+    ;; with a tab width of 8. Any smaller and the indentation will be
+    ;; unreadable. Since Emacs' lisp indenter doesn't respect this variable it's
+    ;; safe to ignore this setting otherwise.
+    tab-width 8
     ;; shorter name in modeline
     mode-name "Elisp"
     ;; Don't treat autoloads or sexp openers as outline headers, we have