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Bible Dictionaries
Lamp
People's Dictionary of the Bible
or Lamp. The lights of the East are of various kinds; not only oil, but pitch, naphtha, and wax are used to maintain the flame. The wicks were generally made of cotton or of flax. According to rabbinical tradition, the wicks of the sacred lamps were made of the old linen garments of the priests. The form of Oriental lamps was fanciful, and often elegant, of which we have numerous specimens found in the ruined cities of the East. The materials of which lamps were made were baked clay, terra cotta, bronze, etc. The lamps of the Hebrews, it is probable, were suffered to bum all night, and this occasioned no great expense in a country so rich in oil. The putting put of the light denoted the ruin and extinction of the family and the desertion of the house. This gives force to the words in Job 18:5-6; Job 21:17; Job 29:3; "The light of the wicked shall be put out;... light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him." "How oft is the candle of the wicked put out." Jeremiah 25:10-11; Proverbs 20:20. Also in Proverbs 13:9; "The light of the righteous rejoiceth, but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out: " and of the prudent wife, "Her candle goeth not out by night." Proverbs 31:18.
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Rice, Edwin Wilbur, DD. Entry for 'Lamp'. People's Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/rpd/l/lamp.html. 1893.
