There are some who criticize the King James Bible for its use of the word LAMPS. This is usually due to the fact that these Bible correctors (none of whom has any Bible in any language they can show us that they really believe is the complete and inerrant words of God) don’t know their own English language very well.
And they seem to overlook the fact that their own “bible” versions also use the word LAMPS in the same way the KJB does.
Let’s first define the word as used in Bible times. It is never used in the sense as most people would think of today as being an electrical lamp used for reading or just lighting a room.
Merriam Webster Dictionary.
Definition of lamp
(1) any of various devices for producing light or sometimes heat: such as
a vessel with a wick for burning an inflammable liquid (such as oil) to produce light
(2) a glass bulb or tube that emits light produced by electricity (such as an incandescent light bulb or fluorescent lamp)
Obviously the Bible is not referring to an electrical lamp, but rather to the first definition given - that of “a vessel with a wick for burning a liquid such as oil to produce light.”
American Heritage Dictionary gives one of the definitions of LAMP as “A vessel containing oil or alcohol burned through a wick.”
We see this word used in places like these in the King James Bible -
Genesis 15:7 - And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning LAMP that passed between those pieces.
Job 41:19 - speaking of Leviathan - Out of his mouth go burning LAMPS, and sparks of fire leap out.
Isaiah 62:1 - For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as A LAMP that burneth.
Daniel 10:6 - His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as LAMPS of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.
Judges 7:16 and 20 - And he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man's hand, with empty pitchers, and LAMPS within the pitchers.
V. 20 - And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held THE LAMPS in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon.
Let’s take a closer look at LAMPS as used in Judges 7:16. Many modern versions like the NKJV, NASB, ESV, NET, etc. have the word TORCHES here instead of Lamps. I am not saying that “torches” is necessarily wrong, but I am merely showing why the KJB and others are not wrong.
Also reading LAMPS in Judges 7:16 are the Latin Vulgate - “lampadas” - Wycliffe 1395, Coverdale 1535, the Great Bible 1540, Matthew’s Bible 1549, the Bishops’ bible 1568, the Geneva Bible 1587, Charles Thomson Translation 1808, Young’s literal 1898, the Hebrew Publishing Company O.T. 1936, the Concordant Literal Version 1976, the Third Millennium Bible 1998, the Apostolic Poiyglot Bible 2003 and the New Simplified Bible 2011.
Also reading LAMPS is this online Hebrew Interlinear -
https://studybible.info/IHOT/Judges%207:16
The Jewish Virtual Library Complete Tanach 1994 - “with empty pitchers, and LAMPS within the pitchers.”
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/shoftim-judges-chapter-7
The Hebrew Transliteration Scriptures 2010 - “and LAMPS within the pitchers.”
https://www.messianic-torah-truth-seeker.org/Scriptures/Tenakh/Shoftim/Softim07.htm
The Ancient Hebrew Bible 1909 - “and LAMPS within the pitchers.”
https://archive.org/details/ancienthebrewlit01yyypuoft/page/452/mode/2up?view=theater
LAMPS in other modern versions.
ESV - lamps. Here are just a few of the examples where the ESV uses the word “lamps”.
Exodus 25:6 - oil for the LAMPS, spices for the anointing oil
Exodus 25:37 - You shall make seven LAMPS for it. And the LAMPS shall be set up so as to give light on the space in front of it.
Exodus 30:8 - and when Aaron sets up the LAMPS at twilight, he shall burn it, a regular incense offering before the Lord throughout your generations.
Numbers 8:3 - “Speak to Aaron and say to him, When you set up the LAMPS, the seven LAMPS shall give light in front of the lampstand.”
Matthew 25:1 - “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their LAMPS and went to meet the bridegroom.
Matthew 25:7 -Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their LAMPS.
Acts 20:8 - There were many LAMPS in the upper room where we were gathered.
The King James Bible is right, as always.
Will Kinney
Return to Articles -