Exodus 25:37

“You are to make its seven lamps, ¹  and then set ²  its lamps up on it, so that it will give light ³  to the area in front of it.

Ex 27:21; Ex 30:8; Ex 37:23; Ex 40:24; Le 24:2-4; Nu 8:2; 2Ch 13:11; Ps 119:105; Pr 6:23; Isa 8:20; Zec 4:2; Mt 5:14; Lu 1:79; Joh 1:9; Joh 8:12; Joh 12:5; Ac 26:18; Re 1:4,12,20; Re 2:1; Re 4:5; Re 21:23-25; Re 22:5

¹ tn The word for “lamps” is from the same root as the lampstand, of course. The word is נֵרוֹת (nerot). This probably refers to the small saucer-like pottery lamps that are made very simply with the rim pinched over to form a place to lay the wick. The bowl is then filled with olive oil as fuel.

² tn The translation “set up on” is from the Hebrew verb “bring up.” The construction is impersonal, “and he will bring up,” meaning “one will bring up.” It may mean that people were to fix the lamps on to the shaft and the branches, rather than cause the light to go up (see S. R. Driver, Exodus, 277).

³ tn This is a Hiphil perfect with vav consecutive, from אוֹר (’or, “light”), and in the causative, “to light, give light.”