With respect to the early versions of the book, it is noticeable, that the translation in the LXX. of the Book of Jeremiah is done by a different hand from that which translated the Lamentations, and that the Vulgate follows, in its version, rather the Hebrew text than the LXX. The Tar gum to Lamentations is of a late and very uncertain date ; and though of little value for exegetical pur poses, and containing more legendary by- work than most of the Targums, is yet highly useful, as containinff both the early traditions and the floating theologica'l notions. " Of the principal writers on Lamentations we mention Calvin, Grotius, Clericus, Horrer, Leusden, Lowth, Herder, Eich horn, Meier, Pareau, Otto, Rosenmiiller, Maurer, Kalkar, Thenius. The most valuable translations (into German) are by Dathe, Wollsolm, De Wette, Meier, Thenius.t —E. D.
LAMP (-14a, whence, perhaps, Gr. Nal.ords, the I,. being introduced in place of the Hebrew 0, Lat. /ampas, and our /avzp). Lamps are very often mentioned in Scripture ; but there is nothing to give any notion of their form. Almost the only fact we can gather is, that vegetable oils were burnt in them, and especially, if not exclusively, olive-oil. This, of the finest quality, was the oil used in the seven lamps of the Tabernacle (Exod. xxvii. 2o). It is somewhat remarkable, that while the golden candlestick, or rather candelabrum, is so minutely described, not a word is said of the shape, or even the material, of the lamps (Exod. xxv. 37). This was, perhaps, because they were to be of the common forms, already familiarly known to the Hebrews, and the same probably which were used in Egypt, which they had just quitted. They were in this instance doubtless of gold, although metal is scarcely the best substance for a lamp. The golden candlestick may also suggest, that lamps in ordinary use were placed on stands, and where more than one was required, on stands with two or more branches. The modern Orientals, who are satisfied with very little light in their rooms, use stands of brass or wood, on which to raise the lamps to a sufficient height above the floor on which they sit. Such stands are shaped not unlike a tall candlestick, spreading out at the top. Sometimes the lamps are placed on brackets ag,ainst the wall, made for the purpose, and often upon stools. Doubtless the same contrivances were employed by the Hebrews.
From the fact that lamps were carried in the pitchers of Gideon's soldiers, from which, at the end of the march, they were taken out, and borne in the hand (Judg. vii. 16, 20), we may with cer tainty infer that they were not, like many of the classical lamps, entirely open at top, but so shaped that the oil could not easily be spilled. This was remarkably the case in the Egyptian specimens, and is not rare in the classical. Gideon's lamps must also have had handles ; but that the Hebrew lamps were always furnished with handles we are not bound to infer: in Egypt we find lamps both with and without handles.
Although the lamp-oils of the Hebrews were exclusively vegetable, it is probable that animal fat was used, as it is at present by the Western Asiatics, by being placed in a kind of lamp, and burnt by means of a wick inserted in it. This we have often witnessed in districts where oil-yielding plants are not common.
Cotton wicks are now used throughout Asia ; but the Hebrews, like the Egyptians, probably em ployed the outer and coarser fibre of flax (Pliny, Hist. Nat. xix. 1); and perhaps linen yarn, if the Rabbins are correct in alleging that the linen dresses of the priests were unravelled when old, to furnish wicks for the sacred lamps. [CANDLE STICK.] It seems that the Hebrews, like thi modern Orientals, were accustomed to burn lamps over night in their chambers; and this practice may appear to give point to the expression of onto- darkness,' which repeatedly occurs in the New Testament (Matt. viii. 12 ; =11. 13) ; the force is greater, however, when the contrast implied in the term outer is viewed with reference to the effect produced by sudden expulsion into the darkness of night from a. chamber highly illuminated for an entertainment. This custom of burning lamps at night, with the effect produced by their going out or being extinguished, supplies various figures to the sacred writers (2 Sam. xxi. 17; Prov. xiii. 9;
xx. 2o). And, on the other hand, the keeping up of a lamp's light is used as a symbol of enduring and unbroken succession (1 Kings xi. 36; xv. 4; Ps. cxxxii. 17).
It appears from Matt. xxv. 1, that the Jews used lamps and torches in their marriage-ceremonies, or rather when the bridegroom came to conduct home the bride by night. This is still the custom in those parts of the East where, on account of the heat of the day, the bridal procession takes place in the night-time. The connection of lamps and torches with marriage-ceremonies often appears also in the classical poets (Homer, //lad, xviii. 492; Eurip. Phceniss. 346; Medea, Io27; Virg. Eck. viii. 29); and indeed Hymen, the god of marriage, was fif;ured as bearing a torch. The same con nection, it may be observed, is still preserved in Western Asia, even where it is no longer usual to bring home the bride by night. During two, or three, or more nights preceding the wedding, the street or quarter in which the bridegrootn lives is illuminated with chandeliers and lanterns, or with lanterns and small lamps suspended from cords drawn across from the bridegroom's and several other houses on each side to the houses opposite; and several small silk flags, each of two colours, generally red and green, arc attached to other cords (Lane's Egypt., i. 201). A modern lantern much used on these occasions, with lamps hung about it and suspended from it, is represented in the following cut (No. 311). The lamps used separately on such occasions are represented in the following cut (No. 312). Figs. 1, 3, and 5, show very distinctly the shape of these lamps, with the conical receptacle of wood which serves to protect the flame from the wind. Lamps of this kind are sometimes hung over doors. The shape in fig. 3 is also that of a. much-used in-door lamp. It is a small vessel of glass, having a small tube at the bottom, in which is stuck a wick formed of cotton twisted round a piece of straw : some water is poured in first, and then the oil. Lamps very nearly of this shape appear on the Egyptian monu ments, and they seem also to be of glass (Wilkin son's Ancient Egyptians, iii. Pm; v. 376). If the Egyptians had lamps of glass, there is no reason why the Jews also might not have had them, espe cially as this material is more proper for lamps in tended to be hung up, and therefore to cast their light down from above. The Jews certainly used lamps in other festivals besides those of marriage. The Roman satirist (Persius, Sat. v. 179) expressly describes them as making illuminations at their festivals by lamps hung up and arranged in an orderly manner; and the Scriptural intimations, so far as they go, agree with this description. If this custom had not been so general in the ancient and modern East, it might have been supposed that the Jews adopted it from the Egyptians, who, accord ing to Herodotus (ii. 62), had a. Feast of Lamps,' which was celebrated at Sais, and, indeed, through out the country at a certain season of the year. The description which the historian gives of the lamps employed on this occasion strictly applies to those in modern use already described, and the concurrence of both these sources of illustmtion strengthens the probable analogy of Jewish usage. He speaks of them as small vases filled with salt and olive-oil, in which the wick floated, and burnt during the whole night.' It does not, indeed, appear of what materials these vases were made ; but we may reasonably suppose them to have been of glass.
The later Jews had even something like this feast among themselves. A 'Feast of Lamps' was held every year on the twenty-fifth of the month Chisleu. It was founded by Judas Maccabus in celebration of the restoration of the temple-worship (Joseph. Jf/ztiq. xii. 7. 7), and has ever since been observed by the lighting up of lamps or candles on that day in all the countries of their dispersion (Maimon. tlforIt. Hashanah, fol. 8). Other Orien tals have at this day a similar feast, of which the Feast of Lanterns ' among the Chinese is, per haps, the best known (Davis's Chinese, p. r38).— J. K.