Psalm 119.105: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Metaphorically, the Psalmist tells his readers that God’s word enables wise choices for every decision in his life. He uses the revealed truth to keep from stumbling into sin and its consequences. He wants to continue to enjoy God’s blessing uninterrupted.
Ancient Hebrews used clay oil lamps into which olive oil was poured and a wick inserted and protruding outside the lamp was lit and so gave its light until the oil supply was spent or the wick material consumed. These lamps were somewhat similar throughout the Mideast region, and, while I have no pictures of Israeli lamps, the ones from the Greeks, Persians, and North Africa give hints as to the lighting devices of which the Psalmist speaks.
Not all of the pictures are as clear as I would like them to be but think the images portray the device so as to give the idea of the technology of the period. All of the pictures were taken through glass as the museum displayed these artifacts for their preservation. Neither were all of these lamps in the focus field of my camera as it was impossible to separate the groupings and only certain angles produced the best representations. None of the pictures were taken with the camera’s flash function as it was not allowed by the museum.
I was able to isolate 31 images of lamps and will caption a verse or part of a verse from Proverbs with each calendar day corresponding to the chapter in this “Wisdom” book. The title of my post will briefly describe the artifact.