Skip to content

ubs

לַפִּּיד lappīd – cresset, torch

Semantic Fields: Utensils   
Author(s): Marjo Korpel
First published: 2011-10-28
Last update: 2025-10-10
Citation: Marjo Korpel, לַפִּּיד lappīd – cresset, torch,
               Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Database (sahd-online.com), 2011 (update: 2025) (WORK IN PROGRESS)

Introduction

Grammatical type: noun masc.

Occurrences: 14x HB (2/9/3); 0x Sir; 0x Qum; 0x Inscr. (Total: 14)

  • Torah: Gen 15:17; Exod 20:18;
  • Nebiim: Judg 7:16, 20; 15:4 (2x), 5; Isa 62:1; Ezek 1:13; Nah 2:5; Zech 12:6;
  • Ketubim: Job 12:5; 41:11; Dan 10:6.

1. Root and Comparative Material

A.1 Akkadian. Zimmern and Segert suggested that Akkadian dipāru, ‘torch’, might be at the origin of Hebrew lappīd.1 This was adapted by Salonen.2 However, this derivation is phonetically improbable. According to the examples Salonen mentions the dipāru was used ‘to light up the darkness’, and it could glow ‘to shine out high in the sky’. It could also be used for fire signals.3 All texts Salonen discusses clearly point to a torch made of wood and wool (→ זִיק ‘fiery missile’).

A.2 Hittite. Rabin suggested that the origin of the word has to be sought in Hittite lappiya- ‘glowing thing, torch’, Luwian lappi(ya)-.4 For this word Friedrich gives ‘Glut’; 1. Erg., 12: ‘Kienspan (?)’.5

A.3 Ugaritic. The word itself is not attested in Ugaritic, but Salonen mentions RS 16.146 + 161 (PRU III, 186:38 where the word dipāru is used, ‘seven bronze torches, with a weight of 170 Shekel each’.7 The ‘bronze’ probably refers to the firepot on top of a wooden shaft. See Conclusion.

A.4 Phoenician, Punic. Hoftijzer & Jongeling and Krahmalkov mention a vessel lp.7 For possible identifications see Hoftijzer & Jongeling. Perhaps < λαμπάς might be added.

A.5 Postbiblical Hebrew. ‘a pot in which light is carried; torch; lightning; flash’.8

A.6 Jewish Aramaic. לַפִּּיד, ‘a pot in which light is carried; torch; lightning; flash.’9 Also as לַמְפַּּד, ‘lamp’, a direct loan from Greek λαμπά?10

A.7 Samaritan Aramaic. לפיד, ‘torch’.11

A.8 Syriac. lampī(ʾ)d, rarely lampīs, a) ‘a lamp, torch, candlestick’ ... b) a flash, meteor’12, obviously a loan from λαμπάς, but influenced by לַפִּּיד.13

A.9 Classical Arabic. The proposal to connect it with the Arab. √nafaṭa14 does not merit serious consideration.

A.10 Ethiopic. lampā, ‘lamp’; lanpās ‘lamp, torch, flame’.15

A.11 Greek. From antiquity on people have connected לַפִּּיד with Greek λαμπά? ‘torch’.16 This is possible from a very early time on (cf. Hittite), but it can also have been a more recent loan directly from Greek.

A.12 Rabbinical Literature. Jdt 10:22 mentions that Holofernes came out of his tent with silver torches (λαμπάδες ἀργυραῖ) carried before him. This suggests torches in a (silver) pot or container, that can be held in the hand, or even torches with a silver handle. 1 Macc 6:39, when the sun is shining on bronze and golden shields, the mountains also reflect this light, and gleam like torches of fire (λαμπάδε? πυρό?). Sir 48:1 states that the prophet Elijah arose like a fire, and his word flares like a torch (λαμπά?). The Hebrew text has תנור ‘oven’ here.
According to the War Scroll of Qumran God will ignite the stricken of spirit ‘like a blazing torch in straw’ (בעמיר אש כלפיד, 1 QM 11:10).
According to rabbinic sources the לַפִּּיד always had a shaft on which a cup of clay or metal containing an impregnated wick was mounted.17

2. Formal Characteristics

A.1 [Discussion will be added later.]

3. Syntagmatics

A.1 [Discussion will be added later.]

4. Ancient Versions

a. Septuagint (LXX) and other Greek versions (αʹ, σʹ, θʹ):

  • Always λαμπάς, ‘that which gives out light’.18

b. Peshitta (Pesh):

  • Gen 15:17; Exod 20:18, etc., lampīdā ‘torch’.

c. Targum (Tg):

  • The Job Targum of Qumran (11Q10, 36:4) renders Job 41:11 fairly literally, יפקון לפידין פמה מן, ‘from its mouth torches emerge’.
    Gen 15:17 TgO דאישא בעור, ‘a fiery torch’; TgN and some other Palestinian targums, דאשא שלהבין נור די שביבין, ‘fiery sparks and flames of fire’; TgPsJon דנור שביבין ומבעיר דאשא גומרין, ‘coals of fire and burning of fiery sparks’.
    Exod 20:18 TgO דתמן אמיטתא, ‘the darkness that was there’; TgN למפדייה, ‘torches’; TgPsJon בעוריא ‘torches’.
    Targum Jonathan on the Prophets translates בעורא, ‘torch’, in all instances. So does the late Tg Job in 41:11.

d. Vulgate (Vg):

  • lampas, ‘torch’, in Gen 15:17; Exod 20:18; Judg 7:16 par.; Isa 62:1; Nah 2:4; Job 12:5; 41:10 (MT 11); fax, also ‘torch’, in Judg 15:4; Zech 12:6.

5. Lexical/Semantic Fields

A.1 [Discussion will be added later.]

6. Exegesis

6.1 Literal Use

A.1 The occurences of the word can be divided into two groups: texts using just the word לַפִּּיד (10x) and texts using the combination of אֵשׁ לַפִּּיד (4x). The latter would seem to indicate that the object has been kindled.

A.2 The most informative text with regard to the use of לַפִּּיד is Judg 7:16 (see also Judg 7:20). Gideon uses a ruse to surprise the Midianites. With only 300 man he goes to the outskirts of the camp of the Midianites. His men all get a trumpet in their hands, and empty jars with torches inside (הַכַּדִּים בְּתֹוךְ לַפִּּדִים) in the other hand. After a signal the men have to shatter the jars, simultaneously blowing their trumpets. They hold (חזק Pi.) the torches in the left hand and the trumpets in the right hand. Though it seems rather complicated to do three things at the same time with only one pair of hands, this is not something bothering the narrator. Perhaps they hit their neighbour’s jar with their own. The לַפִּּיד must have been a torch smouldering within the jar, a ploy still used by the Cairo police in the 19th century as a kind of dark lantern (see 6.4 Archeology).

A.3 This kind of torch was used also by Samson in Judg 15:4-5. He turned the foxes tail to tail and put a torch between each pair of tails. Evidently he used torches the fire of which was burning at the very end of the handle to make the foxes run without burning their tails. If the description is correct the torches must have consisted of sticks with inflammable material on top. Probably in this case too the torches were kept smouldering in jars until the moment the animals could be released almost simultaneously.

A.4 In Gen 15:17 a strange scene is depicted: Abraham is waiting for God to appear and between the pieces of meat on the ground a smoking oven (→ עָשָׁן תַנּוּר) and a torch of fire pass (עבר). In this text the smoking oven and the torch of fire have to be interpreted as symbols accompanying the appearance of God, anticipating more or less the theophany on Mt. Sinai.19

6.2 Figurative Use

A.1 Exod 20:18 mentions the perception of thundering (הַקֹּּולֹת), lightning (‘torches’, הַלַּפִּּידִם and the sound of the horn (הַשֹּׁפָר קֹול). As in other ancient oriental descriptions of the theophany, thunder and lightning accompany the theophany on Mt. Sinai. Because such theophanies were symbolically re-enacted in the cult, the torches may be a remnant of such an earlier ritual.

A.2 In a prophecy (Isa 62:1) the vindication of Zion is said to go forth like brightness (נֹּגַהּ, and her salvation as a burning torch (יִבְעָר לַפִּּיד). In the vision Ezek 1:13 the appearance of heavenly creatures is accompanied by light that is described as something that looked like burning coals of fire (גַחֲלֵי ־אֵשׁ, like torches moving (הלך). The fire was bright (וְנֹגַהּ and lightning (בָרָק) came out of the fire. Similarly chariots are described in Nah 2:3, they gleam like torches, they dart (רוצּ Pi.) like lightning (בָרָק).

A.3 Zech 12:6 announces that the clans of Judah will be made like a blazing pot (אֵשׁ כִּיֹּור, → כִּיֹּור) in the woods and like a flaming torch (אֵשׁ לַפִּּיד) among the sheaves. This means they will destroy (‘devour’, אכל) everything around them (cf. Judg 15:4-5).

A.4 Out of the mouth of the monster described in Job 41:11 flaming torches go up, sparks of fire (אֵשׁ כִּידֹודֵי leap forth. Daniel, in one of his visions (Dan 10:6), sees a man whose face is like the appearance of lightning (בָרָק מַרְאֵה) and whose eyes are like flaming torches (אֵשׁ לַפִּּידֵי).

A.5 The difficult text Job 12:5 is not taken into consideration here. Usually לַפִּּיד is analysed as the preposition לְ + the article + פִיד ‘calamity’. It is possible, however, to render, ‘Contempt is a torch for the thinking of the care-free, it directs their unsteady feet’. The statement would mean then that the affluent mask their uncertainty about their unethical behaviour by treating less lucky people with contempt. Contempt is the torch lighting their way (cf. Ps 119:105).

6.3 Pictorial Material

A.1 On Sennacherib’s well-known well-known relief depicting the siege of Lachish an Assyrian soldier is kindling a tightly wrapped missile with a torch (זֵק / זִיק).

6.4 Archaeology

A.1 Cf. זֵק / זִיק.

7. Conclusion

A.1 In all texts where לַפִּּיד is attested, it is accompanied by words denoting fire and heat. In comparisons the word is paralleled by an oven (Gen 15:7), a blazing pot (Zech 12:6), burning coals (Ezek 1:13; Job 41:11-13), fire and lightning (Exod 20:18; Dan 10:6). The לַפִּּיד can burn and give light (Isa 62:1), and is narrow enough to be put into a jar (Judg 7:16, 20). It also can burn down sheaves, grain and olive orchards (Judg 15:5; Zech 12:6). In that case it is used as a kind of weapon, the kindling potential of which is more important than its light. The literal use in Judg 7:16,20 and 15:4-5 clearly points to a lightpot or lamp-post, just as young people nowadays sometimes make torches of an empty tin and a stick.

A.2 According to Dalman the לַפִּּיד consists of a torch in an earthen pot. Beduins called it the maš’al, an iron firepot for burning wood, on long sticks.21 This description is somewhat misleading (see below on the Arabic word). The torches mentioned in Matt 25:1ff. and John 18:3 might also be compared with this kind of lightpot on a stick.22

A.3 Lane provides an interesting parallel from modern Egypt,

‘The Ẓábiṭ, or Ághá of the police, used frequently to go about the metropolis at night, often accompanied by the executioner and the ‘‘sheạlegee,’’ or bearer of a kind of torch called ‘‘sheạleh,’’ which is still in use. This torch burns, soon after it is lighted, without a flame, except when it is waved through the air, when it suddenly blazes forth: it therefore answers the same purpose as our dark lantern. The burning end is sometimes concealed in a small pot or jar, or covered with something else, when not required to give light.’23


A.4 Lane offers a more detailed description of this type of torch called mašʿalah24 or šaʿlah25 in Arabic, ‘A particular sort of large support for a light: (KL:) [i.e. a sort of cresset, consisting of a staff with a cylindrical frame of iron at the top which is filled with flaming pine-wood or the like or tarred rags ... it is borne before travellers and others at night’ ...].

A.5 Whereas the זִיק consisted of a bundle of tightly wrapped rushes or kindle-wood, the לַפִּּיד always had a shaft and a cup of clay or metal on top containing an impregnated cloth serving as a wick. It may be assumed that this type of torch with a cup on a handle developed out of the more primitive Egyptian torch with only a conical lump of fat at the top of a stick.26

Bibliography

For the abbreviations see the List of Abbreviations.

Dalman, AuS, Bd. 4, 271 ‘Fackel, Lampe’

BDB, 542: ‘torch’

BHH, 462-3

Brown 1995-2001
J.P. Brown, Israel and Hellas, vol. 1, (BZAW, 231), Berlin 1995, 21; vol. 2, (BZAW, 276), Berlin 2000, 67, 90, 172, 298, 309; vol. 3, (BZAW, 299), Berlin 2001, 287, 295

Klein, CEDHL, 304

CHALOT, 178: ‘1. torch; 2. lightning’

Alonso Schökel, DBHE, 394: ‘antorcha, tea’

DCH, vol. 4, 556: ‘torch’

DNP, Bd. 2, 548-9; Bd. 6, 1084-6

EB EM, vol. 4, 527-9

GB, 388-9: ‘Fackel’

Gordon 1955
C.H. Gordon, ‘Homer and the Bible’, HUCA 26 (1955), 43-108 (61, §34)
Guillaume 1959
A. Guillaume, ‘Hebrew and Arabnic Lexicography (I)’, Abr-Nahrain 1 (1959), 3-35 (11, 27)

HAHAT, 613: ‘Fackel; Blitze’

HALAT, 506-7: ‘1. Fackel; 2. Blitz’

HAWAT, 201: ‘Fackel’

HCHAT, Bd. 1, 680: ‘eig. Leuchtendes, dah. Fackel’

KBL, 484: ‘Fackel torch’

LÄ, Bd. 2, 79-81 (‘Fackeln und Kerzen’); Bd. 3, 913-7

Lane 1860
E.W. Lane, An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians: The Definitive 1860 Edition, repr. Cairo 2003

LHA, 400: ‘lampas, i.e. fax ardens’

MHH, 566: בוער שקצהו מוט ,אבוקה

NIDOT, vol. 1, 809: ‘lightning, torch’

Salonen, Hausgeräte, 138-45

Segert 1962
S. Segert, ‘Zur Etymologie von Lappid Fackel’, ZAW 74 (1962), 323-4

ThWNT, Bd.4, 17-28

Gesenius & Roediger, TPC, 759: ‘1) flamma ... 2) lampas, fax’

Westermann 1981
C. Westermann, Genesis: Kapitel 12-36 (BKAT 1/2), Neukirchen 1981, 271
Zimmern 1914
H. Zimmern, Akkadische Fremdwörter als Beweis für babylonischen Kultureinfluß, Leipzig 1914, 36.

  1. Zimmern 1914 and Segert 1962. ↩

  2. Salonen, Hausgeräte, 139. ↩

  3. Salonen, Hausgeräte, 140. ↩

  4. Rabin 1963. ↩

  5. Friedrich, HW, 127. ↩

  6. Salonen, Hausgeräte, 140. ↩

  7. Hoftijzer & Jongeling, DNSI, 580 and Krahmalkov, PPD, 261. ↩

  8. Jastrow, DTT, 715. ↩

  9. Jastrow, DTT, 715. ↩

  10. cf. Sokoloff, DJPA, 284. ↩

  11. Tal, DSA, 442. ↩

  12. Payne Smith (Margoliouth), CSD, 243. ↩

  13. cf. Brockelmann, LS, 368. ↩

  14. Guillaume 1959. ↩

  15. Leslau, ESAC, 316. ↩

  16. LSJ, 1027. More recently e.g. Gordon 1955; Segert 1962; Brown 1995-2001. ↩

  17. Krauss, TA, Bd. 1, 68, 401; Brand, KHBH, 261-2. ↩

  18. GELS, 424-25. ↩

  19. Westermann 1981, 271. ↩

  20. Dalman, AuS, Bd. 6, 58. ↩

  21. AuS, Bd. 6, 58; Bd. 8, 22. ↩

  22. AuS, Bd. 4, 271. ↩

  23. Lane 1860, 120. ↩

  24. Lane, AEL, 1564. ↩

  25. Lane 1860, 178. ↩

  26. H.G. Fischer, LÄ, Bd. 2, 79-81. ↩

Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Database