Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter_Kirk AT sil.org]

I too have been puzzled by this verse (Num 8:2). But I guessed that 
the lamps on the menora were originally something like the ones often 
shown in illustrations, which look something like a flat teapot 
(without handle), in which the wick was placed in the "spout". From 
the New Bible Dictionary (IVP) I see that this design is Hellenistic, 
but that the lamps used both in late middle bronze age Jericho and 
later in Samaria were more like a saucer with one corner pinched out 
for the wick. So I guess the ones in the Tabernacle would have been 
similar - or was there a different Egyptian design? In each case there 
was a specific direction for the wick, and in that direction most 
light would be shed. So that presumably lies behind the instruction 
for facing the lamps in a particular direction.

Peter Kirk