Lampstand, menorah

The construction of the lampstand in the Tabernacle is discussed in Exodus 25:31–40; Exodus 37:17–24; Leviticus 24:1–4. It was shaped from a single block of gold and consisted of five distinct parts. These parts were the base, the shafts (or stems), and the flowerlike cups with buds and petals. The lampstand had a central shaft, which stood on a base and out of which projected six arms, making a total of seven branches. A lamp that burned oil stood on the top of each of these branches.

Only one lampstand was prescribed for the Tabernacle. However, when Solomon built and furnished the Temple, he is said (1 Kings 7:49; 2 Chronicles 4:7) to have included ten lampstands. No explanation is given in the text for the increase to ten. Solomon also furnished the Temple with ten tables and ten washbasins, where only one of each was called for in the Tabernacle. One Jewish tradition says that the ten lampstands were in addition to the single prescribed lampstand and that their location “to the right” and “to the left” meant to the right and left of the single holy lampstand. We have no indication that the structure of the lampstand changed in Solomon’s time, and the ten lampstands which he made probably looked like the one described for the Tabernacle.

For the basic functioning of oil lamps, see Oil lamp and wick and Lampstand.

In the Bible

The Hebrew and Greek words for it, and every verse where each is used

Also in Furniture of the Tabernacle and Temple

Sources

Plants and Trees in the Bible, Animals in the Bible and Human-made Things in the Bible © United Bible Societies, 2025 (adapted from Each According to its Kind: Plants and Trees in the Bible by Robert Koops, All Creatures Great and Small: Living Things in the Bible by Edward R. Hope, and The Works of Their Hands: Man-made Things in the Bible by Ray Pritz), CC BY-SA 4.0; adapted for eRhema