Judges 7:16. He divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man’s hand, with empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers.
These “lamps” were probably torches, which could be quickly prepared for the use of the three hundred men. Lane says, that in the streets of Cairo the Agha of the police goes about at night accompanied by an executioner and a torch bearer, the latter of whom carries with him a torch which is called “shealeh.” “This torch burns, soon after it is lighted, without a flame, excepting 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” (Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, vol. 1, p. 178).