Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898)
CANDLESTICK, GOLD'EN — a misnomer, as it held only lamps — Ex 25:31. It was a splendid article of the tabernacle furniture, made of fine gold, not moulded, but "of beaten work," and computed by some to have been worth, at the modern value of gold, $30,000. It consisted of a shaft or stem, supposed to have been 5 feet high, with six branches. The Golden Candlestick. (From the Arch of Titus.) branches came out from the shaft at three points, two at each point, as in the accompanying cut, and the width of the whole candlestick across the top was about three feet and a half.
It was richly adorned with raised work representing flowers, and also knops or knobs, and little bowls resembling half an almond-shell. At the extremity of each branch there was a socket for the lamp and also at the top of the main shaft, making seven in all. Tongs to remove the snuff and dishes to receive it, as well as oil-vessels, were articles of furniture belonging to the candlestick, and were all made of gold. The lights were trimmed and supplied daily with the purest olive-oil.
They were lighted at night and extinguished in the morning, though some suppose that a part of them at least were kept burning through the day. The candlestick was so situated as to throw the light on the altar of incense and on the table of shew-bread, occupying the same apartment, and from which the natural light was excluded. In Solomon's temple there were 10 golden candlesticks. 1 Kgs 7:49; 2 Chr 4:7. They were taken to Babylon. Jer 52:19. In Zerubbabel's temple there was only one candlestick.
This was removed from Herod's temple by Titus, and carried immediately before him in his triumphal entry into Rome. It is sculptured upon the Arch of Titus, in Rome. Its after-history is curious. d. d. 533. Nothing further is known of it.