Judges 7:16 (KJV), "And 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."
Now the Hebrew ends the verse saying: "and with empty pitchers, and torches within the pitchers."
How are these empty if they have torches in them? They are empty "and" with torches? If they were empty "but" with torches, then they are not empty, so why is the term "empty" here? Why not just "clay jars with torches inside."
I think this is quite peculiar. The term for empty in the Septuagint is κενάς (kenas). I got to this story from Philippians 2:7 and the verb κενόω (to empty) being applied to God's actions through Christ's.
I've also thought that it is fascinating that the same term for being empty (Heb: רֵיק) is applied to describe the army of Jephthah in Judges 11:3 (the word is different in LXX there).
Is there something else going on here?
Another example is with Gideon's calling,
Judges 6:19, So Gideon went into his house and prepared a kid, and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour; the meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the oak and presented them.
Here the author doesn't describe the pot of broth as empty, with broth in it. The basket isn't empty with meat in it...
Why is the jar in Judges 7:16 "empty, and a torch inside?"