The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take along any extra oil.
They that were foolish took their lamps,.... The Vulgate Latin, and Munster's Hebrew Gospel, read, "the five foolish", whose folly is here exposed; and which lay not merely, or only in taking up the lamps of a profession in a wrong way, and upon a wrong bottom, but chiefly in what follows; and took no oil with them: by oil is meant, not temporal blessings...
By the lamps are meant an outward profession of faith and holiness. By the oil in the lamps, is to be understood that solemn profession of repentance and faith, which all Christians make in baptism. By oil in their vessels is meant the sanctifying and saving graces of the Holy Spirit; the growth and improvement of them, with constancy and perseverance in them.