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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comFausset Bible Dictionary: Fenced Cities
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The distinction between a "city" and a "village" in the Bible is, the former had walls. The village had sometimes a watchman's tower, where the villagers repaired when in danger. Such towers Uzziah built in the desert for the protection of husbandmen and cattle from marauding tribes (). David too had "castles" (). Argob in Bashan, Og's kingdom, E. of Jordan, had "three-score cities fenced with high walls, gates and bars, beside unwalled towns a great many" (-5); all which Israel took. (See ARGOB.) Villages in the Hauran sometimes consist of houses joined together and the entrance closed by a gate for security against Arab marauders.
"Build" often means "fortify" (-10; ; ). The defenses consisted of one or more walls with battlemented parapets and towers at intervals (; ), whereon were war engines, also a citadel or tower, the last resource of the defenders (; ; ; ; ). Ninety towers crowned the oldest of Jerusalem's three walls, fourteen the second, sixty the third (B. J., 5:4, section 2). The tower of Hananeel is mentioned ; ; , where also is mentioned "the tower of Meah," "the tower of the furnaces" (), "the great tower that lieth out even unto the wall of Ophel" (). An out-work is meant by the "ditch" or "trench," possibly a wall lining the ditch (; ).
"The castle" of Antonia was the citadel of Jerusalem in our Lord's time; it served also to overawe the town, the Roman soldiers occupying it (). Canaan's "cities fenced up to heaven" were leading causes of the spies' and Israel's unbelieving panic (; ; -2). These the Israelites "rebuilt," i.e. refortified (; -42). So fenced was "the stronghold of Zion" that it remained in the Jebusites' hands until David's time (-7). Samaria yielded to the mighty hosts of Assyria only after a three years' siege (; ).