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CASTLE.—1. In Gen_25:16, Num_31:10, 1Ch_6:54, an obsolete, if not erroneous, rendering in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] of a word denoting a nomad ‘encampment’ (so RV [Note: Revised Version.] ).
2. In 1Ch_11:5; 1Ch_11:7 AV [Note: Authorized Version.] speaks of the ‘castle’ of Zion, the citadel or acropolis of the Jebusite city, but RV [Note: Revised Version.] renders as in 2Sa_5:7; 2Sa_5:9 ‘stronghold.’ A different word (birah) is used of the castle or fort which in Nehemiah’s day defended the Temple (Neh_2:8; Neh_7:2), and of the fortified royal residence of the Persian kings at Susa (Neh_1:1, Est_1:2 etc.; RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘palace,’ marg. ‘castle’). The fortress in Jerusalem to which the authors of the books of Maccabees and Josephus give the name of Acra, is termed ‘the castle’ in 2Ma_4:27; 2Ma_5:5; 2Ma_10:20 AV [Note: Authorized Version.] , where RV [Note: Revised Version.] has throughout ‘citadel’ (so also 1Ma_1:33 and elsewhere). See, further. City, Fortification and Siegecraft, § 4.
A. R. S. Kennedy.