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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJames Hastings Dictionary of the Bible: Banner, Ensign, Standard
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BANNER, ENSIGN, STANDARD.—That the Hebrews, like the Egyptians (Wilkinson, Anc. Egyp. [1878] I. 195, illust.), Assyrians, and other ancient nations, possessed military ensigns is a safe inference from Num_2:2, but not from the mention of the standard-bearer in Isa_10:18 AV [Note: Authorized Version.] , which is to be rendered as RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] . Nothing certain, however, is known regarding them. In the former passage a distinction seems to be made—for another view see Gray’s Com. in loc.—between the ensigns (lit. ‘signs,’ cf. Psa_74:4 where the reference is probably to the standards of Antiochus’ army) of the ‘fathers’ houses,’ and the standards (the banner of Son_2:4; cf. Son_6:4; cf. Son_6:10) of the four great divisions of the Hebrew tribes in the wilderness, according to the artificial theory of the priestly writer.
Equally uncertain is the relation of these to the nçs, which was a wooden pole (Num_21:8 f. AV [Note: Authorized Version.] and RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘standard’ cf. the parallelism with ‘mast’ Isa_30:17 RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ), set up on an eminence as a signal for the mustering of the troops. This word is of frequent occurrence both in the original sense and in the figurative sense of a rallying point, in the prophetic announcements of the future (Isa_5:26; Isa_11:10, Jer_4:21 and often). The rendering alternates between ‘ensign’ and ‘banner.’
A. R. S. Kennedy.