Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMcClintock Biblical Encyclopedia: Castle
Subjects in this Topic:
is the rendering in the A. V. of the following words in certain passages:
àִøְîåֹï , armon´, a fortress (Pro_18:19; elsewhere uniformly "palace"); èִéøָä , tirah´, a wall ("row," Eze_46:23), hence an enclosure, e.g. a fortress ("palace," Son_8:9), or a nomade hamlet of palisades (Gen_25:16; Num_21:10; 1Ch_6:54; "palace," Eze_25:4; poetically "habitation," Psa_69:25); áִּøָðִéèú , biranith´ [from the synonymous áִּéøָä , birah´, "palace;" SEE BARIS ], a citadel (2Ch_17:12; 2Ch_27:4); îִâְãָּì , migdal´ (1Ch_27:25), a tower (as elsewhere rendered); îְöָã , metsad´ (1Ch_11:7), or îְöåּãָä , metsudah´ (1Ch_11:5), a fort or stronghold (as elsewhere usually rendered); ἀêñüðïëéò , acropolis (2Ma_4:27; 2Ma_5:5); ðýñãïò , a tower along a wall (2Ma_10:18; 2Ma_10:20; 2Ma_10:22); ðáñåìâùëή , a military enclosure (Act_21:34; Act_21:37; Act_22:24; Act_23:10; Act_23:16; Act_23:32) or station ("camp," Heb_11:34; Heb_13:11; Heb_13:13; Rev_20:9). SEE TOWER; SEE PALACE, etc.
Castles among the Hebrews were a kind of military fortress, frequently built on an eminence (1Ch_11:7). The priests' castles, mentioned in 1Ch_6:54, may also have been a kind of tower, for the purpose of making known anything discovered at a distance, and for blowing the trumpets, in like manner as the Mohammedan imams ascend the minarets of the mosques at the present day to call the people to prayers. The castles of the sons of Ishmael, mentioned in Gen_25:16, were watch-towers, used by the nomad shepherds for security against marauders. The "castle" in Act_21:34, refers to the quarters of the Roman soldiers at Jerusalem in the fortress Antonia (q.v.), which was adjacent to the Temple and commanded it. SEE FORTIFICATION.