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(as a military term) is represented generally in Heb. by ãֶּâֶì de'gei, such being those borne by the Israelitish camp during their march through the wilderness. Each three tribes had a banner of this description (Num_1:52; Num_2:2 sq.; Num_10:14 sq.), of the color and form of which the Rabbins have many legendary stories (see Jonathan on Numbers ii; comp. Carpzov, Appar. p. 667 sq.). The tribe of Judah (together with Issachar and Zebulon) bore as a device a young lion (compare Gen_42:9); the tribe of Reuben (with Simeon and Gad), a man (according to Jonathan, a stag, instead of the bullock, as a memento of the golden calf, Gen_49:6); Ephraim (with Manasseh and Benjamin), a steer (boys, according to Jonathan); Dan (with Asher and Naphtali), an eagle (according to Jonathan, a cerastes; comp. Gen_49:17), on their tribal standard. How the field-ensigns of the several families, which in those passages are called àֹúåֹú , signs, differed from these ãְּâָìִéí , is not clearly defined. The assertion of colored pennants (Harmer, i, 478) is not sustained by proof. On the pretended motto upon the banner of the Maccabees, SEE MACCABAEUS. ðֵñ , nes, which is often taken for a banner; is a military signal raised upon a mountain as a telegraphic notice (Isa_5:26; Isa_13:2; Isa_23:3; Isa_30:17; Isa_62:10, etc.; comp. Cicero, Attic. 10:17; Macrob. Saturn. i, 16), and may have usually consisted of a high pole with a streamer flying from its summit. Others regard it rather as a beacon fire- ( ðõñóüò , öñõêôüò ; comp. Curtius, v, 2, 7; 7:7, 5, 13). See generally Faber, ii, 462 sq.; Jahn, II, ii, 462 sq.; Celsius, De Vexillis Hebr: (Upsal. 1727). To the Roman standards, aquilce (Josephus, War, iii, 62; comp. Hermann, ad Lucian. conscrib. hist. p. 185), an allusion apparently occurs in Mat_24:28. (On the Egyptian ensigns, see Wilkinson, i, 294.' Rosellini, II, iii, 230.) The Persians under Cyrus bore the same symbol (Xenoph. Cyrop. 7:i, 4; but Eze_17:3 is not in point, being a reference to Chaldaean usages). See generally Lydii Synt. sacr. de re milit. iii, 7. SEE BANNER.