Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

FORTRESS, FORTIFICATION

Reconstructed Iron Age walls of Tell en-Naṣbeh (Mizpah). Built by King Asa of Judah (913-873 b.c.e.), the defenses included the city wall, a sloping revetment, retaining wall, and moat (Badè Institute of Biblical Archaeology, Pacific School of Religion)

Fortresses generally consisted of walls, towers, and gates. Fortifications were built around major cities and at strategic positions near borders and trade routes. A few cities also had an inner fortress for additional protection.

Walls built around a city provided primary defense. Walls were usually built of stone, although a few were made of mud brick. Walls could be either solid (Beer-sheba stratum V) or casemate (two parallel walls connected at intervals by transverse walls; Hazor stratum X). Some walls are straight (Ashdod stratum 10) while others are offset-and-inset (Megiddo stratum VA). Several casemate walls were filled with debris for added protection (Hazor stratum VIII). Smaller villages and some cities built homes abutted together and in a circular pattern facing upward. The back wall of the homes doubled as a defense wall (Beer-sheba stratum VII).

Towers were built into walls at intervals and at strategic positions such as at gate complexes. Towers, typically taller than the walls, usually jutted out beyond the city wall, giving defenders a clear view of the city wall’s foundation and anyone attempting to breach the wall.

Cities in OT times usually had only one gate complex. This complex had massive towers on each side of the entrance, multiple chambers with doors separating each chamber, and multiple sets of gate doors. Hazor, Megiddo, Gezer, and a few more cities had six-chamber gate complexes with four sets of doors. A few gate complexes were built sideways, creating an L-shaped turn (e.g., Lachish, Tell en-Nasbeh, Beth-shan) in order to slow down traffic or an invading army entering the gate. NT cities usually had multiple entrances and city-gate complexes.

A city needed food and water to survive a siege. Cities often built storage facilities for food and supplies along with large cisterns for water. Pillared storage rooms were discovered at Megiddo, Hazor, Tell el-µesi, Beer-sheba, and Tell Qasile. Several cities (Jerusalem, Hazor, Gezer, Beer-sheba, Gibeon, and Megiddo) had the means of getting water inside the city from a hidden water supply outside the city walls via a tunnel or shaft. David’s general Joab climbed up a water shaft (Warren’s shaft) to enter and defeat the Jebusite city of Jerusalem (2 Sam. 5:8). Hezekiah built a tunnel from a hidden spring to a pool inside Jerusalem (2 Kgs. 20:20).

Fortresses, separate from cities, were built at strategic locations. A line of fortresses dating to the Israelite Monarchy span the Negeb. These fortresses are usually small, containing walls, towers, gates, and living spaces. They served as the first line of defense from nomads and invaders from the south.

Rehoboam, preparing for Shishak’s invasion, built fortified cities and filled them with weapons and supplies (2 Chr. 14:6-7[MT 5-6]). Hezekiah repaired the walls of Jerusalem and built towers on them (2 Chr. 32:5).

In poetic literature God is frequently referred to as a fortress (2 Sam. 22:2; Jer. 16:19; Nah. 1:7; Ps. 31:2-3[3-4]; 71:3; 91:2).

Terry W. Eddinger

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

FORTRESS, FORTIFICATION

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)