Towers Beside A City Gate

TOWERS BESIDE A CITY GATE

At the gates he built towers: The text does not tell us how many gates there were or how many towers. TEV indicates one tower at each gate, but the text does not say this. The author could well be thinking of two at each gate, one on either side. Towers were immense stone structures either built on the walls or, in this case, attached to the walls beside a gate. On these towers were protected places where archers could shoot down on the enemy soldiers.

Many translators will need to use a descriptive phrase; for example, “high strong buildings beside each gate” (so also TOB 13:12).

Sixty cubits wide at the foundations may be rendered “with a base that was ninety feet wide” (CEV) or “that was ninety feet [or, thirty meters] wide at the bottom.”

Gates … forty cubits wide means “gates … sixty feet [or, twenty meters] wide.” It is important that the information about the width of the gates be placed in conjunction with the following information about the army.

So that his armies could march out … and his infantry form their ranks may also be expressed as “wide enough that his soldiers could march out [of the city] in rows.” The author impresses us with the width of these city gates by telling us that the infantry, the foot soldiers, could march through in formation without breaking ranks.

Bullard, Roger Aubrey, and Howard A. Hatton. A Handbook on Judith. New York: United Bible Societies, 2001. Print. UBS Handbook Series.

Comments

Furnishings of the Tabernacle

Furnishings of the Tabernacle . ‎The book of Exodus details the construction of the tabernacle and its furnishings. As Yahweh’s sanctuary, the tabernacle served as God’s dwelling place among the Israelites—the expression of the covenant between Yahweh and His people ( Exod 25:8–9 ).

A Threshing Floor

A Threshing Floor In the ancient world, farmers used threshing floors to separate grain from its inedible husk (chaff) by beating it with a flail or walking animals on it—sometimes while towing a threshing sledge. Sledges were fitted with flint teeth to dehusk the grain more quickly. Other workers would turn the grain over so that it would be evenly threshed by the sledge.

Modern Mount Calvary

Modern Mount Calvary ‎Great authorities are marshaled in favor of both claimants—the church within and the mound without the walls. For a long time, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was the only traditional spot pointed out as the place of burial. But with the growing influence of the Grotto of Jeremiah, the modern Mount Calvary, a picture of which we give, increased in favor. This whole discussion as to the place where Christ was crucified, and as to the tomb in which His body was placed, turns upon the direction which the walls about Jerusalem took at the time of the crucifixion. If the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was outside the wall at that time, as Dean Stanley thinks it might have been, the chances in favor of its being the place of crucifixion and burial are increased. If, however, the site of this church was inside the wall at that time it is sure that the place of burial and crucifixion was not there, for Christ was crucified outside of the walls of Jerusalem. And ...

DAILY, WEEKEND, AND HOLIDAY INTERNET EVANGELIZE TO THE WORLD MINISTRY

Search This Blog