A tall stone or mud-brick structure, which was either round, semicircular, square, or rectangular in shape. Towers constructed for military purposes included free-standing outposts located in strategic positions (2Chr 20:24; 2Chr 26:10; 2Kgs 17:9; 2Kgs 18:8) and projecting bastions that were part of a city’s defense system (2Chr 14:7; 2Chr 26:9; 2Chr 32:5; Neh 3:25-27). Towers provided elevated positions for sentries or soldiers repelling enemy attacks (2Chr 26:15), and some towers were so massively built that they provided refuge for the population in time of attack (Judg 9:46-52). Reference to the destruction of a city’s towers symbolized its fall (Ezek 26:4; Ezek 26:9; Isa 13:22). Farmers also built small watchtowers in fields and vineyards (Isa 5:2; Matt 21:33). These towers provided elevated positions from which fields were guarded; the ground floor served as living quarters for fieldworkers or guards. The Bible mentions a number of Jerusalem’s towers by name: the Tower of the Hundred (Neh 3:1; Neh 12:39), the Tower of Hananel (Neh 3:1; Neh 12:39; Jer 31:38; Zech 14:10), the Tower of the Ovens (Neh 3:11; Neh 12:38), and the Tower of David (Song 4:4). The biblical writers also refer to other famous towers: the Tower of Babel (Gen 11:4-5), the Tower of Eder (Gen 35:21), the Tower of Penuel (Judg 8:17), the Tower of Schechem (Judg 9:46), a tower in Thebez (Judg 9:50-51), the tower of the flock (Mic 4:8), and a tower in Siloam (Luke 13:4). In the Song of Solomon, the maiden’s neck is compared to the Tower of David (Song 4:4) and an ivory tower (Song 7:4), and her breasts are also compared to towers (Song 8:10).
