Castle
Castle is the rendering in the A. V. of the following words in certain passages: אִרמוֹן, armon´, a fortress (Pr 18:19; elsewhere uniformly "palace"); טִירָה, tirah´, a wall ("row," Eze 46:23), hence an enclosure, e.g. a fortress ("palace," Song 8:9), or a nomade hamlet of palisades (Ge 25:16; Nu 21:10; 1Ch 6:54; "palace," Eze 25:4; poetically "habitation," Ps 69:25); בִּרָנִיטת, biranith´ [from the synonymous בִּירָה, birah´, "palace;" SEE BARIS ], a citadel (2Ch 17:12; 2Ch 27:4); מִגדָּל, migdal´ (1Ch 27:25), a tower (as elsewhere rendered); מצָד, metsad´ (1Ch 11:7), or מצוּדָה , metsudah´ (1Ch 11:5), a fort or stronghold (as elsewhere usually rendered); ἀκρόπολις, acropolis (2 Macc. 4:27; 5:5); πύργος, a tower along a wall (2 Macc. 10:18, 20, 22); παρεμβωλή, a military enclosure (Ac 21:34,37; Ac 22:24; Ac 23:10,16,32) or station ("camp," Heb 11:34; Heb 13:11,13; Re 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 Ge 25:16, were watch-towers, used by the nomad shepherds for security against marauders. The "castle" in Ac 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.
