Fort

A fort is a military defense — a fortified city, a stronghold, a tower, a wall, a rampart raised against an attacker. Scripture traces fortification from the field works that armies threw up around a besieged town to the high-walled royal capitals where kings sheltered their treasuries and their people. The same vocabulary that describes those stone defenses is then turned, in the Psalms and Prophets, on Yahweh himself: he is the rock, the fortress, the high tower of those who take refuge in his Speech.

Field Fortifications and the Law of the Siege

When Israel went out to besiege a city, the Law set the terms. Trees that bore food were not to be felled; only the non-fruit trees might be cut for siege works: "you will build bulwarks against the city that makes war with you, until it falls" (De 20:19-20). The standard equipment of a siege is summarized in Ezekiel's symbolic action against Jerusalem: "lay siege against it, and build forts against it, and cast up a mound against it; set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it round about" (Eze 4:2). The same set returns when Babylon comes against Tyre — "he will set his battering engines against your walls, and with his axes he will break down your towers" (Eze 26:9) — and when Nebuchadrezzar's reading falls on Jerusalem: "to set battering rams, to open the mouth in the slaughter, ... to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up mounds, to build forts" (Eze 21:22). Pharaoh's army is no help to Zedekiah "when they cast up mounds and build forts, to cut off many souls" (Eze 17:17), and in the oracle against Tyre the besieger "will make forts against you, and cast up a mound against you, and raise up the buckler against you" (Eze 26:8).

Defenses of Cities

The defenses of an inhabited city were stone walls, gates with bars, and towers. Uzziah "built towers in Jerusalem at the corner gate, and at the valley gate, and at the turning [of the wall], and fortified them" (2Ch 26:9), and inside those towers he placed engines: "he made in Jerusalem engines, invented by skillful men, to be on the towers and on the battlements, with which to shoot arrows and great stones" (2Ch 26:15). Jehoshaphat "waxed exceedingly great; and he built in Judah castles and cities of store" (2Ch 17:12); his successor Jotham "built cities in the hill-country of Judah, and in the forests he built castles and towers" (2Ch 27:4). Nehemiah's wall builders repaired stretches identified by their towers — "the tower of the furnaces" among them (Ne 3:11). The high priest Simon ben Onias is praised in similar terms: "In his days the wall was built, [With] turrets for strength like a king's palace. He considered how [to protect] his people from ruin, And fortified his city against the enemy" (Sir 50:3-4).

Towers in the Field

Not every tower stood inside a city wall. Towers also stood over flocks and vineyards and along caravan routes. Israel "spread his tent beyond the tower of Eder" (Ge 35:21). Uzziah, the same king who fortified Jerusalem, "built towers in the wilderness, and hewed out many cisterns, for he had much cattle" (2Ch 26:10). The vineyard of Yahweh's parable was hedged, planted, "and [he] built a tower in the midst of it, and also hewed out a wine press in it" (Is 5:2); the same image of vineyard, hedge, wine-press, and tower returns on the lips of Jesus in the parable of the wicked husbandmen (Mr 12:1; Lu 20:9). Other towers belong to towns rather than to fields — the tower of Penuel that Gideon swore to break down (Jdg 8:9), "the tower of Shechem" where the men of Shechem gathered against Abimelech (Jdg 9:47), and "the tower in Jezreel" from which the watchman saw Jehu coming (2Ki 9:17). And the tower of Babel — the first the canon names — stood as a project the city's builders raised against heaven: "Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower, which the sons of man built" (Ge 11:5). Jesus' two tower sayings — the eighteen on whom "the tower in Siloam fell, and killed them" (Lu 13:4), and the man who, "desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost" (Lu 14:28) — assume this everyday building world.

Caves and Mountain Strongholds

When walls failed, the land itself could shelter. Under Midianite oppression the sons of Israel "made for themselves the dens which are in the mountains, and the caves, and the strongholds" (Jdg 6:2). David, hunted by Saul, "went up from there, and dwelt in the strongholds of En-gedi" (1Sa 23:29). Isaiah's promise to the righteous uses the same picture as a figure for divine protection: "He will stay on high; his place of defense will be the munitions of rocks; his bread will be given [him]; his waters will be sure" (Is 33:16).

Sieges in Israel and Judah

Scripture reports siege after siege. Jericho "was straitly shut up because of the sons of Israel: none went out, and none came in" (Jos 6:1). David took the Jebusite stronghold of Jerusalem (2Sa 5:6) and "dwelt in the stronghold, and called it the city of David" (2Sa 5:9; 1Ch 11:7). Joab brought his army against Sheba in Abel of Beth-maacah, where "they cast up a mound against the city, and it stood against the rampart; and all the people who were with Joab battered the wall, to throw it down" (2Sa 20:15). Israel laid siege to Gibbethon under Nadab (1Ki 15:27); Omri besieged Tirzah (1Ki 16:17); Ben-hadad of Syria came up against Samaria with his thirty-two confederate kings (1Ki 20:1; 2Ki 6:24). Assyria came against Samaria for three years (2Ki 17:5), and Sennacherib later taunted Hezekiah, "On what do you trust, that you remain in the siege in Jerusalem?" (2Ch 32:10). Babylon's slaves came up against Jerusalem under Jehoiachin (2Ki 24:10), and Nebuchadnezzar's full army returned in Zedekiah's ninth year and "encamped against it; and they built forts against it round about" (2Ki 25:1; Je 39:1).

Fall and Rebuilding of the Fortified Cities

The same prophets who described the construction of forts described their fall. Isaiah declared, "the fortress will cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus" (Is 17:3), and over Moab, "the high fortress of your walls he has brought down, laid low, and brought to the ground, even to the dust" (Is 25:12). Daniel's vision of the king of the north tells how a successor "will come to the army, and will enter into the fortress of the king of the north, and will deal against them, and will prevail" (Da 11:7). Micah looks past the desolation to a day when fugitives return "from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, and from Egypt even to the River, and from sea to sea, and [from] mountain to mountain" (Mi 7:12).

The Maccabean Fortress War

A heavy concentration of fortress narrative in Scripture is in 1 Maccabees. The Seleucids "built the city of David with a great and strong wall, and with strong towers, and made it a fortress for them" (1Ma 1:33) — the citadel of Jerusalem, the Akra, called there "the castle." The book then traces the long campaign to take it: "the foreigners were in the castle, There was the habitation of the nations" (1Ma 3:45); "Judas appointed men to fight against those who were in the castle, until they had cleansed the holy places" (1Ma 4:41); "those who were in the castle, had shut up the Israelites round about the holy places" (1Ma 6:18); Jonathan "gathered together those who were in Judea, to take the castle that was in Jerusalem: and they made many engines of war against it" (1Ma 11:20); Simon and his men "raise[d] a mount between the castle and the city, to separate it from the city" (1Ma 12:36) until those inside "were greatly hungered, and many of them perished through famine" (1Ma 13:49); the men in the castle then "sent messengers to Tryphon, that he should make haste to come through the desert, and send them victuals" (1Ma 13:21). Simon at last "fortified the mountain of the temple that was near the citadel, and he and his men dwelt there" (1Ma 13:52).

Around the Akra the same Maccabean campaign takes Beth-zur and the country forts. Judas "placed a garrison there to keep it, and he fortified it to secure Beth-zur, that the people might have a defense against Idumea" (1Ma 4:61); Lysias's army "approached this day to the castle of Jerusalem to take it, and they have fortified the stronghold of Beth-zur" (1Ma 6:26); they "approached to Beth-zur, and fought many days, and they made engines: but they went forth and burned them with fire" (1Ma 6:31); and Simon later "encamped against Beth-zur, and assaulted it many days, and shut them up" (1Ma 11:65). At Beth-zechariah Antiochus's elephants carried "strong wooden towers, which covered every one of them: and engines on them: and on every one, thirty valiant men who fought from above" (1Ma 6:37), and the Seleucid king "set up there battering slings, and engines and instruments to cast fire, and engines to cast stones and javelins, and pieces to shoot arrows, and slings" (1Ma 6:51) against the sanctuary itself.

The Hasmonean response is a building program. After the cleansing of the temple, "they built up also at that time Mount Zion, with high walls, and strong towers round about" (1Ma 4:60). Bacchides "built strong cities in Judea, the fortress that was in Jericho, and in Ammaus, and in Beth-horon, and in Bethel, and Thamnata, and Phara, and Tephon, with high walls, and gates, and bars" (1Ma 9:50), and when Jonathan came back "the strangers who were in the strongholds, which Bacchides had built, fled away" (1Ma 10:12). Jonathan "ordered workmen to build the walls, and Mount Zion round about with square stones for fortification" (1Ma 10:11) and "took a resolution with them to build fortresses in Judea" (1Ma 12:35). Simon "built Adiada in Sephela, and fortified it, and set up gates and bars" (1Ma 12:38); he "made haste to finish the walls of Jerusalem, and he fortified it round about" (1Ma 13:10); and he "built up the strongholds of Judea, fortifying them with high towers, and great walls, and gates, and bars: and he stored up victuals in the fortresses" (1Ma 13:33). The royal letter that ratifies these works — "The strongholds that you have built, will be your own" (1Ma 13:38) — is matched by the later confirmation, "the fortresses which you have built, and which you hold in your hands, let them remain to you" (1Ma 15:7). Simon "fortified the cities of Judea and Beth-zur ... and he placed there a garrison of Jews" (1Ma 14:33).

The same book closes with sieges of every kind. Judas "called together all the people, to besiege them" (1Ma 6:19); they "besieged them in the year one hundred and fifty, and they made battering slings and engines" (1Ma 6:20); the place that Lysias laid siege to "is strong, and it lies on us to take order for the affairs of the kingdom" (1Ma 6:57). Judas's relief campaign in Galaad finds many "shut up in Barasa, and in Bosor, and in Alima, and in Casphor, and in Mageth, and in Carnaim: all these strong and great cities" (1Ma 5:26-27); he hears of an enemy "preparing to come, and to take the fortress into which we have fled" (1Ma 5:11); the same enemy is later seen "carrying ladders and engines to take the fortress, and assault them" (1Ma 5:30). Judas himself "shut up by him in towers ... burned their towers with fire, and all who were in them" (1Ma 5:5; cf. towers in the field at Azotus, 1Ma 16:10), and his army "drew near, and he assaulted that city all the day, and all the night, and the city was delivered into his hands" (1Ma 5:50). Antiochus VII "surrounded the city, and the ships drew near by sea: and they pressed the city by land and by sea, and allowed none to come in or to go out" (1Ma 15:14), and "moved his camp to Dora the second time, assaulting it continually, and making engines: and he shut up Tryphon, that he could not go out" (1Ma 15:25). Simon "besieged Gazara, and encamped round about it, and he made a siege engine, and set it against the city, and he struck one tower, and took it. And those who were within the engine leaped into the city: and there was a great uproar in the city" (1Ma 13:43-44). And the book ends with Ptolemy son of Abubus, who "received them deceitfully into a little fortress that is called Dok, which he had built: and he made them a great feast, and hid armor there" (1Ma 16:15).

Yahweh as Stronghold

The Psalms take this whole vocabulary of stone and turn it on God. David's song of deliverance, repeated in two canonical settings, opens with the confession: "Yahweh is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer, even mine; God, my rock, in him [his Speech] I will take refuge; My shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge; My savior, you save me from violence" (2Sa 22:2-3); it ends, "Yahweh lives; and blessed be my rock; And exalted be God, the rock of my salvation" (2Sa 22:47). The Psalter recasts the same lines: "Yahweh is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; My God, my rock, in whom I will take refuge; My shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower" (Ps 18:2). The figure recurs across the prayers of the suffering: "For you are my rock and my fortress; Therefore for your name's sake lead me and guide me" (Ps 31:3); "Be to me a rock for my dwelling, to where I may continually resort: ... For you are my rock and my fortress" (Ps 71:3); "I will say of Yahweh, He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in whose [Speech] I trust" (Ps 91:2); "My loving-kindness and my fortress, My high tower and my deliverer; My shield and he in [his Speech] I take refuge" (Ps 144:2).

The same figure passes from the Psalter to the wisdom and prophetic literature. "The name of Yahweh is a strong tower; The righteous runs into it, and is safe" (Pr 18:10). Nahum, looking past Nineveh's overthrow to those who trust Israel's God, says, "Yahweh is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knows those who take refuge in [his Speech]" (Na 1:7). The stone fortifications of the city — wall, tower, rampart, refuge — supply the language; the substance is the covenant God himself.