Tower

A tower in the UPDV is most often a built structure — brick or stone, raised against a wall or on a hill, used for defense, sight, or storage — and sometimes a figure for refuge in Yahweh. The earliest naming is the city-and-tower at Shinar (Gen 11:5); from there towers appear at Eder, Penuel, Shechem, Jerusalem, Jezreel, Siloam, Seveneh, and across Hasmonaean Judea. Alongside the literal towers, the Psalter and Proverbs name Yahweh himself as a high tower for the king and a strong tower for the righteous.

The Tower at Shinar

The first named tower belongs to the building project on the plain of Shinar. The whole earth is of one language and one speech (Gen 11:1), and the builders propose, "Come, let us build us a city, and a tower, whose top [may reach] to heaven, and let us make us a name; or else we will be scattered abroad on the face of the whole earth" (Gen 11:4). Yahweh comes down to see the city and the tower, which the sons of man built (Gen 11:5). The response is the language-confounding and the dispersion: "[the Speech of] Yahweh scattered them abroad from there on the face of all the earth: and they left off building the city" (Gen 11:8). The place takes its name from the event — "the name of it was called Babel; because there Yahweh confounded the language of all the earth: and from there Yahweh scattered them abroad on the face of all the earth" (Gen 11:9).

The Tower of Eder

After Bethel, Israel journeys on and the tower of Eder serves as a landmark: "And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Eder" (Gen 35:21). The tower fixes the campsite, but no further detail is given.

Penuel and Shechem

Two towers in Judges become the focus of armed reprisal. At Penuel, when the men refuse Gideon's force, Gideon answers, "When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower" (Judg 8:9). The threat is later carried out: "And he broke down the tower of Penuel, and slew the men of the city" (Judg 8:17).

The tower of Shechem is the gathering-point of the men in Abimelech's quarrel. "And it was told Abimelech that all the men of the tower of Shechem were gathered together" (Judg 9:47). When word reaches them of Abimelech's approach, "all the men of the tower of Shechem heard of it, [and] they entered into the stronghold of the house of El-berith" (Judg 9:46). Abimelech's force then cut down boughs and burned the stronghold around them: "all the people likewise cut down every man his bough, and followed Abimelech, and put them to the stronghold, and set the stronghold on fire on them; so that all the men of the tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand men and women" (Judg 9:49).

Watchman Towers

A tower serves as the elevated post from which a watchman sights an approaching company. At Jezreel the watchman stands on the tower and spies Jehu: "Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel, and he spied the company of Jehu as he came, and said, I see a company" (2Ki 9:17). His subsequent report reaches the king from the same post: "the watchman told, saying, The messenger came to them, but he didn't come back" (2Ki 9:18). At Mahanaim the same office reports the lone-runner sighting to David — "the watchman cried, and told the king" (2Sam 18:25). Hezekiah's strike against the Philistines is bounded by the same kind of structure: "He struck the Philistines to Gaza and its borders, from the tower of the watchmen to the fortified city" (2Ki 18:8).

The watchman set on the city wall is, in the Psalter, a derivative of Yahweh's own keep: "If [the Speech of] Yahweh does not keep the city, The watchman wakes but in vain" (Ps 127:1). And the future-day watchmen on the Ephraim hills are crying-summoners — "For there will be a day, that the watchmen on the hills of Ephraim will cry, Arise⁺, and let us go up to Zion to Yahweh our God" (Jer 31:6).

Towers in the Walls of Jerusalem

Jerusalem's perimeter is studded with named towers. Uzziah builds three: "Moreover Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the corner gate, and at the valley gate, and at the turning [of the wall], and fortified them" (2Chr 26:9). Hezekiah, before Sennacherib, raises them again: "he took courage, and built up all the wall that was broken down, and raised up the towers, and the other wall outside, and strengthened Millo [in] the city of David" (2Chr 32:5).

At the Nehemiah rebuild, the wall has three named towers — the tower of the Hundred (Meah), the tower of Hananel, and the tower of the furnaces. Eliashib's priests build the sheep gate, "and they sanctified it, and set up the doors of it; even to the tower of the Hundred they sanctified it, to the tower of Hananel" (Neh 3:1). Malchijah and Hasshub repair "another portion, and the tower of the furnaces" (Neh 3:11). The wall-dedication procession then names all three together: "above the tower of the furnaces, even to the broad wall, and above the gate of Ephraim, and by the old gate, and by the fish gate, and the tower of Hananel, and the tower of the Hundred, even to the sheep gate" (Neh 12:38-39).

The tower of Hananel persists into the prophetic future-Jerusalem. Jeremiah names it as a perimeter pole of the rebuilt city: "the city will be built to Yahweh from the tower of Hananel to the gate of the corner" (Jer 31:38). Zechariah uses the same anchor: "from the tower of Hananel to the king's wine-presses" (Zech 14:10).

The Tower of David and the Tower of Seveneh

The Song of Songs supplies a figurative tower of David: "Your neck is like the tower of David Built for an armory, On which hang a thousand bucklers, All the shields of the mighty men" (Song 4:4). The tower is itself an armory — a thousand bucklers and the shields of the mighty hang on it.

Egypt has its own boundary tower in Ezekiel's oracle: "I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from the tower of Seveneh even to the border of Ethiopia" (Ezek 29:10). The tower fixes the southern edge of the desolation.

Towers in Other Cities, in the Wilderness, and in the Vineyard

Asa's wall-and-tower program covers Judean cities: "Let us build these cities, and make about them walls, and towers, gates, and bars; the land is yet before us, because we have sought Yahweh our God; we have sought him, and he has given us rest on every side. So they built and prospered" (2Chr 14:7).

Uzziah builds in the open country as well: "And he built towers in the wilderness, and hewed out many cisterns, for he had much cattle; in the lowland also, and in the plain" (2Chr 26:10). The wilderness towers are paired with cisterns and cattle-keeping; the man "loved husbandry."

Hasmonaean Towers and Strongholds

In 1 Maccabees the tower-and-fortress vocabulary saturates the building program of the Hasmonaean leadership. The Mount-Zion fortification under Judas adds "high walls, and strong towers round about, otherwise the nations should at any time come, and tread it down as they did before" (1Ma 4:60). At Beth-zur he places a garrison and "fortified it to secure Beth-zur, that the people might have a defense against Idumea" (1Ma 4:61). Against the sons-of-Bean: "they were shut up by him in towers, and he set on them, and devoted them to utter destruction, and burned their towers with fire, and all who were in them" (1Ma 5:5). The Antiochene war-elephants come at Beth-zechariah carrying their own portable towers: "on the beast, there were strong wooden towers, which covered every one of them: and engines on them: and on every one, thirty valiant men who fought from above; and an Indian to rule the beast" (1Ma 6:37).

The earlier Seleucid occupation had set the same kind of work over Jerusalem: "they 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). Bacchides's strong-city ring then penned in the Jewish force: "they 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 Thopo, with high walls, and gates, and bars" (1Ma 9:50). Under Jonathan the foreign garrisons abandon those Bacchides-strongholds — "the strangers who were in the strongholds, which Bacchides had built, fled away" (1Ma 10:12) — and the workmen are ordered to build the walls "and Mount Zion round about with square stones for fortification: and so they did" (1Ma 10:11).

Jonathan's later council resolves a Judea-wide program — "called together the ancients of the people, and he took a resolution with them to build fortresses in Judea" (1Ma 12:35) — and Simon builds Adiada in the Shephelah: "Simon built Adiada in Sephela, and fortified it, and set up gates and bars" (1Ma 12:38). After Jonathan's loss, Simon hastens the Jerusalem walls: "gathering together all the men of war, he made haste to finish the walls of Jerusalem, and he fortified it round about" (1Ma 13:10). The full Simon-program is then summarized: "Simon 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). Demetrius's reply formally hands the work over: "The strongholds that you⁺ have built, will be your⁺ own" (1Ma 13:38). Simon then fortifies the temple-mount itself: "he fortified the mountain of the temple that was near the citadel, and he lived there himself, and those who were with him" (1Ma 13:52). The decree-summary recounts the same: "he fortified the cities of Judea and Beth-zur that lies in the borders of Judea, where the armor of the enemies was before" (1Ma 14:33). Antiochus VII confirms it: "the fortresses which you have built, and which you hold in your hands, let them remain to you" (1Ma 15:7), then later sends Cendebaeus south — "he commanded him to build up Kedron, and to fortify the gates of the city, and to war against the people" (1Ma 15:39). Cendebaeus's force, routed, flees to "the towers that were in the fields of Azotus, and he burned it with fire" (1Ma 16:10). The little fortress of Dok is the assassin-trap at the close: "the son of Abubus received them deceitfully into a little fortress that is called Dok, which he had built: and he made them a great feast, and hid men there" (1Ma 16:15).

The same picture is summarized in Ben Sira's Simon-praise: "In his days the wall was built, [With] turrets for strength like a king's palace" (Sir 50:3). "He considered how [to protect] his people from ruin, And fortified his city against the enemy" (Sir 50:4).

The Tower of Siloam

In Jerusalem a tower at Siloam falls and kills eighteen people. The episode enters the teaching alongside the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. "Or those eighteen, on whom the tower in Siloam fell, and killed them, do you⁺ think that they were offenders above all the men who dwell in Jerusalem?" (Lu 13:4). The Siloam place-name is the same one given the pool elsewhere: "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam (which is by interpretation, Sent)" (John 9:7); and at the Nehemiah rebuild the perimeter wall of the same pool is repaired — "the wall of the pool of Shelah by the king's garden, even to the stairs that go down from the city of David" (Neh 3:15).

The Tower in the Cost-Counting Parable

A tower stands as the example of a planned building in the count-the-cost teaching. "For which of you⁺, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has [the means] to complete it?" (Lu 14:28). The completion is the test; the unfinished foundation is the failure: "Lest perhaps, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all who watch begin to mock him" (Lu 14:29).

Yahweh as High Tower

The figurative use of tower runs through the Davidic prayer-songs and the wisdom collection. In David's deliverance-song, "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" (2Sam 22:3). The same line opens Psalm 18: "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). Psalm 61 keeps the same vocabulary: "For you have been a refuge for me, A strong tower from the enemy" (Ps 61:3). And Psalm 144 places it inside the warfare prayer: "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 Proverbs-version of the figure makes the name of Yahweh itself the tower: "The name of Yahweh is a strong tower; The righteous runs into it, and is safe" (Prov 18:10).

Fortresses Brought Down

Where Yahweh is the tower of refuge, a human-built fortress can be the object of judgment. Isaiah's burden of Damascus: "And the fortress will cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria" (Isa 17:3). And against Moab: "the high fortress of your walls he has brought down, laid low, and brought to the ground, even to the dust" (Isa 25:12). Daniel's vision-king "will enter into the fortress of the king of the north, and will deal against them, and will prevail" (Dan 11:7). The Davidic city itself, called a stronghold, is taken by David and rebuilt: "And David dwelt in the stronghold, and called it the city of David. And David built round about from Millo and inward" (2Sam 5:9). And against Jerusalem at the close of the kingdom, Nebuchadnezzar "encamped against it; and they built forts against it round about" (2Ki 25:1).

In Micah's day-of-coming, the picture is reversed — the freshly-walled city becomes a receiving-city: "In that day they will come to you from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, and from Egypt even to the River, and from sea to sea, and [from] mountain to mountain" (Mic 7:12).