Walls, of the Cities

City walls are everywhere in the biblical landscape. They mark the line between defended life and open country, between the king's garden and the besieger's mound, between a strong city and a heap of dust. The narrative cycles through the same cluster of facts again and again: high walls with gates and bars, towers raised on the corners, sentinels on the battlements, sieges that throw up ramparts and battering engines, and finally either deliverance or breach. The figurative line keeps step with the literal one, from Bashan's strong cities to a measured wall of jasper around the new Jerusalem.

Fortified Cities of the Conquest

The first walls in the record are the ones Israel had to take. Bashan's cities are described in a single inventory: "All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates, and bars; besides the unwalled towns a great many" (Deut 3:5). The standard vocabulary of the umbrella — high walls, gates, bars — is fixed there in Moses' summary, and the destruction is total: "we completely destroyed them, as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon, completely destroying every inhabited city, with the women and the little ones" (Deut 3:6).

The Jericho narrative pulls the same vocabulary into a single set-piece. Israel encamps "in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan at Jericho" (Num 22:1), and the city across the river is the first walled obstacle on the west bank. By the time Joshua arrives, "Jericho was straitly shut up because of the sons of Israel: none went out, and none came in" (Jos 6:1). The seventh-day collapse is the most concrete wall-image in the canon: "So the people shouted, and [the priests] blew the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, that the people shouted with a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city" (Jos 6:20). The wall is not breached, scaled, or undermined — it falls flat, and the assault becomes a walk-up.

Rahab's House on the Wall

Rahab's house sits inside the same wall the trumpets will eventually drop. Joshua sends two spies "out of Shittim... secretly, saying, Go, view the land, and Jericho. And they went and came into the house of a whore whose name was Rahab, and lay there" (Jos 2:1). The mechanics of her hiding the spies are then told as a wall-detail: "Then she let them down by a cord through the window: for her house was on the side of the wall, and she dwelt on the wall" (Jos 2:15). The house is structurally part of the wall — when the wall falls, only this corner is preserved, because the city itself is devoted to destruction "only Rahab the whore will live, she and all who are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers whom we sent" (Jos 6:17). The later canonical retrospect picks up the same incident under the heading of faith — "By faith Rahab the whore did not perish with those who were disobedient, having received the spies with peace" (Heb 11:31) — and of works: "And in like manner wasn't also Rahab the whore justified by works, in that she received the messengers, and sent them out another way?" (Jas 2:25).

David's Stronghold and the City of David

After the conquest, the stronghold motif reappears in the David cycle. The Jebusite city is taken by an explicit siege: "And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who spoke to David, saying, Except you take away the blind and the lame, you will not come in here; thinking, David can't come in here" (2Sam 5:6). The capture turns the city into a dynastic stronghold: "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).

Across the early monarchy, hostile walls appear as soon as someone falls. Saul's death produces a wall-trophy: "And they put his armor in the house of the Ashtaroth; and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan" (1Sam 31:10). The Rabbah campaign turns on the danger of going too near a wall — Joab anticipates David's reaction: "Why did you⁺ go so near to the city to fight? Didn't you⁺ know that they would shoot from the wall?" (2Sam 11:20). And at Abel of Beth-maacah, Joab himself is on the outside: "they came and besieged him in Abel of Beth-maacah, and 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" (2Sam 20:15). The siege ends when a wise woman negotiates over the parapet: "deliver him only, and I will depart from the city. And the woman said to Joab, Look, his head will be thrown to you over the wall" (2Sam 20:21). The wall is the place where messengers are heard, demands are made, and heads are thrown.

Towers, Watchmen, and the Defended Skyline

The vertical complement to a wall is a tower. The tower at Babel is the canon's first: "And Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower, which the sons of man built" (Gen 11:5). Israel's wandering passes "the tower of Eder" (Gen 35:21). In the Judges cycle towers concentrate resistance — Gideon promises to "break down this tower" of Penuel (Jdg 8:9), and "the men of the tower of Shechem were gathered together" (Jdg 9:47) before Abimelech destroys them.

Towers belong on city walls as defensive emplacements. Uzziah's program is the textbook case: "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). When Nehemiah's wall is rebuilt, the towers are repaired with the rest of the line — "Malchijah the son of Harim, and Hasshub the son of Pahath-moab, repaired another portion, and the tower of the furnaces" (Neh 3:11) — and the whole work is finished at last: "So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth [day] of [the month] Elul, in fifty and two days" (Neh 6:15).

The watchman on the tower is the wall's eye outward. "Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel, and he spied the company of Jehu as he came" (2Kgs 9:17). The tower is also a shorthand for any large building project — the prudent man "desiring to build a tower... first sit[s] down and count[s] the cost" (Lu 14:28) — and the place a sudden disaster can strike: "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).

Jerusalem's Two Walls and Its Reservoir

Jerusalem is described, twice, as having "two walls." The note shows up at the fall of the city, when the army flees the breach: "Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war [fled] by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden, while the Chaldeans were against the city all around; and [the king] went by the way of the Arabah" (2Kgs 25:4). The same double-wall feature shows up in Isaiah's indictment of pre-siege water-works: "you⁺ also made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you⁺ didn't look to him who had done this, neither had you⁺ respect to him who purposed it long ago" (Isa 22:11). The city has the engineering — gates, double walls, a reservoir tucked between them — and that is the problem: trust runs to the masonry instead of to the one who built the men who built it.

Sieges and Engines

The siege is the wall in motion, from outside. The vocabulary stays remarkably consistent across centuries. Northern sieges in the divided monarchy: Nadab "laying siege to Gibbethon" (1Kgs 15:27); Omri besieging Tirzah (1Kgs 16:17); Ben-hadad with thirty-two kings going up "and besieged Samaria, and fought against it" (1Kgs 20:1); Ben-hadad again — "Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria" (2Kgs 6:24); the Assyrian who "came up to Samaria, and besieged it three years" (2Kgs 17:5).

Jerusalem then comes under siege under Nebuchadnezzar twice. First: "the slaves of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up to Jerusalem, and the city was besieged" (2Kgs 24:10). Then the long final siege, told twice almost word-for-word: "in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it; and they built forts against it round about" (2Kgs 25:1; cf. Jer 39:1). The siege closes with Zedekiah overtaken "in the plains of Jericho" (Jer 39:5) and the city held "to the eleventh year of King Zedekiah" (2Kgs 25:2). Earlier, Sennacherib had taunted from outside the wall, "On what do you⁺ trust, that you⁺ remain in the siege in Jerusalem?" (2Chr 32:10).

The Maccabean record adds the most detailed siege-mechanics in the canon. Battering slings and engines: "they made battering slings and engines" (1Macc 6:20); "he 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" (1Macc 6:51). Towers loaded with men: "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" (1Macc 6:37). Ladders to the wall: "look, there were people without number, carrying ladders and engines to take the fortress, and assault them" (1Macc 5:30). Engines breaching towers: "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" (1Macc 13:43-44). Siege by sea and land at once: "he 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" (1Macc 15:14). And the slow-attrition variant: "those who were in the citadel of Jerusalem were hindered from going out and coming into the country, and from buying and selling: and they were greatly hungered, and many of them perished through famine" (1Macc 13:49).

Maccabean Wall-Building

The same period is the canon's heaviest record of building walls. The first Maccabean note recasts the city of David in fortress vocabulary: "they built the city of David with a great and strong wall, and with strong towers, and made it a fortress for them" (1Macc 1:33). Mount Zion is rebuilt with "high walls, and strong towers round about, otherwise the nations should at any time come, and tread it down as they did before" (1Macc 4:60). Bacchides' captured strongholds change hands when "the strangers who were in the strongholds, which Bacchides had built, fled away" (1Macc 10:12). The line of fortified Judean cities is enumerated: "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" (1Macc 9:50).

The Hasmonean program is set out as a deliberate policy. Jonathan "took a resolution... to build fortresses in Judea" (1Macc 12:35). Simon "built Adiada in Sephela, and fortified it, and set up gates and bars" (1Macc 12:38), then "made haste to finish the walls of Jerusalem, and he fortified it round about" (1Macc 13:10), and then "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" (1Macc 13:33). The Seleucid concession that follows ratifies the building: "The strongholds that you⁺ have built, will be your⁺ own" (1Macc 13:38), and again "let Jerusalem be holy and free, and all the armor that has been made, and the fortresses which you have built, and which you hold in your hands, let them remain to you" (1Macc 15:7). Beth-zur is fortified twice: first "to secure Beth-zur, that the people might have a defense against Idumea" (1Macc 4:61), then "he fortified the cities of Judea and Beth-zur that lies in the borders of Judea, where the armor of the enemies was before: and he placed there a garrison of Jews" (1Macc 14:33). Workmen cut "square stones for fortification" round Mount Zion (1Macc 10:11), and the temple mount itself is fortified "near the citadel" (1Macc 13:52).

The same work shows up in Sirach's praise of Simon son of Onias: "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). Wall-building is an act of pastoral provision, set on the same line as guarding the people from ruin.

Walls That Fall and Walls That Cease

The prophets keep a running count of fortresses dismantled. Isaiah, against Damascus and Ephraim: "the fortress will cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria" (Isa 17:3). 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). Against Babylon, twice: "the wall of Babylon will fall" (Jer 51:44); and more elaborately, "Thus says Yahweh of hosts: The broad walls of Babylon will be completely overthrown, and her high gates will be burned with fire; and the peoples will labor for vanity, and the nations for the fire; and they will be weary" (Jer 51:58). The Daniel cycle continues the pattern abroad: "out of a shoot from her roots will one stand up in his place, who 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" (Dan 11:7). And Micah's reversal: "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).

Salvation Appointed for Walls

Cutting against the masonry, Isaiah's song shifts the source of safety: "In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; salvation he will appoint for walls and bulwarks" (Isa 26:1). The sentence keeps the vocabulary — strong city, walls, bulwarks — but assigns the function to salvation rather than to stonework. The same instinct lies behind Isaiah's complaint about the reservoir between the two walls: confidence in defensive works without reference to the one who purposed the city is the indictment, not defensive works in themselves.

Paul's escape from Damascus brings the wall back into the New Testament narrative as a route of deliverance rather than defense: "and through a window I was let down in a basket by the wall, and escaped his hands" (2Cor 11:33). The mechanics echo Rahab and her cord through the window — same wall, same direction, same purpose: getting a marked man out alive.

Jericho After the Walls

The Jericho name keeps reappearing long after Joshua's trumpets. The tribes encamp "in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan at Jericho" (Num 22:1), and after the conquest the city becomes a regional landmark: "the Plain of the valley of Jericho the city of palm-trees, to Zoar" (Deut 34:3). After the conquest of Jericho, Joshua sends men "from Jericho to Ai" (Jos 7:2). Captives from the Aramean campaign are returned to "Jericho, the city of palm-trees, to their brothers" (2Chr 28:15). Elisha and Elijah pass through it ("Elisha, tarry here, I pray you; for Yahweh has sent me to Jericho... So they came to Jericho," 2Kgs 2:4). And the Gospels keep the city in the road network: Bartimaeus sits by the way "as he went out from Jericho" (Mr 10:46), the blind man hears Jesus draw near "to Jericho" (Lu 18:35), and the road "going down from Jerusalem to Jericho" frames the parable of the Samaritan (Lu 10:30). In the Maccabean record Ptolemy is "captain in the plain of Jericho" (1Macc 16:11), and Zedekiah is overtaken "in the plains of Jericho" (Jer 39:5). The fortified city Joshua brought down stays on the map as a hinge between the highlands and the river crossing.

Walls in the New Jerusalem

The figurative reuse of wall vocabulary culminates in the Apocalypse. The new Jerusalem is described in wall terms first — "having a wall great and high; having twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel" (Rev 21:12) — and then in foundation terms: "And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb" (Rev 21:14). The wall is measured and material: "And he measured her wall, a hundred and forty and four cubits, [according to] the measure of a man, that is, of an angel. And the building of her wall was jasper: and the city was pure gold, like pure glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the several gates was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass" (Rev 21:17-21). The vocabulary that began with Bashan's "high walls, gates, and bars" closes with a wall whose foundations are jewel-cut and whose gates are single pearls. The defensive function has not disappeared — the wall is great and high, the gates are still gates, the foundations are still measured — but the city is the one Isaiah's song already pointed to: a strong city whose walls and bulwarks are appointed by salvation.