CASTLE.1. In Gen_25:16, Num_31:10, 1Ch_6:54, an obsolete, if not erroneous, rendering in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] of a word denoting a nomad encampment (so RV [Note: Revised Version.] ).
2. In 1Ch_11:5; 1Ch_11:7 AV [Note: Authorized Version.] speaks of the castle of Zion, the citadel or acropolis of the Jebusite city, but RV [Note: Revised Version.] renders as in 2Sa_5:7; 2Sa_5:9 stronghold. A different word (birah) is used of the castle or fort which in Nehemiahs day defended the Temple (Neh_2:8; Neh_7:2), and of the fortified royal residence of the Persian kings at Susa (Neh_1:1, Est_1:2 etc.; RV [Note: Revised Version.] palace, marg. castle). The fortress in Jerusalem to which the authors of the books of Maccabees and Josephus give the name of Acra, is termed the castle in 2Ma_4:27; 2Ma_5:5; 2Ma_10:20 AV [Note: Authorized Version.] , where RV [Note: Revised Version.] has throughout citadel (so also 1Ma_1:33 and elsewhere). See, further. City, Fortification and Siegecraft, § 4.
A. R. S. Kennedy.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
Castle. See Fenced Cities.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863
kas?'l. See FORTIFICATION.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
Castle [FORTIFICATIONS]
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.
Pro_18:19 (b) This figure describes the position and resentful arguments of an unsaved person whose heart has been hardened through mistreatment and unwise dealings.
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.
Castle
is the rendering in the A. V. of the following words in certain passages:
אִרְמוֹן, armon´, a fortress (Pro_18:19; elsewhere uniformly "palace"); טִירָה, tirah´, a wall ("row," Eze_46:23), hence an enclosure, e.g. a fortress ("palace," Son_8:9), or a nomade hamlet of palisades (Gen_25:16; Num_21:10; 1Ch_6:54; "palace," Eze_25:4; poetically "habitation," Psa_69:25); בִּרָנִיטת, biranith´ [from the synonymous בִּירָה, birah´, "palace;" SEE BARIS ], a citadel (2Ch_17:12; 2Ch_27:4); מִגְדָּל, migdal´ (1Ch_27:25), a tower (as elsewhere rendered); מְצָד, metsad´ (1Ch_11:7), or מְצוּדָה, metsudah´ (1Ch_11:5), a fort or stronghold (as elsewhere usually rendered); ἀκρόπολις, acropolis (2Ma_4:27; 2Ma_5:5); πύργος, a tower along a wall (2Ma_10:18; 2Ma_10:20; 2Ma_10:22); παρεμβωλή, a military enclosure (Act_21:34; Act_21:37; Act_22:24; Act_23:10; Act_23:16; Act_23:32) or station ("camp," Heb_11:34; Heb_13:11; Heb_13:13; Rev_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 Gen_25:16, were watch-towers, used by the nomad shepherds for security against marauders. The "castle" in Act_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.
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.