BANK.1. A mound of earth in siegecraft, see Fortification and Sieoecraft. 2. The table of a money-changer or banker, see Money-changers.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
bank:
(1) (שפה, sāphāh, ?lip,? ?edge?): ?By the bank of the Jordan? (2Ki_2:13); ?Upon the bank of the river were very many trees? (Eze_47:7, Eze_47:12).
(2) (גּדה, gādhāh, ?cuttings?): Always of banks overflowed (Jos_3:15; Jos_4:18; Isa_8:7), as also
(3) (גּדיה, gidhyāh, 1Ch_12:15).
(4) (סללה, sōlelāh, ?mound,? ?rampart?): ?Cast up a bank against the city? (2Sa_20:15, the English Revised Version ?mount,? the American Standard Revised Version ?mound?; compare 2Ki_19:32; Isa_37:33). ?Banks of sweet herbs? (Son_5:13); ?the marginal rendering is the right one, 'towers of perfumes,' i.e. plants with fragrant leaves and flowers trained on trellis-work? (Speaker's Commentary in the place cited.).
(5) ((χάραξ, chárax, ?a stake,? ?entrenchment?): ?Thine enemies shall cast up a bank about thee? (Luk_19:43 the King James Version ?trench?). It is probably a military term and stands for a ?palisade? (so the Revised Version, margin), i.e. probably an embankment of stakes strengthened with branches and earth, with a ditch behind it, used by the besiegers as a protection against arrows or attacking parties (Latin vallum), such, no doubt, as was employed by Titus in the siege of Jerusalem, 70 ad (Josephus, BJ, V, vi, 2).
(6) BANK; BANKING (which see).
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
Bank
In Luk_19:23, the Greek word τράπεζα, table, is rendered bank in the modern sense of the term, which, by a similar appropriation, is derived from the same root as bench. In Mat_21:12; Mar_11:15; and Joh_2:15, it is employed literally, and denotes the table of the money-changer (q.v.), at which he sat in the market-place, as is still the custom in the East, and also in the outer court of the Temple. In other passages it denotes an ordinary table for food.
The term bank, סֹלְלָה, solelah', also occurs in 2Sa_20:15; 2Ki_19:32; Isa_37:33, as the name of the mound raised against a besieged city; it is elsewhere rendered mount in the same sense. SEE SIEGE.
The bank or shore of a river or sea is designated by the Hebrews term גָּדָה or גִּדְיָה, gadah' or gidyah', and שָׂפָה, saphah', a lip.
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.