Page 48 - Advanced Biblical Backgrounds Student Textbook

the walls from a slightly forward position. They also provided a somewhat flanking position against
attackers trying to scale or undermine the walls.

Towers were also built on hilltops. These served as watchtowers to detect approaching enemies or as
signaling places for communication between larger communities.

Families also constructed towers for personal safety and storage of farming implements. Such towers
have been found with the full range of household artifacts, symbolizing their domestic usefulness.

Citizens of smaller communities could not afford to build strong walls to protect their villages. They
sometimes built one strong, tall building, a tower to which they could flee in times of distress. Especially
for smaller communities, the time investment for building towers was great, which made a tower a
valuable prize of the citizenry.

Gideon was so distressed at the lack of support his effort received from the people of Penuel that he
punished them by tearing down their tower (Judges 8:8, 9, 17). They were left vulnerable and stripped
of what must have been an object of community price. Such a punishment would have been long
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remembered.

Most mentions of towers in the Bible refer to a literal tower, but they were also used figuratively as a
symbol for protection and provision. God is our tower, as evidenced by verses such as these: “You
have been my refuge, a tower of strength against the enemy” (Ps 61:3) and “The name of the LORD is a
strong tower. A righteous person runs to it and is safe” (Prov 18:10). The original hearers of these
verses would have had an immediate mental picture of safety and security. God protects us against
the dangers of the world and the attacks of Satan, and those who take refuge in him have nothing to
fear.

The Conquest of Canaan

88 Ibid., p. 315.

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