Tou (Hastings' Dictionary)

King of Hamath on the Oroutes. who sent an embassy to congratulate Uaviu on 800 TOWER TOWN CLERK his defeat of Hadadezer, with whom Tou him- self had waged frequent wars, 1 Ch IS"'- In the [jarallel passage, 2 S 8"'-, the name apijcars as Toi, whieli, however, is less prohable pliilulogically isee Driver, Text of Sam. 217). In 2 Sam. the LXX has, B GoKoi), A and Luc. Soti ; in 1 Chron., B 6u;a, A Gooii, Luc. GoXd. J. A. Selbie. TOWER, -t A) In OT for 1. Wr? miijddl.

The mir/dal served sometimes to defend a city wall, and in particular an angle in the wall or a gate (2 Ch 14' I"! 20"). Engines for casting arrows and stones were sometimes placed in the towers (20"). A single tower sometimes served as a citadel (tin IV, Jg 9'')- In the country, towers were erected for the protection of the Hocks and herds, and to safeguard the roads (2 K 17^ 2 Ch 26'" 27").

The pilgrim route from Damascus to Mecca is dotted with towers which protect the wayside wells (Doughty, Arabia Dcserta, i. 9, 13). A vine- yard was sometimes watched from a miijdcU (Is 5-, cf. Mt 21^^), sometimes from a mere 'booth' (nro suJdcah). The towers of Jerusalem are mentioned generally in Ps 48'-, Is 33" ; see also Neh 3' (towers of Hamjieah and of Hananel ; cf. also Ryle's note in loco) ; v." (tower of the furnaces ; cf. Kyle, and see Jerusalem, vol. ii. jp.

593, for this tower and the next mentioned) ; vv.^"'" (the [great] tower that lieth out) ; Ca 4* (tower of David) ; 7''<^i (the tower of Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus). 'The tOtter of Babel' (it should be noted here) is not a biblical phrase ; the presump- tion of men was shown not in the height of the tower, which is hyperbolically expressed, but in the whole scheme embodied in the building of ' the city and the tower.'

That ' the name of the Lord is a strong tower' (Pr 18'") may mean either of two things: (1) that God Himself is a protection, or (2) that the mention of His name in an adjuration often stops an intended act of violence. The second sense may be illustrated from the tradition that the prophet Mohammed once spared a female captive who exclaimed, ' I take refuge in God [luhlhu billdld) from thee.'

Mic 4*, in which Zion is addressed, ' O tower of the flock,' is taken by Nowack (j» /oco) and others as a later addition. Jerusalem is here represented, it is said, as already desolate, as a lonely tower from which grazing flocks are watched. A mora natural interpretation of the phrase is suggested by Is 14^-. Zion is the tower in which the flock of God takes refuge from the enemy. 2.

' Tower ' stands also for migdol (Ezk 29«> 30«) in EV, where RVm more correctly gives a proper name ' from Migdol ' (LXX airb JIa75u>\ou). 3. |rj3 bahan, I'm? bahon (pi. o'jinj bakuiilm), a tower used by besiegers for observing and (sometimes) for attacking a city ; Is 23'^. The prophet Jere- miah is compared ( Jer 6'-'') with one of these towers, because he was the herald and (in a sense) the instrument of God's judgments on Jerusalem ; cf.

Ezk 4', where the prophet is directed to besiege the city in dumb show. The rendering of Jer 6-' in IlVm ' trier ' is supported by LXX and Pesh. (Lee), and yields a play on the following verb ' try,' but the AV is probably right. 4. ' Iligli tower ' is the rendering of 3:;;'D misgah, in Ps 18^ ('• EV,and59''l'"l-"l'«lRV. God is called the Psalmist's misfldb. S. Vsv 'ophel (2 K 5" AV). RV gives 'liiir (correctly). 6. iii= mdzor (Hab 2'), a word meaning 'entrenchment,' 'rampart.' 7.

n;$ jnnnah (Zeph3''), 'towers' AV, 'battlements' RV, 'corner towers' RVm (rightly, towers bein^ often set at an angle of a city wall). 8. The word nns zirinh (Jg 9"" hold' AV, 1 S 13» 'high places' AV) has been taken by Jewish expositors to mean a ' tower,' but Driver (on 1 S 13') shows good reason for ".endering ' vault ' or ' underground chamber ' ; the Lyons Heptateuch (ed. U. Robert) has promimtu- ariuiu (ioi promptuarium), 'store-room, magazine, in Jg y-"*.

(B) In the Apocrypha ' the tower' is the regular rendering in AV in 1 and 2 Maccabees of 17 dapa, 'the citadel' (RV), i.e. the fortress commanding the temple (see Jeriisalk^i, vol. ii. p. 5;!4), which is also called ii dcpiiroXis, ' the tower ' (2 I\Iac 4'^), 'the castle' (v.="i^'), so AV ; 'the citadel' (RV).

' Tower ' is also the translation of Trupyot, a wooden building carried by an elephant, and holding thirty- two men (1 Mac U^'), also a place of execution m which criminals were smothered in ashes (2 Mao 13'). In Sir 37'^ i"*' o-kott^ is 'high tower' AV, 'watch-tower' RV, but the Hebrew varies between \a skrn, ' a steep rock ' (cf . 1 S 14'), and ns^sp mizpeh, ' watch-tower ' with yi 'ez, ' tree,' in margin.

Sir 26, ('a married [woman] is a tower against death to [her] husband,' AV) occurs in a passage of nine verses which is omitted from RV as an inter- polation. It is absent from the uncials (^AB), but it is found in Clem. Alex, p- -'^, in cursive 248 (HP), and in the Syriac and Araliic, and so most proliably existed at an early date in Hebrew. The correct translation of v.''^^'' is ' A married woman is a tower of death to those who have company (tois xP'^i^^"'"^) with her.'

The ' tower of death' is, no doubt, the tower of punishment described in 2 Mac 13' (see above). (C) In NT ' tower ' represents irupyos in Mt 21" ( = Mk 12', see Swete's note) a tower in a vine- yard ; Lk 13* the tower in Siloam ; cf. 14'^. Silwan, the modern Siloam, is built on a steep escarpment of rock, on which a building with good foundations would stand for ever ; ill-laid foundations would drop their superstructure to the very bottom of the valley. W. Emery Barnes.