27 And Hezekiah had exceeding much riches and honour and he made himself treasuries for silver, and for gold, and for precious stones, and for spices, and for shields, and for all manner of pleasant jewels;

28 Storehouses also for the increase of corn, and wine, and oil; and stalls for all manner of beasts, and cotes for flocks.

29 Moreover he provided him cities, and possessions of flocks and herds in abundance : for God had given him substance very much.

30 This same Hezekiah also stopped the upper watercourse of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all his works.

20

22 Or, highest.

Verse 1. Fenced cities.-This suggests a large matter, into which we cannot fully enter; but concerning which we shall endeavour to state the principal and more interesting facts in as few words as possible. We shall base the observations we have to offer on Professor Jahn's articles on the same subjects, availing ourselves of the information derivable from sources (principally Egyptian) with which he was unacquainted.

FORTIFICATIONS.-Military fortifications were at first nothing more than a trench or ditch dug around a few cottages on a hill or mountain, together with the mound which was formed of the earth dug out of it. It is, however, probable that sometimes, even in the earliest ages, scaffoldings were erected for the purpose of throwing stones with the greater effect against the enemy. In the age of Moses and Joshua, the walls which surrounded cities were elevated to no inconsiderable height, and were furnished with towers; but that they were of no great strength appears from the facility with which the Hebrews, who were unacquainted with the art of besieging towns, took so many of them, in the course of a few years, on both sides of the Jordan, although the fortifications had at first seemed very terrible to them (Num. xiii. 28).

The art of fortification was encouraged and patronised by the Hebrew kings; and Jerusalem was always well defended, especially Mount Zion.

The principal parts of a fortification may be traced in the Scriptures, and were as follow:

The Wall.-In some instances the wall erected around cities was double, and even triple (2 Chron. xxxii. 5). Walls were commonly made lofty and broad, so as not easily to be passed over or broken through (Jer. li. 58). The main wall terminated at the top in a parapet for the accommodation of the soldiers, which opened at intervals in what may be termed embrasures, so as to give them an opportunity of fighting with missile weapons. The embrasures and battlements were square, if like those of Egypt and Babylon.

Towers.-Towers were erected at certain distances from each other on the top of the wall. They would appear to have been sometimes lofty, but in general not. They were flat roofed, and surrounded with a parapet, which sometimes exhibited openings similar to those which have just been mentioned in the parapets of the walls. Excellent examples of these towers of both kinds occur in the representations of Egyptian fortified towns in the mosaic pavement of Præneste, as well as in the representations of sieges in the temples and the tombs of Egypt. It is from these sources that our present illustrations are drawn. Towers of this kind were likewise erected over the gates of cities; and in them guards were constantly kept, as is now the case in most walled towns of Western Asia.

know that they were so. We may, therefore, derive some information in contemplating the operations of a siege as thus represented.

In attacking a fortified place, the assailants advanced under cover of the arrows of the bowmen, and either instantly applied the scaling ladder to the ramparts, or undertook the routine of a regular siege. Of the former operation, that of actual assault on a town, a very lively representation is afforded in the engraving from a sculpture at Thebes, given under Deut. xx. 12, and which, in connection with this subject, deserves to be very carefully studied.

In a regular siege, the besiegers advanced to the walls, and posted themselves under the cover of testudos, and

6. Fortress with Double Fosse.

The Gates were at first made of wood, and very small in size. They were constructed as valve-doors, and secured by wooden bars. Subsequently they were made larger and stronger, and covered with plates of brass or iron, that they might not be burnt. The bars were covered in the same manner to prevent their being cut asunder; they were sometimes wholly of iron. The bars were secured by a sort of lock (Psa. cvii. 16; Isa. xlv. 2). The gates appear, upon the whole, to have much resembled those of modern Oriental towns. Having thus noticed the fortifications, we may proceed to describe the manner in which they were defended or taken, and shall be able incidentally to convey further information respecting the fortresses themselves.

Cities were usually taken by sudden and violent onsets, or by treason. These were usually the first experiments, and, failing them, the besiegers either abandoned the enterprise, or prepared themselves for a long siege, in the management of which no very determinate rules appear to have been followed, beyond those which dictated the cutting off of all communications between the besieged place and the open country, that it might be the sooner compelled by famine to surrender. But when there were no machines to break down the walls, the operations were so tedious and protracted, that a siege was rarely had recourse to but as a last resort. When a city was threatened, it was, in the first place, invited to surrender (Deut. xx. 10; Isa. xxxvi, 1; xxxvii. 8-20). If the besieged had resolved to capitulate, the principal men of the city went out into the enemy's camp to obtain the best terms in their power. Hence to go forth,' or 'to come out,' in certain connections means the same as to surrender by capitulation (1 Sam. xi. 3, 10, 11; 2 Kings xviii. 31; xxiv. 12; Jer. xxi. 9; xxxviii. 17, 18; 1 Mac. vi. 49). In the most ancient ages the enemy surrounded the city with a band of men, sometimes only one, and at most only two or three deep, and effected their object by assault; hence the very common Scriptural phrases, to encamp against a city,' or to pitch against,' or 'to straiten it' (Josh. x. 5; Judg. ix. 50; 1 Sam. xi. 1; 2 Kings xxv. 1; Isa xxix. 3).

The troops employed in the assault of fortified places were all provided with shields. This is shewn by the Scriptural phrase which expresses a siege of a town by 'the lifting up of shields' against it (2 Kings xix. 32; Isa. xxxvii. 33); and in Egypt so closely was the idea of a siege connected with the shield, that the figure of a king, who is sometimes introduced in the sculptures as the representative of the whole army, advancing with his shield before him, is intended to shew that the place was taken by assault (Wilkinson, i. 359).

There is much reason to conclude that the practices in besieging towns with which the Hebrews were familiar, were the same as those with which the monuments of Egypt make us acquainted, and in some particulars we

7. Fortress attacked: Testudo, etc.

shook and dislodged the stones of the parapet by a kind of battering ram, directed and impelled by a body of men expressly chosen for the service. But when the place held out against these attacks, and neither a coup de main, the ladder, nor the ram were found to succeed, it appears probable that the testudo was used to cover the operations of the sappers, while they mined the place.

The testudo, as shewn in the engravings, Nos. 7, 8, and at the foot of the larger cut under Deut. xx. 12, was of framework, sometimes supported by poles having a forked summit, and covered, in all probability, with hides. It was sufficiently large to contain several men, and so placed

8. Fortress attacked: Testudo, etc. that the light troops might mount on the outside, and thus obtain a footing on more elevated ground, apply the ladders with greater precision, or obtain some other im portant advantage. Each party was commanded and led by an officer of skill, and frequently by persons of the highest rank.

The besiegers also endeavoured to force open the gates of the town, or to hew them down with axes; and when the fort was built upon a rock, they escaladed the precipitous parts by means of the testudo, or by short spikes of metal,

which they forced into the crevices of the stone, and then applied the ladder to the ramparts.

The cut now introduced conveys a lively idea of the vigour and effect of the assaults of the Egyptian archers. From the costume, it appears that the people assaulted are a Syrian nation, and, if so, the fortress forms a remarkably interesting and unique illustration of the subject in hand. We would direct particular attention to the two men who hold in their hands vessels containing a flaming

fire. This is doubtless intended as a signal, but whether of submission to the enemy, or to apprise distant friends of the danger, may not easily be determined.

Sir J. G. Wilkinson says-It is reasonable to conclude that several other engines were employed in sieges with which the scalptures have not made us acquainted; and the "bulwarks" used by [rather known to] the Jews on their march to the promised land, were doubtless borrowed from those of Egypt, where they lived until they

became a nation, and from whence they derived the greater part of their knowledge upon every subject.'

The 'bulwark' thus noticed is the 'mount' or mound of Scripture. It was a vast heap of earth strengthened and supported by large quantities of timber. It ran in an oblique direction from the lines of circumvallation towards the weaker points of the fortifications, and was sometimes as high as the wall itself. The construction of these mounds involved a large consumption of timber, in con

10. FORTRESS.-From Prænestine Mosaic.

sequence of which the surrounding country was often denuded of trees to supply the demand. It was to prevent the permanently injurious consequences of this practice that the Hebrews were forbidden to fell fruit-trees for such purposes, or indeed any trees but such as grew upon uncultivated ground (Deut. xx. 19; 2 Sam. xx. 15; 2 Kings xix. 32; Jer. vi. 6; xxxii. 24; xxxiii. 4; Ezek. iv. 2; xvii. 17-23; xxvi. 8). The erection of this mound

is expressed by the Hebrew phrase, to cast up a bank against the city.' The inhabitants of the town fought against the mound with missile weapons; the besiegers on the contrary, posting themselves upon it, threw their weapons into the city. In the meanwhile the batteringrams were brought into play in order to break down the walls, in which case the besieged frequently erected an other wall inside the first, in doing which they pulled down the contiguous houses and employed the materials in the erection of the wall (Isa. xxii. 10).

The lines of circumvallation, incidentally mentioned before, were certainly known in the time of Moses (Deut. xx. 19, 20), although not mentioned again till the time of David (2 Sam. xx. 15). The besiegers, when it appeared probable that the siege would be protracted, dug a ditch between themselves and the city, for their own security, and another parallel to it outside, so as to enclose their camp, and guard against an attack either in front or rear. The earth thrown out of the ditch formed a wall on which towers were erected. The works in the cut, No. 6, look exceedingly like such lines of circumvallation with double ditches; and we are not at all certain that they are not the works of the besiegers, instead of being, as upon the whole we preferred to conclude, the works of the besieged. A city shut up in this way perished by degrees, by famine, pestilence, and missile weapons (2 Kings vi. 28-31; xxv. 1; Jer. xxxii. 24; xxxiv. 17; lii. 4; Ezek. iv. 2, 10-15; xvii. 17).

Sometimes the besieged, when they captured any of the more distinguished of the assailants, scourged them or slew them on the walls, or sacrificed them, that they might intimidate their enemies and induce them to raise the siege (2 Kings iii. 27). When the wall was broken through

(Ezek. xxi. 27), and the besiegers had entered, the greater part of the remainder of it was thrown down, as was the case even when the city capitulated (2 Kings xiv. 13; 2 Chron. xxv. 23, 24).

As a good specimen of a modern oriental fortress, we introduce below an engraving representing the fortress of Akaba, at the head of the gulf of that name, which has been already noticed, and a distant view given, under Deut. ii. We think it conveys a general illustration of the fenced cities and castles mentioned in Scripture; excepting of course those small details which distinguish it as a modern structure. We say fenced cities and castles,' because in ancient times a castle was only a fenced city on a reduced scale, when it was other than those round buildings which have already been slightly noticed, and which seem to exhibit the most ancient and general form of places of defence and refuge distinguished as castles' and towers.' The fortification of the fenced cities of the East is all essentially of this character; consisting of a thick and high wall, with strong projecting towers, generally round, at regular intervals, those at the angles being commonly the largest and strongest.

The reader will not fail to notice in this engraving the room over the gate, and the men upon the wall over the room. It strikingly illustrates the observations made under 2 Sam. xviii., shewing the station of the watchmen ' over the gate,' and 'the chamber over the gate' to which the king withdrew to mourn for Absalom his son. Laborde, to whom we are indebted for this cut, has enlivened the scene by representing the arrival of the pilgrims at the fortress, on their return from Mecca; and this representation also contains some interesting illustrations of scenes and circumstances mentioned in Scripture.

4. So there was gathered much people together, who stopped all the fountains, and the brook that ran through the midst of the land.'-This was to prevent the expected invaders, the Assyrians, from finding water when they entered the country. Such operations upon the waters were formerly usual in the warfare of Western Asia, although now infrequent. Babylon was taken by turning the course of the Euphrates, and many a modern oriental city might

easily fall by the same means. The practice still exists in the further East-India, China, etc. Forbes, being in the former country, writes:- The Neriad assessment being at length collected, on the 14th of May we left that illfated city, and marched towards the river Myhi. During our progress the enemy's advanced cavalry burnt every village on the road, destroyed the forage, and, as far as possible, exhausted the tanks and wells. Their whole army came twice unexpectedly upon us, but were repulsed with loss. It was sometimes reported that they poisoned the wells and tanks, as well as burnt the villages and cornricks: the latter we daily witnessed, but I do not recollect an instance of the former more than once, and then it appeared doubtful to our numerous army and camp-followers; that step would have been of little consequence unless they could have produced deleterious effects on an extensive lake: since, as already observed, nothing less could satisfy us for more than one night; brooks at this late season were dried up, and we never allowed them time to alter the course of a river, as is sometimes practised.'

30. Stopped the upper watercourse of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David.'-In the parallel text, 2 Kings xx. 20, it is, "He made a pool and a conduit and brought water into the city. In this and other instances it is easy to explain texts taken separately and without proper reference to the actual circumstances of the site; but it is rather more difficult when the different texts that bear on a subject are brought together, and an explanation is sought in existing indications. In the first place, it seems to have been understood that bringing to the west side implies bringing from the east. Under this view, the watercourse of Gihon' was of course in the eastern valley, and was conducted to the western either through the city or round by the southern valley. This explanation, however, would tend to make the eastern, not as we have supposed, in 1 Kings i. 33, the western valley, the valley of Gihon; and this explanation also does not with certainty bring the water into the city, which, from the text in 2 Kings xx., appears to have been the object. The nature of the site of Jerusalem also, which slopes upward from east to