Often referred to in scripture as a place of security, and also as a place of defence, on which watchmen were stationed. There were such on the walls of Jerusalem. Ps 48:12; 61:3; 2Ki 9:17. The term is also used symbolically: "the name of Jehovah is a strong tower." Pr 18:10.

Tower.

Watch-towers or fortified posts in frontier or exposed situations are mentioned in Scripture, as the tower of Edar, etc.,

Ge 35:21; Isa 21:5,8,11; Mic 4:8

etc.; the tower of Lebanon.

2Sa 8:6

Besides these military structures, we read in Scripture of towers built in vineyards as an almost necessary appendage to them.

1Sa 5:2; Mt 22:33; Mr 12:1

Such towers are still in use in Palestine in vineyards, especially near Hebron, and are used as lodges for the keepers of the vineyards.

TOWER. "The tower of the flock," or the tower of Ader, Mic 4:8. It is said this tower was in the neighbourhood of Bethlehem, Ge 35:21, and that the shepherds to whom the angels revealed the birth of our Saviour were near to this tower, Lu 2:8,15. Many interpreters assert, that the passage of Micah: in which mention is made of the tower of the flock: "And thou tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion," is to be understood of the city of Bethlehem, out of which our Saviour was to come. Others maintain, that the prophet speaks of the city of Jerusalem, in which there was a tower of this name, through which the flocks of sheep were driven to the sheep-market. "From the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city," 2Ki 17:9. This form of speaking expresses in general all the places of the country, from the least to the greatest. The towers of the watchmen, or of the shepherds, stood alone in the midst of the plain, in which the shepherds and herdsmen who looked after the flocks, or watchmen, might lodge. King Uzziah caused several towers to be built for the shepherds in the desert, and made many cisterns there, because he had a great number of flocks, 2Ch 26:10. The tower of the flock, and that which Isa 5:2, notices, which was built in the midst of a vineyard, were of the same kind.

TOWER OF BABEL. See BABEL.

TOWER OF SHECHEM was a citadel, or fortress, standing upon a higher ground than the rest of the city, and capacious enough to contain above a thousand persons. This tower, filled with the inhabitants of Shechem, was burned by Abimelech down to the very ground, together with those who had taken refuge in it.