Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

BATTERING RAM

An instrument used in siege warfare to break through city walls. It consisted of a heavy ram suspended from a framework that was used for protection by the machine’s wielders from stones and arrows thrown by the city’s defenders. The entire engine was usually propelled by four or six wheels and was built of wood. Its earliest form comes from Assyria, and it was known to be an effective siege weapon of the Babylonians (Ezek. 21:22; 26:9).

Scholars believe that the fortification systems of the Bronze and Iron Age cities in Palestine were built with the battering ram in mind. In the Middle Bronze Age, when the battering ram was making its first appearance in Palestine, a complex system of thick city walls, earthen ramparts, and sophisticated gateways is common. In Ezek. 4:2 the prophet is told to make a model of sieged Jerusalem with battering rams standing against its walls. Babylonian reliefs portraying the siege of Lachish clearly show battering rams attacking the vulnerable parts of the city.

Jennie R. Ebeling

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

BATTERING RAM

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)