“The tower of the flock,” or the tower of Ader, Micah iv, 8. It
is said this tower was in the neighbourhood of Bethlehem, Gen. xxxv, 21,
and that the shepherds, to whom the angel revealed the birth of our
Saviour, were near to this tower, Luke ii, 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,” 2 Kings xvii, 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, 2 Chronicles xxvi, 10. The tower of the flock, and that which
Isaiah, v, 2, notices, which was built in the midst of a vineyard, were
of the same kind.
is said this tower was in the neighbourhood of Bethlehem, Gen. xxxv, 21,
and that the shepherds, to whom the angel revealed the birth of our
Saviour, were near to this tower, Luke ii, 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,” 2 Kings xvii, 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, 2 Chronicles xxvi, 10. The tower of the flock, and that which
Isaiah, v, 2, notices, which was built in the midst of a vineyard, were
of the same kind.