Battering-ram
BATTERING-RAM
A military engine for battering walls. A long and solid beam, armed at one end with a metallic ram’s-head, was suspended by the middle, and swung violently and repeatedly against the walls of a city or castle, till a breach was made. It was sometimes in the lower part of a wooden tower built upon wheels, and was worked by more than a hundred men; while the upper part of the tower was filled with archers and slingers, Eze 4:2 ; 21:22.
Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
Battering-ram
(, kar, a lamb, Eze 4:2; Eze 21:22; and so Josephus, , War, 3:7, 19, where the instrument is described; but Sept. in the above passages distinctively ; Targ. and Kimchi, ), a military engine for forcing a breach in walls (comp. 1Ma 13:43), of very high antiquity, being in use by the Babylonians (Ezekiel 1. c.), and apparently still earlier by the Israelites in the siege of Abel-Beth-Maachah (2Sa 20:15); it may have been one of the engines of war employed by Uzziah, king of Judah (2Ch 26:15). This machine was a long beam of strong wood, usually oak. One end was made of iron, shaped like a ram’s head, and when driven repeatedly and with great force against the wall of a city or fortification, either pierced it or battered it down (see Diod. Sic. 12:28; Pliny, 7:57, p. 416, ed. Hard.; Vitruv. 10:19 [13], 2). There were three kinds of battering-rams:
(1.) One that was held in suspension, like a scale-beam, by means of cables or chains in a frame of strong timber. This must have been easy to work and of great power, as a very heavy body suspended in the air requires no great strength to move it with much force.
(2.) In another kind of ram, the mighty instrument acted upon rollers, and its power appears to have been very great, although it must have been worked with more labor than the preceding.
(3.) There was another ram, which was not suspended or mounted on rollers, but borne and worked by manual strength.
The machine was generally covered by a movable shed or roof, which protected the men by whom it was worked. It has been calculated, that the momentum of a battering-ram 28 inches in diameter, 180 feet long., with a head of a ton and a half, weighing 41,112 pounds, and worked by a thousand men, would only be equal to a point-blank shot from a thirty-six pounder. The ram was used by Nebuchadnezzar. against Jerusalem, and also by Titus, with terrible force, in the final destruction of that city (Ezekiel and Josephus, ut sup.). It was a favorite method of attack by the Romans (see Smith’s Dict. of Class. Antiq. s.v. Aries), and no less so with the Babylonians (Layard’s Nineveh, 2:274). SEE ENGINE; SEE WAR; SEE SIEGE.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Battering-ram
(Ezek. 4:2; 21:22), a military engine, consisting of a long beam of wood hung upon a frame, for making breaches in walls. The end of it which was brought against the wall was shaped like a ram’s head.
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Battering-Ram
BATTERING-RAM.See Fortification and Siegecraft.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Battering-Ram
bater-ing-ram. See SIEGE.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Battering Ram
The machine used anciently for knocking down gates or walls. A heavy beam was suspended by chains, at the end of which was an iron head, shaped something like a ram. The name (which in both passages is simply ‘ram’) may have been derived either from its shape, or from the resemblance of its action to the butting of a ram. It was pulled away from the wall and then swung heavily against it. Eze 4:2; Eze 21:22.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Battering-Ram
2Sa 20:15; Eze 4:2; Eze 21:22
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Battering Ram
Battering Ram. Eze 4:2. The engines of Eze 26:9 were most likely battering-rains, mentioned under the name of rams. Eze 4:2; Eze 21:22. Those used by the Assyrians appear to have consisted of a strong frame-work on wheels, so covered as to protect the soldiers working it, and armed with one, or sometimes two, pointed weapons. It differed considerably from the more familiarly known ram employed by the Romans. “Engines of shot” are mentioned in Jer 6:6, marg., 32:24, marg.; Eze 26:8, marg., but incorrectly.
Fuente: People’s Dictionary of the Bible
Battering-ram
Battering-ram. Eze 4:2; Eze 21:22. A large beam, with a head of iron, which was, sometime, s made to resemble the head of a ram. It was suspended by ropes to a beam supported by posts, and balanced, so as to swing backward and forward, and was impelled by men against the wall. In attacking the walls of a fort or city, the first step appears to have been to form an inclined plane or bank of earth, compare Eze 4:2, “cast a mount against it,” by which the besiegers could bring their battering-rams and other engines to the foot of the walls.
“The battering-rams,” says Mr. Layard, “were of several kinds. Some were joined to movable towers which held warriors and armed men. The whole, then, formed one great temporary building, the top of which is represented in sculptures, as on a level with the walls, and even turrets, of the besieged city. In some bas-reliefs, the battering-ram is without wheels: it was then, perhaps, constructed upon the spot and was not intended to be moved.”