The meaning of Bank in the Bible
(From International Standard Bible Encyclopedia)
bank:
(1) (saphah, "lip," "edge"): "By the bank of the Jordan" (II Kings 2:13); "Upon the bank of the river were very many trees" (Ezekiel 47:7, Ezekiel 47:12).
(2) (gadhah, "cuttings"): Always of banks overflowed (Joshua 3:15; Joshua 4:18; Isaiah 8:7), as also
(3) (gidhyah, I Chronicles 12:15).
(4) (solelah, "mound," "rampart"): "Cast up a bank against the city" (II Samuel 20:15, the English Revised Version "mount," the American Standard Revised Version "mound"; compare II Kings 19:32; Isaiah 37:33). "Banks of sweet herbs" (Song of Solomon 5:13); "the marginal rendering is the right one, 'towers of perfumes,' i.e. plants with fragrant leaves and flowers trained on trellis-work" (Speaker's Commentary in the place cited.).
(5) ((charax, "a stake," "entrenchment"): "Thine enemies shall cast up a bank about thee" (Luke 19:43 the King James Version "trench"). It is probably a military term and stands for a "palisade" (so the Revised Version, margin), i.e. probably an embankment of stakes strengthened with branches and earth, with a ditch behind it, used by the besiegers as a protection against arrows or attacking parties (Latin vallum), such, no doubt, as was employed by Titus in the siege of Jerusalem, 70 AD (Josephus, BJ, V, vi, 2).
(6) BANK, BANKING (which see).
M. O. Evans
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