Garrison

Garrison. The Hebrew words so rendered in the Authorized Version are derivatives from the root natsab, to "place, erect", which may be applied to a variety of objects.

1. Mattsab and mattsabah undoubtedly mean a "garrison" or fortified post. 1Sa 13:23; 1Sa 14:14; 1 Samuel 15; 2Sa 23:14.

2. Netsib is also used for a "garrison" in 1Ch 11:16, but elsewhere for a "column" erected in an enemy’s country as a token of conquest. 1Sa 13:3.

3. The same word elsewhere means "officers" placed over a vanquished people. 2Sa 8:6; 2Sa 8:14; 1Ch 18:13; 2Ch 17:2.

4. Mattsebah in Eze 26:11 means a "pillar".

Put in military posts to keep possession of a conquered country, as the Philistines held the land of Israel at the beginning of Saul’s reign (1Sa 10:5; 1Sa 13:3); David, Syria (2Sa 8:6; 2Sa 8:14). In Eze 26:11, "thy strong garrisons" (matzeboth uzzeek) literally, "the statues of thy strength", i.e. the forts. Or rather (Maurer), the obelisks in honor of the tutelary gods of Tyre (as Melecarte, the Tyrian Hercules whose temple stood in Old Tyre) shall go down to the ground before Nebuchadnezzar, the conqueror, just as he treated Egypt’s idol statues (Jer 43:11).

denoted by four or five Heb. words from the root נָצִב, natsab’, to stand firm or erect (i.q. יָצִב),

1. מִצָּבmatstsab’ (fem. מִצָּבָה, matstsabah’, 1Sa 14:12), a station, i.e., lit. a standing-place (e.g. where the priests stood in Jordan, "place," Jos 4:3; Jos 4:9); hence a military or fortified post (e.g. the Philistine camp, 1Sa 13:23; 1Sa 14:1; 1Sa 14:4; 1Sa 14:6; 1Sa 14:11-12; 1Sa 14:15; 2Sa 23:11-14); metaph. an office or public "station" (Isa 22:19).

2. מֻצָּב, mutstsab’, a cordon of troops ("mount," Isa 29:3; perhaps also "pillar," Jdg 9:6).

3. נְצִַיבּ, netsib’, properly a praefect or superintendent ("officer," 1Ki 4:19; 2Ch 8:10); hence a military post (1Sa 10:5; 1Sa 13:3-4; 2Sa 8:6; 2Sa 8:14; 1Ch 11:16; 1Ch 18:13; 2Ch 17:2); also a monumental "pilla" (q.v.) or cippus (e.g., a statue of salt, Gen 19:26; a sense in which some take the word also in 1Sa 10:5; 1Sa 13:3, like the stelae erected by Sesostris in conquered countries in token of subjugation, Herod. 2:102, 106).

4. An improper rendering, Eze 26:11, of מִצְּבָה, smatstsebah’, which always designates a standing object, either an architact-tsal or monumental column (usually rendered "pillar;" in the passage of Ezekiel perhaps referring to those of the Tyrian temples; comp. Herod. 2:14), or an idolatrous "image" (q.v.). SEE FORTIFICATION.

A place strengthened temporarily for war, or permanently for the protection of the country. The same name is applied to the soldiers who guarded such places. 1Sa 13:3-4; 1Sa 13:23; 1Sa 14:1-15; 1Ch 11:16; 1Ch 18:13; 2Ch 17:2; 2Co 11:32.

gar´i-s’n. See WAR.