Engines

Engines of war in the biblical period referred to mechanical devices for offensive and defensive siege operations. The Hebrew ḥishshābôn, rendered engines in the KJV, appears in 2 Chronicles 26:15 to describe the devices that King Uzziah had constructed for placement on the towers and corners of Jerusalem's walls, designed to shoot arrows and hurl great stones against attackers. This is one of the earliest references in the Bible to mechanical military technology.

By the time of the later prophets and the New Testament era, siege engines included the battering ram (kar), towers for overlooking walls, and catapult-like artillery. Ezekiel's prophecy against Tyre (Ezekiel 26:9) envisions Nebuchadnezzar deploying engines of war against its walls. The development of siege technology in the ancient Near East drove corresponding innovations in fortification architecture, and the reference to Uzziah's engines reflects the escalating arms competition of the Iron Age period in which city defenses and offensive capabilities were constantly being updated.