WALLS
As long as man has been constructing houses and cities he has been building walls out of many materials, in a variety of designs, to serve a number of purposes. The size and strength of structures largely depend on the construction and materials used in their walls.
The walls of David’s palace were of cut stone. (2 Sam. 5:11) Similarly, the outside walls of Solomon’s temple, it appears, were of quarried stone, with some of their interior surfaces covered over with cedar boards. (1 Ki. 6:2, 7, 15) These interior wooden panels, in turn, were elaborately decorated with carvings and overlays of gold. (1 Ki. 6:29; 1 Chron. 29:4; 2 Chron. 3:4, 7) The interior wall surfaces of Belshazzar’s palace were plastered. (Dan. 5:5) The walls of the homes of the people in general were ordinarily of simple construction—sun-dried bricks, uncut stones or plastered material over a wooden framework. Sometimes the surface was whitewashed.—Acts 23:3.
CITY WALLS
In ancient times fear caused people to erect protective walls around large cities to prevent enemy invasions. (1 Ki. 4:13; Isa. 25:12) The inhabitants of the small “dependent towns” round about (Num. 21:25) likewise took refuge within the walled city if attacked. The Mosaic law made a legal distinction between walled and unwalled towns, as to the rights of house owners. (Lev. 25:29-31) The walls not only provided a physical barrier between city residences and an enemy but also afforded an elevated position atop which the defenders could protect the walls from being undermined, tunneled through or breached by battering rams. (2 Sam. 11:20-24; 20:15; Ps. 55:10; Song of Sol. 5:7; Isa. 62:6; Ezek. 4:1, 2; 26:9) As a countermeasure, attacking forces sometimes threw up siege walls as shields behind which to assault the city walls.—2 Ki. 25:1; Jer. 52:4; Ezek. 4:2, 3; 21:22; see FORTIFICATIONS.
OTHER WALLS
Stone walls were often built to hedge in vineyards or fields, and to form corrals or sheep pens. (Num. 22:23-25; Prov. 24:30, 31; Isa. 5:5; Mic. 2:12; Hab. 3:17) And there were also walls that served for embankment purposes along terraced hillsides. (Job 24:11) These walls were of a fairly permanent nature, built of undressed field stones and sometimes set in clay or mortar.
SYMBOLIC WALLS
In the Scriptures walls are sometimes mentioned in a figurative way as pictorial of protection and safety (1 Sam. 25:16; Prov. 18:11; 25:28), or as a symbol of separation. (Gen. 49:22; Ezek. 13:10) In this latter sense Paul wrote the Ephesians: “For he [Christ] is our peace, he who made the two parties one and destroyed the wall in between that fenced them off.” (Eph. 2:14) Paul was well acquainted with the middle wall in Jerusalem’s temple courtyard, which carried a warning sign to the effect that no non-Jew was to go beyond that wall under penalty of death. However, when Paul wrote to the Ephesians in 60 or 61 C.E., though he may have alluded to it in an illustrative way, he was actually not meaning that the literal wall had been abolished, for it was still standing. Rather, the apostle had in mind the Law covenant arrangement that had acted as a dividing wall between Jews and Gentiles for centuries.
On the basis of Christ’s death nearly thirty years previously, that symbolic “wall” had been abolished.
Jeremiah was told he would be like fortified walls of copper against those that opposed him. (Jer. 1:18, 19; 15:20) In another illustration, God’s people, though dwelling as in a city without literal walls, therefore seemingly defenseless, enjoy peace and security because of God’s invisible help. (Ezek. 38:11) Or from another point of view, a strong city would be one having Jehovah as a “wall of fire” (Zech. 2:4, 5), or having walls of salvation set up by Jehovah, rather than ones of mere stone and brick. (Isa. 26:1) The “holy city, New Jerusalem,” which comes down out of heaven, is said to have a “great and lofty wall” of jasper, the height of which is 144 cubits, or 210 feet (64 meters), and having twelve foundation stones consisting of precious jewels engraved with the names of the twelve apostles.—Rev. 21:2, 12, 14, 17-19.