| Easton's Bible Dictionary (1.) The flag or banner of the larger kind, serving for three tribes marching together. These standards, of which there were four, were worked with embroidery and beautifully ornamented (Numbers 1:52; 2:2, 3, 10, 18, 25; Cant. 2:4; 6:4, 10). (2.) The flag borne by each separate tribe, of a smaller form. Probably it bore on it the name of the tribe to which it belonged, or some distinguishing device (Numbers 2:2, 34). (3.) A lofty signal-flag, not carried about, but stationary. It was usually erected on a mountain or other lofty place. As soon as it was seen the war-trumpets were blown (Psalm 60:4; Isaiah 5:26; 11:12; 13:2; 18:3; 30:17; Jeremiah 4:6 21; Ezek. 27:7). (4.) A "sign of fire" (Jeremiah 6:1) was sometimes used as a signal. The banners and ensigns of the Roman army had idolatrous images upon them, and hence they are called the "abomination of desolation" (q.v.). The principal Roman standard, however, was an eagle. (See Matthew 24:28; Luke 17:37, where the Jewish nation is compared to a dead body, which the eagles gather together to devour.) God's setting up or giving a banner (Psalm 20:5; 60:4; Cant. 2:4) imports his presence and protection and aid extended to his people. Noah Webster's Dictionary 1. (n.) A kind of flag attached to a spear or pike by a crosspiece, and used by a chief as his standard in battle. 2. (n.) A large piece of silk or other cloth, with a device or motto, extended on a crosspiece, and borne in a procession, or suspended in some conspicuous place. 3. (n.) Any flag or standard; as, the star-spangled banner. Int. Standard Bible Encyclopedia BANNER ban'-er (ENSIGN, STANDARDS): The English word "banner" is from banderia, Low Latin, meaning a banner (compare bandum, Latin, which meant first a "band," an organized military troop, and then a "flag"). It has come to mean a flag, or standard, carried at the head of a military band or body, to indicate the line of march, or the rallying point, and it is now applied, in its more extended significance, to royal, national, or ecclesiastical "banners" also. We find it applied sometimes to a streamer on the end of a lance, such as is used by the Arab sheik today. "Banner" occurs in the following significant Old Testament passages:
(1) in the singular, "Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain" (Isaiah 13:2 the King James Version); "a banner to them that fear thee" (Psalm 60:4); and
(2) in the plur., "In the name of our God we will set up our banner" (Psalm 20:5); "terrible as an army with banner" (Songs 6:4).
1. Military Ensigns among the Hebrews:
The Hebrews, it would seem, like the Assyrians, the Egyptians, and other ancient nations, had military ensigns. As bearing upon this question, a very significant passage is that found in Numbers 2:2: "The children of Israel shall encamp every man by his own standard, with the ensigns of their fathers' houses." "Standard-bearer" in Isaiah 10:18 the King James Version, "They shall be as when a standard-bearer fainteth," is not a case in point, but is to be rendered as in the Revised Version, margin, "as when a si ck man pineth away."
In this noted passage a distinction seems intentionally made (another view is held by some) between "the ensigns of their fathers' houses" (literally, "signs"; compare Psalm 74:4, where the reference is thought by some today to be to the standards of Antiochus' army), and "the standards" of the four great divisions of the Hebrew tribes in the wilderness (compare the "banner" of Songs 2:4 and Songs 6:4, 10).
2. A Distinction with a Difference:
The relation of these to the "standard" of Numbers 21:8 f (Hebrew nec, the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) "standard") is by no means clear. The word nec, here translated "standard," seems to have meant at first a pole set up on an eminence as a signal for mustering troops (compare "mast" Isaiah 30:17 the English Revised Version, margin). But it occurs frequently in the prophets both in this literal and original sense, and in the figurative or derived sense of a rallying point for God's people (see Isaiah 5:26; Isaiah 11:10 Jeremiah 4:21 and elsewhere). Here the rendering in English Versions of the Bible alternates between "ensign" and "banner" (see HDB, 1-vol, article "Banner").
George B. Eager |  | Multi-Version Concordance Banner (20 Occurrences) Exodus 17:15 Moses built an altar, and called its name Yahweh our Banner. (WEB NAS RSV NIV) Exodus 17:16 He said, "Yah has sworn:'Yahweh will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.'" (See RSV) Psalms 20:5 We will triumph in your salvation. In the name of our God, we will set up our banners. May Yahweh grant all your requests. (Root in WEB KJV ASV DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Psalms 60:4 You have given a banner to those who fear you, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah. (WEB KJV JPS ASV DBY WBS NAS RSV NIV) Song of Songs 2:4 He brought me to the banquet hall. His banner over me is love. (WEB KJV JPS ASV DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Isaiah 5:26 He will lift up a banner to the nations from far, and he will whistle for them from the end of the earth. Behold, they will come speedily and swiftly. (WEB DBY NIV) Isaiah 11:10 It will happen in that day that the nations will seek the root of Jesse, who stands as a banner of the peoples; and his resting place will be glorious. (WEB DBY NIV) Isaiah 11:12 He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. (WEB DBY NIV) Isaiah 13:2 Set up a banner on the bare mountain! Lift up your voice to them! Wave your hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles. (WEB KJV DBY WBS NIV) Isaiah 18:3 All you inhabitants of the world, and you dwellers on the earth, when a banner is lifted up on the mountains, look! When the trumpet is blown, listen! (WEB DBY NIV) Isaiah 30:17 One thousand will flee at the threat of one. At the threat of five, you will flee until you are left like a beacon on the top of a mountain, and like a banner on a hill. (WEB DBY NIV) Isaiah 31:9 His rock will pass away by reason of terror, and his princes will be afraid of the banner," says Yahweh, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem. (WEB DBY) Isaiah 49:22 Thus says the Lord Yahweh, "Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and set up my banner to the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders. (WEB DBY NIV) Isaiah 59:19 And they shall fear the name of Jehovah from the west, and from the rising of the sun, his glory. When the adversary shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of Jehovah will lift up a banner against him. (DBY) Isaiah 62:10 Go through, go through the gates! Prepare the way of the people! Cast up, cast up the highway! Gather out the stones! Lift up a banner for the peoples. (WEB DBY NIV) Jeremiah 4:6 Set up a banner toward Zion; take to flight, stay not! For I am bringing evil from the north, and a great destruction. (DBY) Jeremiah 50:2 Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and lift up a banner; publish, conceal not! Say, Babylon is taken, Bel is put to shame, Merodach is dismayed: her images are put to shame, her idols are dismayed. (DBY RSV NIV) Jeremiah 51:12 Lift up a banner towards the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set the watchmen, prepare the ambushes; for Jehovah hath both devised and done that which he spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon. (DBY NIV) Jeremiah 51:27 Lift up a banner in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare nations against her; call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the bristly caterpillars. (DBY NIV) Ezekiel 27:7 Of fine linen with embroidered work from Egypt was your sail, that it might be to you for a banner; blue and purple from the islands of Elishah was your awning. (WEB DBY NIV) |
