Battlement

A parapet wall or balustrade surrounding the flat roofs of the houses, required to be built by a special law (Deut. 22:8). In Jer. 5:10, it denotes the parapet of a city wall.

Among the Jews a battlement was required by law to be built upon every house. It consisted of a low wall built around the roofs of the houses to prevent persons from falling off, and sometimes serving as a partition from another building. (22:8; Jeremiah 5:10)

BAT'TLEMENT. Deut 22:8. A wall, parapet, or other structure around the flat roofs of Eastern houses, designed as a partition from an adjoining building or to prevent persons from falling off. The law required a battlement to be built upon every house. It is sometimes used in a more extensive sense to denote the fortifications of a city. Jer 5:10. A traveller says that at Aleppo, where the houses join each other, the battlements are so low that he could walk over the tops of a dozen houses without interruption. See Dwelling.

BAT'TLEMENT. Deut 22:8. A wall, parapet, or other structure around the flat roofs of Eastern houses, designed as a partition from an adjoining building or to prevent persons from falling off. The law required a battlement to be built upon every house. It is sometimes used in a more extensive sense to denote the fortifications of a city. Jer 5:10. A traveller says that at Aleppo, where the houses join each other, the battlements are so low that he could walk over the tops of a dozen houses without interruption. See Dwelling.

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. One of the solid upright parts of a parapet in ancient fortifications.

2. pl. The whole parapet, consisting of alternate solids and open spaces. At first purely a military feature, afterwards copied on a smaller scale with decorative features, as for churches.