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G5482 · Greek · New Testament
χάραξ
charax
Noun Masculine
palisade / siege rampart

Definition

Charax (G5482) refers to a military palisade — a rampart or barricade constructed from pointed stakes, used in siege warfare to surround a city and cut off escape. It appears in Jesus' prophecy over Jerusalem (Luke 19:43) with devastating precision.

Usage & Theological Significance

Jesus wept over Jerusalem and then prophesied with surgical military precision: 'The days will come upon you when your enemies will set up a charax around you and surround you and hem you in on every side' (Lk 19:43). The Roman siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD fulfilled this literally — Josephus records that the Romans built a wall of circumvallation (a charax) around the entire city, cutting off all escape. This happened because, Jesus said, Jerusalem 'did not know the time of your visitation' (Lk 19:44). The rejected King's tears become the city's destruction. Charax is a word of prophetic precision — the exact military strategy Jesus named decades before it happened.

Key Bible Verses

Luke 19:43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you.
Luke 19:44 They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you.
Luke 19:41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it.
Luke 19:42 Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace!
Matthew 24:2 He answered them, 'You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another.'

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