Court

"court; enclosure." This word is related to a common Semitic verb that has two meanings: "to be present," in the sense of living at a certain place (encampment, residence, court), and "to enclose, surround, press together." In the Hebrew Old Testament, haser appears about 190 times; its usage is well-distributed throughout, except for the minor prophets. In some Hebrew dictionaries, the usage of haser as "settled abode," "settlement," or "village" is separated from the meaning "court." but most modern dictionaries identify only one root with two related meanings.

The first biblical occurrence of haser is in Gen 25:16: "These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their towns, and by their castles; twelve princes according to their nations." Here haser is related to the first meaning of the root; this occurs less frequently than the usage meaning "court." The haser ("settlement") was a place where people lived without an enclosure to protect them. The word is explained in Lev 25:31: "But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be counted as the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubilee."

Haser signifies the "settlements" of semi-nomadic peoples: the Ishmaelites (Gen 25:16), the Avim (Deut 2:23), and Kedar (Isa 42:11). Haser also denotes a "settlement" of people outside the city wall. The cities of Canaan were relatively small and could not contain the whole population. In times of peace, residents of the city might build homes and workshops for themselves outside the wall and establish a separate quarter. If the population grew, the king or governor often decided to enclose the new quarter by surrounding it with a wall and incorporating the section into the existing city, in order to protect the population from bandits and warriors. Jerusalem gradually extended its size westward; at the time of Hezekiah, it had grown into a large city. Huldah the prophetess lived in such a development, known in Hebrew as the mishneh: "… she dwelt in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter" (2Kings 22:14, rsv).

The Book of Joshua includes Israel's victories in Canaan's major cities as well as the suburbs: "Ain, Remmon, and Ether, and Ashan; four cities and their villages …" (Josh 19:7; cf. Josh 15:45, 47; Josh 21:12).

The predominant usage of haser is "court," whether of a house, a palace, or the temple. Each house generally had a courtyard surrounded by a wall or else one adjoined several homes: "Nevertheless a lad saw them, and told Absalom: but they went both of them away quickly, and came to a man's house in Bahurim, which had a well in his court; whither they went down" (2Sam 17:18). Solomon's palace had several "courts", an outer "court," an "enclosed space" around the palace, and a "court" around which the palace, and a "court" around which the palace was built. Similarly, the temple had various courts. The psalmist expressed his joy in being in the "courts" of the temple, where the birds built their nests (Psa 84:3); "For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness" (Psa 84:10). God's people looked forward to the thronging together of all the people in God's "courts": "… in the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem" (Psa 116:19).

The Septuagint translations are: aule ("courtyard; farm; house; outer court; palace"), epaulis ("farm; homestead; residence"), and kome ("village; small town"). The kjv gives these translations: "court; village; town."

is an adjective, "signifying pertaining to the agora, any place of public meeting, and especially where trials were held," Act 19:38; the RV translates the sentence "the courts are open;" a more literal rendering is "court days are kept." In Act 17:5 it is translated in the RV, "rabble;" AV, "baser sort," lit., "frequenters of the markets." See BASER.

primarily, "an uncovered space around a house, enclosed by a wall, where the stables were," hence was used to describe (a) "the courtyard of a house;" in the OT it is used of the "courts" of the tabernacle and Temple; in this sense it is found in the NT in Rev 11:2; (b) "the courts in the dwellings of well-to-do folk," which usually had two, one exterior, between the door and the street (called the proaulion, or "porch," Mar 14:68), the other, interior, surrounded by the buildings of the dwellings, as in Mat 26:69 (in contrast to the room where the judges were sitting); Mar 14:66, Luk 22:55; AV, "hall;" RV "court" gives the proper significance, Mat 26:3, Mat 26:58, Mar 14:54, Mar 15:16 (RV, "Praetorium"); Luk 11:21, Joh 18:15. It is here to be distinguished from the Praetorium, translated "palace." See HALL, PALACE. For the other meaning "sheepfold," Joh 10:1, Joh 10:16, see FOLD.

an adjective meaning "royal," signifies, in the neuter plural, "a royal palace," translated "kings' courts" in Luk 7:25; in the singular, 1Pe 2:9, "royal." See ROYAL.