The Bible contains fewer than a dozen direct references to banners, and the context is almost entirely military. More often than not the banner of victory is ascribed to God. The earliest example is Exodus 17:15, where Moses celebrates the victory of the Amalekites by building an altar, calling the name of it “the Lord is my banner” and saying, “a hand upon the banner of the Lord” (RSV). In the Psalms too it is God who sets up a banner for his people (Ps 60:4), who for their part ascribe their triumph to God by setting up banners “in the name of our God” (Ps 20:5). Jeremiah’s prediction of Babylon’s destruction is prefaced by the statement, “Declare among the nations and proclaim, set up a banner and proclaim, conceal it not” (Jer 50:2 RSV), along the lines of a warrior boldly planting a banner as a sign of taking possession.

The remaining instances of the word banner are in the Song of Songs. In the Shulamite woman’s picture of Solomon’s taking her into the court harem, the climatic not of triumph is that “ he brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love” (Song 2:4). Here the banner is an image of both festivity or celebration and claiming possession. In a courtly and military world, one of the supreme images of exhilaration is the sight of an army advancing with its banners unfurled. This supplies the emotional context for the lover’s declaration that his beloved’s beauty is as “terrible as an army with banners” (Song 6:4,10).