Bible Dictionary
ASSAULT
Assault means a hostile attack or sudden violent onset against a person or place. Scripture uses the term for attacks on individuals, a household, or a city under siege.
Definition
Assault means a hostile attack or sudden violent onset. It may describe pressing forward against a besieged place or attacking a person, household, or group.
Biblical Usage
The term describes an attack upon persons, the assault on the house of Jason in Thessalonica, and a hostile onset against others.
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>a-solt' (tsur; horme): The Hebrew verbal form is used of pressing forward a siege (see SIEGE), but also of a hostile attack upon a person then translated "assault" (Es 8:11). The Greek word horme used of an attack upon persons in Ac 14:5 (the King James Version) is rendered "onset" in the Revised Version (British and American). The word "assault" remains in Ac 17:5, of attacking the house of Jason in Thessalonica, where the verb is ephistanai, "to come suddenly upon."</p>