CAPTIVES
315
CAPTIVITIES
"captains of hundreds" (sdr hdmmedth, iKa.Tbvra.pxos.
centurio); "captains of fifty" (sdr hamishshfm, irtvrri-
nom-apxos. quinquagenarius) ; and " captains over tens "
(SfKdpx^. decurio). (3) "Captains of the chariots"
{sdr harfkib. The " captains of cavalry", Vulg. duces
equitatus in II Par., xviii, 30, 31, 32, xxi. 9, should be
" captains of the chariots"). (4) Commanders of the
body-guard (sdr hdttdbbCiMm. sdr haractm, translated
respectively "captain of soldiers", Gen., xxvi, 26,
xxxvii, 36, etc., and "captain of the shieldbearers",
III Kings, xiv, 27). (5) Lastly, captain is used to
designate two special classes of officers, the sh6-
Icrim. probably officers charged with the organization
of newly levied troops and the order of the camp
(Deut., xx, 5, 9), and the shdHshtm, whose status is not
clear; under the later kings they were royal equerries
or aides-de-camp (IV Kings, ix, 2.5, xv, 25, cf. vii, 2,
17). It is also applied to the chiefs of marauding
bands (III Kings, ii, 24). In the New Testament
"captain" occurs but once. Matt., ii, 6, in the proph-
ecy of Micheas, ii, 5, " for out of thee shall come forth
the captain that shall rule my people Israel".
F. Bechtel.
Captives, Redemption of. See Redemption op Captives.
Captivities of the Israelites. — I. The Assyrian Captivity. (1) The End of the Northern Kingdom. — The Kingdom of Israel, formed by the secession of the Ten Tribes under Roboam, covered the whole northern and north eastern part of the realm of David, which constituted the bulk of the land of the Hebrews. Politically and materially it was of much greater im- portance than its southern neighbour, Juda. Under Jeroboam II (7N2-746 b. c.) it had recovered from the inroads of the Syrians and the pecuniary exactions of Shalmancser II of Assyria, and had regained on the easl and north-east the boundaries conquered of yore by Solomon. In fact the Israel of Jeroboam II was at the summit of its prosperity. But beneath this material bloom lay a depth of religious and moral corruption. Jehovah had always been acknowledged as the supreme God, but His worship was still tainted by the heathenish symbolism of the calf at the na- tional temples of Bethel and Dan (Osee, viii, 5-7), and affronted by the Chanaanitish cult at the high- places and groves, where the Baalim or gods of fertil- ity were offered rites accompanied by unbridled sex- ual licence (Osee, ii, 13, 17: iv. 12 sq.). The Prophets Amos and Osee (A. V. Hosea), especially the latter, paint in strung colours a picture of the dire iniquity of the times: "There is no truth, and there is no mercy, and there is no knowledge of God in the land. Cursing, and lying, and killing, and theft, and adul- tery have overflowed, and blood hath touched blood." (Osee, iv. 1. 2.) Practically there prevailed the prin- ciple that Jehovah could not fail to uphold His people, sin as it might, so long as that people paid Him the outward homage of sacrifice and ceremony. Against tins superstitious presumption ami the licence of the land Osee and Amos spoke in burning words, and in the very hey-day of Israel's prosperity foretold thede- struction of the kingdom as the penalty of its wicked- ness. They announced captivity in foreign countries: "They shall not dwell in the Lord's land; Ephraim is returned to Egypt, and hath eaten unclean things among the Assyrians" (Osee, ix, 3).
\ 1 1 . r Jeroboam II. political disintegration began from within by a series of short reigns of usurpers, who readied the throne and were hurled from it by murder. At the same time a world-power. Assyria, was looming up on the East ami menacing the exist- ence of the small states which lay between it and ill' Mediterranean. An Assyrian king, Tiglath-pileser III (D. V. Thcglathphalasa'r. the Phul of IV K., xv, 19 Id i Campaign against Damascene Syria, Ha- math, and Palestine (712-738), and Manahcm, tin
reigning prince of Israel, was fain to buy security
with a heavy tribute of silver. Manaheru's son Pha-
ceia (Pekahiah), after a two years' reign fell a victim
to a conspiracy, and the throne was seized by its
leader, Phacee (Pekah). The latter entered into an
alliance with King Rasin (Rczin) of Damascus, whose
object was the capture of Jerusalem and the placing
of a Damascene king over Juda, in order to consolf-
date the Syrian-Israelitic defence against the ever-
threatening Assyrian domination. But Achaz of
Jerusalem acknowledged Tiglath-pileser s suzerainty,
and called in his aid in opposition to the prophetic
warnings of Isaias. Later, at Damascus, he did
homage to the Assyrian emperor, and from that city
imported pagan ideas into the Temple ritual. The
power Achaz invoked was destined ultimately to
scourge his country, but it fell heavily first upon the
coalition against Juda. Tiglath-pileser reappeared
in Syria in 734, and his advance forced the allies to
raise the siege of Jerusalem. After defeating basin
and blockading Damascus, the Assyrians turned
westward and occupied Northern Palestine. The
cuneiform inscriptions tell us that Tiglath-pileser re-
quired Phacee's death as the penalty of his presump-
tion, and made his slayer, Osee (Hoshea), king in his
stead. (Cf. IV K., xv, 29 sq.) Numbers of captives
were carried out of Israel, the first of the deportations
which depopulated the country. The prisoners were
taken from Galaad, Galilee, and other northern dis-
tricts of the kingdom, both east and west of the Jordan
basin.
It was therefore over a crippled and impoverished land that Osee ruled as a vassal-king. For relief from this galling pressure he turned to Egypt, the only nation that could then pretend to cope with Assyria. He ceased paying the annual tribute and allied himself with Sua (Soi, a ruler of Lower Egypt, and Hanan, a Philistine prince of Gaza. The expe- dient was a ruinous failure; Egypt, always a false friend of Israel, deserted Osee. Tiglath-pileser's successor, Shalmaneser (the fourth of the name), hav- ing learned of this conspiracy, came down upon the Kingdom of Israel and made Osee a prisoner. But the patriotic revolt was a national one and survived the king's capture. Samaria, the capital, held out desperately against a besieging Assyrian army for three years, and was not taken till 722 B. c, Sargon II having meanwhile succeeded Shalmaneser. It was the death-blow of the Kingdom oi Israel. An Assy- rian inscription found in the ruins of Sargon's palace at Nineveh informs us that he carried away 27,290 of the people. War, famine, and earlier deportations must have much reduced the population. To fill the place of the dead and exiled Israelites, Sargon brought in among the remnant Babylonians and other pagan peoples from conquered lands. The Northern Kingdom became the Assyrian province of Samaria, and from the intermarriage of it-, various races arose the Samaritans. But the depopulation of the former
kingdom of its natives was far froi mplete. The
bulk of the populace, composed of the poorer and least influential inhabitants was allowed to remain, so that we read in the Assyrian monuments of a late]
futile effort of Bamath, Arpad, Simnira, Damascus,
and "Samarina ". i. e. Samai i I to hake off the lord- shipof Sargon. (Schrader, Keilinschriftliche Biblio- thek, [1,56,57.) But the Isiaelitie stock left in the land was gradually merged into the composite race of Samaritans.
(2) The Ten Trd* : ; " ExiL The exiles were set tied by their conquerors "in Halah and Habor [a river] by the river of Go/an. in the cities of the Mo,|e>". Their colonies were therefore in the heart of Northern Mesopotamia and in western Persia, then
subject to Assyria. In Mesopotamia, or Assyria proper, the Israelites were assigned to the n gion cen tring about the city of Nisibis, which is mentioned by
