captive Summary and Overview

one taken in war. Captives were often treated with great cruelty and indignity (1 Kings 20:32; Josh. 10:24; Judg. 1:7; 2 Sam. 4:12; Judg. 8:7; 2 Sam. 12:31; 1 Chr. 20:3). When a city was taken by assault, all the men were slain, and the women and children carried away captive and sold as slaves (Isa. 20; 47:3; 2 Chr. 28:9-15; Ps. 44:12; Joel 3:3), and exposed to the most cruel treatment (Nah. 3:10; Zech. 14:2; Esther 3:13; 2 Kings 8:12; Isa. 13:16, 18). Captives were sometimes carried away into foreign countries, as was the case with the Jews (Jer. 20:5; 39:9, 10; 40:7).

A prisoner of war. Such were usually treated with great cruelty by the heathen nations. They were kept for slaves, and often sold; but this was a modification of the ancient cruelty, and a substitute for putting them to death Although the treatment of captives by the Jews seems sometimes to be cruel, it was very much milder than that of the heathen, and was mitigated, as far as possible in the circumstances, by their civil code.

CAP'TIVE . Gen 14:14. Usually denotes one taken in war. Among Eastern nations such persons were treated with great cruelty, and were subjects of merchandise. For instances of this merciless treatment see Jud 1:7;1 Sam 11:2; 2 Sam 8:2; 2 Kgs 26:7. It is a remarkable fact that though the Israelites dealt in many instances harshly with those they captured, yet their conduct stood out in such favorable contrast to that of heathen nations that the humanity of some even of their worst kings was reckoned upon by their conquered enemies. 1 Kgs 20:31-34. The passage Joel 3:3 brings out into melancholy prominence both the lot of prisoners of war and also the contempt manifested for the Jews. The Bible (Speaker's) Commentary thus expounds the verse: "The Jewish prisoners were held so cheap that a slave-girl was sold by her captor for a draught of wine, and a slave-boy was given in place of the small coin thrown to a prostitute. During the Jewish war Titus took 97,000 prisoners, of whom he publicly sold all that were under 17 years of age. After Hadrian's Jewish war four Jews were sold for a measure of barley at Hebron." The Romans sometimes compelled a captive to be joined with a dead body, and to bear it about until the horrible effluvia destroyed the life of the living. The capture of Judea by the Romans, a.d. 70, was commemorated by coins which are shown in the following cut: Coins to Commemoration the Capture of Judea. (Farrar's "Life of Christ.") On the left-hand coin Is seen the emperor Titus; Judea is weeping at the foot of a palm tree. On the right hand, a Jewish captive with hands tied behind his back looks upon a Jewess seated at the foot of a palm tree.