Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/367

 CAPTIVES

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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