Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/211

 BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY BABYROUSSA 191 fers to the prediction of Jeremiah that 70 years should "accomplish the desolations of Jerusalem." Nebuchadnezzar several times in- vaded Judea to punish the repeated revolts of his vassals, and at each tune carried oft' considerable numbers, but still did not go to the extent of devastating the country. It^vas not till the rebellion of Zedekiah, in 588, that he proceeded to the extremity of destroying Jerusalem, burning the temple, and carrying away all except the common people of the country. This wholesale destruction, executed in 586, would seem to be a natural period from j which to date the captivity. From this time ! to that when the temple was reconstructed, 516, is another period of 70 years, covering just the time during which the temple worship and sacrifices were necessarily discontinued. The [ indications of the extent of the captivity are not clear ; but it seems certain that first and , last it included a very considerable portion of the population. The few numbers given seem rather to relate to separate companies of cap- tives. When the decree of Cyrus permitting the return was proclaimed, a company of 42,- 360, besides 7,337 slaves, at once set out un- der Zerubbabel ; and it is probable that there was a considerable stream of emigration back to Judea. But it is evident that only a small proportion of the Jewish people returned. The temple being reestablished, the priests would be among the most likely to return ; and as out of the 24 courses only four went, it has been conjectured that at least five sixths of the people remained in their new homes. There was little inducement for them to migrate to Judea, an outlying satrapy of a great empire, impoverished by war, and bordered by un- friendly peoples. They had become natural- ized in their present homes, where their treat- ment was mild. In Psalm cxxxvii., where the exiles pour out their griefs, the only complaint as to their treatment in captivity is that they were required to sing their native songs. The burden of their imprecations is against the atrocities committed in actual warfare, and against their former neighbors, the Edomites, who had exulted over the destruction of Jeru- salem. They were captives only in name. They were really colonists, not slaves. They had followed the wise advice of Jeremiah, to live peaceably with their neighbors, build houses and dwell in them, and plant gardens and eat of the fruit of them. There was nothing to prevent a Jew from rising to the highest eminence in the state. Daniel occupied an eminent position in Babylon, both under the Chaldeans and the Persians. It is no wonder that with the pru- | dence of their race the majority chose to re- main in the prosperous regions where they were born, rather than migrate to the dis- turbed country whence their fathers had been brought. Before long they were scattered through every province of the Persian empire. We find no instance of hostility to them for more than half a century of Persian rule, when 65 VOL. ii. 13 their ancestral enemy Haman succeeded in ex- citing the suspicions of the vain and jealous Ahasuerus, the Xerxes of classical history. That they had by this time become very nu- merous is evinced by the loss which their ene- mies met in the attempt to massacre them. In the capital alone 800 were killed, and in the provinces 75,000. It was not till long after this date, when the Persian empire had fallen into disorder, that any considerable proportion of the Jewish population migrated to Palestine ; and even then great numbers went to other countries, where for centuries they were known as "the dispersion." It is probable that a portion of the descendants of the Israelite cap- tives who had been carried to Assyria more than a century before the first Jewish depor- tation under Nebuchadnezzar, gradually amal- gamated with the captives from Judea, so that the present Hebrews all over the world belong to the twelve tribes, not merely to the two of Judah and Benjamin and the Levites who lived among them. This amalgamation appears to have begun early, for of the 42,000 who went up with Zerubbabel under the decree of Cyrus, about 30,000 are specially noted as belonging to Judah, Benjamin, and Levi, whence it may be fairly inferred that the remaining 12,000 be- longed to the other tribes. BABYROISSA, or Babirnsa, an animal of the swine family, peculiar to some of the Malay islands. It is about 3 ft. long and 2 ft. high ; the legs being longer and the body more slender than in others of the swine species. It does not root in the ground, but lives upon fallen fruits. The tusks of the lower jaw are long and sharp. Those of the upper jaw, instead of growing downward in the usual manner, are reversed, growing upward from bony sockets near the snout, and curving backward until they almost touch the forehead. They sometimes attain the length of 8 or 10 inches, and are found only in the male. Their use is undetermined ; Babyroussa iSus babirusa). they cannot be weapons of offence. Some have supposed that they serve to protect the eyes from the spiny plants among which the animal finds its food ; but they would for this purpose be equally necessary for the female, which must seek its food in the same way as the