Chapter I: The Various Captivities

=1. By the words= “the captivity” is generally meant the final captivity of Judah, which was the last of a series of captivities both of Israel and of Judah. As a knowledge of these captivities is not only important in the study of Jewish history, but has a bearing upon the authenticity of the Scripture, they should all be carefully distinguished. We therefore give a full list as follows.

THE VARIOUS CAPTIVITIES.

=2. The first captivity=, B. C. about 733, was that of the tribes east of the Jordan, by a king of Assyria bearing two names in Scripture, which were formerly supposed to be the names of two distinct kings. But a recently discovered list of Babylonian kings shows that the two names are those of the same king, and therefore the reading of the verse, 1 Chron. 5:26, is correct in which the two names of this king, namely, Pul and Tilgath-pilneser, are spoken of as in the singular number.

Pul seized the throne B. C. 745, and died 727.[97] The dates in our marginal references (2 Kin. 15:19) are too early. This king carried away “the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh, and brought them unto Halah and Habor and Hara and to the river Gozan,” 1 Chron. 5:26; see also 2 Kings 15:29.

HALAH, HABOR, HARA, THE RIVER GOZAN.

=3. Halah= is probably identified with a mound now called Gla, on the river Khabour, which is a tributary to the Euphrates. It is about 430 miles northeast of Jerusalem and 330 northeast of Babylon.

=Habor= was probably on the river Khabour, but its site has not been identified.

=Hara= is about 100 miles northwest of Gla and is supposed to be the same as Haran, to which Terah and Abraham migrated from Ur of the Chaldees. It is situated upon the river Belik, which runs southward about seventy miles and then joins the Euphrates.

The river Gozan was probably the same as the Khabour, as the province of Gozan, through which it ran, seems to be identified with the Gauzanitis of Ptolemy. Its mouth is about 100 miles east of that of the river Belik, which also empties into the Euphrates. After the Khabour no other river is tributary to the Euphrates for 500 miles of its course. The mouth of the Khabour is 300 miles northwest of Babylon.

=4. The second captivity=, B. C. 721. Twenty years afterward, at the siege of Samaria, the Assyrian king Sargon carried off a larger and more important number. This king gives an account of this siege, in remarkable corroboration of the Scripture history, and states that he “carried off 27,280 of its citizens.” Nevertheless a large number remained in the region around and many fled who returned afterward, 2 Kings 17:6.

=5. “The cities of the Medes”= here spoken of had been only recently conquered by Tiglath-pileser. In an inscription, towards the end of his reign, he mentions Parthia (parts of Media), Nisæa, and other places that paid him tribute. It was in 736 B. C. that he made a great expedition in the east, farther than any of his predecessors, reaching the frontiers of India. He was succeeded by Shalmaneser, B. C. 727, who died and was succeeded by Sargon, B. C. 721, the year of the capture of Samaria.[98] The war of the first captivity (page 158) was carried on between B. C. 733‒731 by Tiglath-pileser, and it was then that the first recorded instance occurred of the practice of transplanting the whole people of a conquered country to places far distant from their native land and replacing them by other captives.[99] Such was afterward the act of Esar-haddon in regard to Samaria, as stated in Ezra 4:2. This king reigned B. C. 681‒668.[100]

The captivity B. C. 721 was the last captivity in any form of Israel, which is known as “the northern kingdom,” in contradistinction from Judah, “the southern kingdom.” It comprised “the ten tribes.”

=6. The third captivity=, B. C. 606. Of the captivities of Judah, the first happened when Daniel and others were carried off to Babylon, B. C. 606, 2 Kings 24:2; 2 Chron. 36:6; Dan. 1:3, when but a few were sent to Babylon.

=7. The fourth captivity=, B. C. 599‒598. The second deportation to Babylon from Judah was in B. C. 599‒598, when 10,000 captives were taken from Jerusalem, 2 Kings 24:12, and from the surrounding country 3,023, Jer. 52:28. The king Jehoiachin was also taken captive.

=8. The fifth and final captivity=, B. C. 588. In the third great captivity of Judah Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem by burning the Temple and pulling down the walls and the houses.

Perhaps in all 100,000 were carried off at various times. While this number was comparatively small, it represented the very strength of the kingdom of Judah, with which tribe the promise of the Messiah alone rested, and it was of this tribe that the majority of those who returned to Palestine were composed.

The captives of Judah remained in or around Babylon during the entire term of their captivity.

=9. The captivity of Manasseh.= In this connection there is another captivity merely referred to in one verse in 2 Chron. 33:11. It is the captivity of Manasseh by the king of Assyria. In this verse it is said that this king of Judah was carried captive to Babylon, and for a time it was thought by some critics that this was an incorrect statement, since the king of Assyria was at Nineveh. But among the inscriptions at present in the British Museum were found those of the history of Esar-haddon, who reigned from B. C. 681 to B. C. 668. In this history it is stated that he went to Syria and conquered and destroyed Sidon and held court at Damascus, summoning twenty-two kings to meet him there; and second among the names is that of “the king of Judah.” This was in the year B. C. 672.[101] It is recorded that he rebuilt Babylon, and we find that both he and his son held their courts and judged vassal princes like Manasseh at Babylon.[102] Esar-haddon gathered men from Babylon and other places and planted them in Samaria, and hence we have the account given us in Ezra 4:2, 9, 10.

=10.= Although the “=seventy years=” of captivity pronounced against Judah by the prophet Jeremiah (25:12; 29:10) are supposed to begin B. C. 606, yet the destruction of Jerusalem and the last deportation of Judah, B. C. 588, closed up the list of captivities both of Judah and of Israel. Both communities now existed, but, with small exception, only as captives in Assyria or as exiles in various other lands.