BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY (ante), the carrying into captivity of 200,000 people of Jewish cities, about 713 B.C., by the officers of the king of Assyria. Before this, how ever. there was the "Assyrian captivity," the result of the invasion of the kingdom of Israel by three or more successive Assyrian kings. About 762 B.c., Pul imposed a tribute upon Menahem. About 738 B.C., Tiglath-Pileser carried away in large part the trans Jordanic tribes and the inhabitants of Galilee. Shalmaneser made two invasions, and, in 720, after a siege of three years, took Samaria and carried many Israelites away as captives, populating Samaria by Babylonians and other foreigners. It is supposed that Tighith Pileser took the Israelites away to people his great city. His successor, Shalmaneser, made Hoshea, the king of Israel, a tributary, and when the tribute was not paid he took Samaria by way of punishment, and carried to Assyria the king and all the most desir able remaining population of the ten tribes. These were settled in distant cities, and their places were supplied by colonies from Babylon and Susis. As captives, the people were treated with no especial harshness. They were not bondmen, as one might suppose from the term "captive;" but even in Babylon their elders retained the power of life and death over their own people; and at a later period the Jews in the principal cities were governed by an officer of their own nation, as was the case in Egypt under the Ptolemies. The Jews in Assyria themselves held slaves: the book of " Daniel" tells of a Jew in high political station. and in "Esther" we find their power and consequence in the Persian empire celebrated. Doubtless their lot was more comfortable than that of other conquered nations among whom they dwelt. Much effort has been made to discover the ultimate condition or fate of the ten tribi.s. Josephus in his day thought that they dwelt in large communities somewhere beyond the Euphrates. Rabbinical tradition makes the same assertion, with many imaginative exemplifications. Christian writers have traced them all over the world. Some find them among the Afghans; som' tell of a Jewish colony at the foot of the Himalayas; the " Black Jews" of Malabar claim an aflinity or descent from them; they have been supposed to be fathers of the Tartars, of the Nestorians, of the North American Indians, and by some recent scholars of the Anglo-Saxons. The best that can be done, in the light of established history, is to trace their footsteps in four directions. After the captivity, some returned and mixed with the Jews; some assimilated with the Samaritans and became enemies of the Jews; many remained in Syria, mixing there with other populations, and forming colonies through out the east; but most of them probably apostatized in Assyria, adopting the idolatry of the nation around them, and were finally merged into the stronger and more numerous people.
The second, or "Babylonian captivity," consists of two distinct deportations. Nebuchadnezzar made several invasions of Judea. and finally destroyed Jerusalem and
the temple, and carried the people to Babylon. The first principal deportation was in 598 B.C. , when Jehoiachim, and all the nobles, soldiers, and artificers were carried away; the second great deportation followed the destruction of the temple and the capture of Zedekiah, 588 B. C. Although the number of persons carried away is in several instances set down, it is not probable that such numbers represent the whole deportation, for the sum total on record can be but a mere fraction of the Jewish people. The captives were treated not as slaves, but as colonists. There was nothing to hinder a Jew from rising to the highest eminence in the state or holding the most confidential office near the throne. They had no temple and offered no sacrifices; but the rite of circumcision was observed, and their genealogical tallies were kept so that they were usually able to tell who was the rightful heir to the throne of David. The first great event in the restoration of the Jews was the decree of Cyrus, under which 42.360, with 7537 slaves and cattle and personal goods, left Babylon under Slieshbazzar. They laid the foundation of the second temple 53 years after the destruction of the first. The work was stopped almost immediately. But under Darius the Jews found favor, and under the guidance of Ezra, Nehemiah, and others Jerusalem was to some extent restored, and exiled families doubtless returned and occupied the country round about. Nevertheless, the great mass of the Jewish people remained in the countries over which they had been scattered. Before the captivity, many Jews had settled in Egypt; others in Sheba. Among those who returned to Judea, about 30,000 are said to have been of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi. Recent students conclude that about six times as many Jews preferred to remain in Assyria, where they kept up the national distinction, and were known to their brethren as "the dispersion," that is, Jewish people residing beyond the limits of Palestine. This dispersion was in three directions or countries: iu Baby lonia, in Egypt, and in Syria. A still later and more perfect "captivity" was that suffered by the people of Palestine under the Romans, when, after the massacre of untold myriads of their people, the Jews were reduced to abject bondage Josephus says that 1 100,000 people were slain in the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, and 97,000 were captured and distributed among the Roman provinces, butchered in amphitheaters, thrown to wild beasts, or sold to slavery in Egypt. Doubt is cast by some writers on the numbers given by Josephus. The last stand of the Jews for national existence was about 133 A.D., when the struggle resulted in the practical extirpation of the people from their chosen land; and since that event—the rebellion of Bar-chobab—the descendants of Abraham have been unable to present, anywhere on the earth, even the semblance of an organized nation.