Reference: Captive
Easton
one taken in war. Captives were often treated with great cruelty and indignity (1Ki 20:32; Jos 10:24; Jg 1:7; 2Sa 4:12; Jg 8:7; 2Sa 12:31; 1Ch 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; 2Ch 28:9-15; Ps 44:12; Joe 3:3), and exposed to the most cruel treatment (Na 3:10; Zec 14:2; Es 3:13; 2Ki 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).
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And when they had brought those kings out unto Joshua, Joshua called for all the men of Israel and said unto the captains of the men of war who went with him, Come near; put your feet upon the necks of these kings. And they came near and put their feet upon the necks of them.
And Adonibezek said, Seventy kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered crumbs under my table; as I have done, so God has recompensed me. And they put him into Jerusalem, and there he died.
And Gideon said, Therefore when the LORD has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, then I will tear your flesh with the thorns and the briers of the wilderness.
So they girded sackcloth on their loins and put ropes on their heads and came to the king of Israel and said, Thy slave Benhadad saith, I pray thee, let me live. And he replied, If he is yet alive, he is my brother.
But a prophet of the LORD was there, whose name was Oded; and he went out before the host that came to Samaria and said unto them, Behold, because the LORD God of your fathers was angry with Judah, he has delivered them into your hand, and ye have slain them in a rage. This reaches up unto heaven. And now ye purpose to keep subject the sons of Judah and Jerusalem for menslaves and womenslaves unto you, but are ye not guilty against the LORD your God? read more. Now hear me therefore, and deliver the captives again, which ye have taken captive of your brethren; for the fierce wrath of the LORD is upon you. Then certain of the heads of the sons of Ephraim, Azariah, the son of Johanan, Berechiah, the son of Meshillemoth, and Jehizkiah, the son of Shallum, and Amasa, the son of Hadlai, stood up against those that came from the war and said unto them, Ye shall not bring in the captives here, for the sin against the LORD shall be upon us. Ye intend to add more to our sins and to our guilt, for our guilt is great, and there is fierce wrath against Israel. So the armed men left the captives and the spoil before the princes and all the congregation. And the men which were expressed by name rose up and took the captives, and, with the spoil, clothed all that were naked among them and arrayed them and shod them and gave them to eat and to drink and anointed them and carried all the feeble of them upon asses and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their brethren; then they returned to Samaria.
And the letters were sent by posts into all the king's provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey.
Thou hast sold thy people for nothing and dost not increase thy wealth by their price.
Their children shall also be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.
They shall shoot at the young boys with bows, and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare the sons.
Moreover I will deliver all the strength of this city and all its labours and all its precious things and all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give into the hand of their enemies, who shall spoil them and take them and carry them to Babylon.
Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive into Babylon the remnant of the people that remained in the city, and those that had come over to him, with the rest of the people that remained. But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left of the poor of the people, which had nothing, in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time.
And all the princes of the army which were in the field, even they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam governor over the land and had committed unto him the men and the women and the children and the poor of the land, those that were not carried away captive to Babylon;
And they have cast lots for my people and have given a boy for a harlot and sold a girl for wine that they might drink.
Yet she was carried away, she went into captivity; her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets: and they cast lots for her honourable men, and all her nobles were bound in chains.
For I will gather all the Gentiles against Jerusalem in battle, and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
Smith
Captive.
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.