Captivity
(1.) Of Israel. The kingdom of the ten tribes was successively invaded by several Assyrian kings. Pul (q.v.) imposed a tribute on Menahem of a thousand talents of silver ( 2 Kings 15:19 , 20 ; 1 Chr. 5:26 ) (B.C. 762), and Tiglath-pileser, in the days of Pekah (B.C. 738), carried away the trans-Jordanic tribes and the inhabitants of Galilee into Assyria ( 2 Kings 15:29 ; Isa. 9:1 ). Subsequently Shalmaneser invaded Israel and laid siege to Samaria, the capital of the kingdom. During the siege he died, and was succeeded by Sargon, who took the city, and transported the great mass of the people into Assyria (B.C. 721), placing them in Halah and in Habor, and in the cities of the Medes ( 2 Kings 17:3 , 5 ). Samaria was never again inhabited by the Israelites. The families thus removed were carried to distant cities, many of them not far from the Caspian Sea, and their place was supplied by colonists from Babylon and Cuthah, etc. ( 2 Kings 17:24 ). Thus terminated the kingdom of the ten tribes, after a separate duration of two hundred and fifty-five years (B.C. 975-721). Many speculations have been indulged in with reference to these ten tribes. But we believe that all, except the number that probably allied themselves with Judah and shared in their restoration under Cyrus, are finally lost. “Like the dew on the mountain, Like the foam on the river, Like the bubble on the fountain, They are gone, and for ever.” (2.) Of Judah. In the third year of Jehoiachim, the eighteenth king of Judah (B.C. 605), Nebuchadnezzar having overcome the Egyptians at Carchemish, advanced to Jerusalem with a great army. After a brief siege he took that city, and carried away the vessels of the sanctuary to Babylon, and dedicated them in the Temple of Belus ( 2 Kings 24:1 ; 2 Chr. 36:6 , 7 ; Dan. 1:1 , 2 ). He also carried away the treasures of the king, whom he made his vassal. At this time, from which is dated the “seventy years” of captivity ( Jer. 25 ; Dan. 9:1 , 2 ), Daniel and his companions were carried to Babylon, there to be brought up at the court and trained in all the learning of the Chaldeans. After this, in the fifth year of Jehoiakim, a great national fast was appointed ( Jer. 36:9 ), during which the king, to show his defiance, cut up the leaves of the book of Jeremiah’s prophecies as they were read to him in his winter palace, and threw them into the fire. In the same spirit he rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar ( 2 Kings 24:1 ), who again a second time (B.C. 598) marched against Jerusalem, and put Jehoiachim to death, placing his son Jehoiachin on the throne in his stead. But Jehoiachin’s counsellors displeasing Nebuchadnezzar, he again a third time turned his army against Jerusalem, and carried away to Babylon a second detachment of Jews as captives, to the number of 10,000 ( 2 Kings 24:13 ; Jer. 24:1 ; 2 Chr. 36:10 ), among whom were the king, with his mother and all his princes and officers, also Ezekiel, who with many of his companions were settled on the banks of the river Chebar (q.v.). He also carried away all the remaining treasures of the temple and the palace, and the golden vessels of the sanctuary. Mattaniah, the uncle of Jehoiachin, was now made king over what remained of the kingdom of Judah, under the name of Zedekiah ( 2 Kings 24:17 ; 2 Chr. 36:10 ). After a troubled reign of eleven years his kingdom came to an end ( 2 Chr. 36:11 ). Nebuchadnezzar, with a powerful army, besieged Jerusalem, and Zedekiah became a prisoner in Babylon. His eyes were put out, and he was kept in close confinement till his death ( 2 Kings 25:7 ). The city was spoiled of all that was of value, and then given up to the flames. The temple and palaces were consumed, and the walls of the city were levelled with the ground (B.C. 586), and all that remained of the people, except a number of the poorest class who were left to till the ground and dress the vineyards, were carried away captives to Babylon. This was the third and last deportation of Jewish captives. The land was now utterly desolate, and was abondoned to anarchy. In the first year of his reign as king of Babylon (B.C. 536), Cyrus issued a decree liberating the Jewish captives, and permitting them to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the city and the temple ( 2 Chr. 36:22 , 23 ; Ezra 1 ; 2 ). The number of the people forming the first caravan, under Zerubbabel, amounted in all to 42,360 ( Ezra 2:64 , 65 ), besides 7,337 men-servants and maid-servants. A considerable number, 12,000 probably, from the ten tribes who had been carried away into Assyria no doubt combined with this band of liberated captives. At a later period other bands of the Jews returned (1) under Ezra (7:7) (B.C. 458), and (2) Nehemiah (7:66) (B.C. 445). But the great mass of the people remained still in the land to which they had been carried, and became a portion of the Jews of the “dispersion” ( John 7:35 ; 1 Pet. 1:1 ). The whole number of the exiles that chose to remain was probably about six times the number of those who returned.
Chronicles, Books of
The two books were originally one. They bore the title in the Massoretic Hebrew Dibre hayyamim , i.e., “Acts of the Days.” This title was rendered by Jerome in his Latin version “Chronicon,” and hence “Chronicles.” In the Septuagint version the book is divided into two, and bears the title Paraleipomena, i.e., “things omitted,” or “supplements”, because containing many things omitted in the Books of Kings. The contents of these books are comprehended under four heads. (1.) The first nine chapters of Book I. contain little more than a list of genealogies in the line of Israel down to the time of David. (2.) The remainder of the first book contains a history of the reign of David. (3.) The first nine chapters of Book II. contain the history of the reign of Solomon. (4.) The remaining chapters of the second book contain the history of the separate kingdom of Judah to the time of the return from Babylonian Exile. The time of the composition of the Chronicles was, there is every ground to conclude, subsequent to the Babylonian Exile, probably between 450 and 435 B.C. The contents of this twofold book, both as to matter and form, correspond closely with this idea. The close of the book records the proclamation of Cyrus permitting the Jews to return to their own land, and this forms the opening passage of the Book of Ezra, which must be viewed as a continuation of the Chronicles. The peculiar form of the language, being Aramaean in its general character, harmonizes also with that of the books which were written after the Exile. The author was certainly contemporary with Zerubbabel, details of whose family history are given ( 1 Chr. 3:19 ). The time of the composition being determined, the question of the authorship may be more easily decided. According to Jewish tradition, which was universally received down to the middle of the seventeenth century, Ezra was regarded as the author of the Chronicles. There are many points of resemblance and of contact between the Chronicles and the Book of Ezra which seem to confirm this opinion. The conclusion of the one and the beginning of the other are almost identical in expression. In their spirit and characteristics they are the same, showing thus also an identity of authorship. In their general scope and design these books are not so much historical as didactic. The principal aim of the writer appears to be to present moral and religious truth. He does not give prominence to political occurences, as is done in Samuel and Kings, but to ecclesiastical institutions. “The genealogies, so uninteresting to most modern readers, were really an important part of the public records of the Hebrew state. They were the basis on which not only the land was distributed and held, but the public services of the temple were arranged and conducted, the Levites and their descendants alone, as is well known, being entitled and first fruits set apart for that purpose.” The “Chronicles” are an epitome of the sacred history from the days of Adam down to the return from Babylonian Exile, a period of about 3,500 years. The writer gathers up “the threads of the old national life broken by the Captivity.” The sources whence the chronicler compiled his work were public records, registers, and genealogical tables belonging to the Jews. These are referred to in the course of the book ( 1 Chr. 27:24 ; 29:29 ; 2 Chr. 9:29 ; 12:15 ; 13:22 ; 20:34 ; 24:27 ; 26:22 ; 32:32 ; 33:18 , 19 ; 27:7 ; 35:25 ). There are in Chronicles, and the books of Samuel and Kings, forty parallels, often verbal, proving that the writer both knew and used these records ( 1 Chr. 17:18 ; comp. 2 Sam. 7:18-20 ; 1 Chr. 19 ; comp. 2 Sam. 10 , etc.). As compared with Samuel and Kings, the Book of Chronicles omits many particulars there recorded ( 2 Sam. 6:20-23 ; 9 ; 11 ; 14-19, etc.), and includes many things peculiar to itself ( 1 Chr. 12 ; 22 ; 23-26; 27; 28; 29, etc.). Twenty whole chapters, and twenty-four parts of chapters, are occupied with matter not found elsewhere. It also records many things in fuller detail, as (e.g.) the list of David’s heroes ( 1 Chr. 12:1-37 ), the removal of the ark from Kirjath-jearim to Mount Zion ( 1 Chr. 13 ; 15:2-24 ; 16:4-43 ; comp. 2 Sam. 6 ), Uzziah’s leprosy and its cause ( 2 Chr. 26:16-21 ; comp. 2 Kings 15:5 ), etc. It has also been observed that another peculiarity of the book is that it substitutes modern and more common expressions for those that had then become unusual or obsolete. This is seen particularly in the substitution of modern names of places, such as were in use in the writer’s day, for the old names; thus Gezer ( 1 Chr. 20:4 ) is used instead of Gob ( 2 Sam. 21:18 ), etc. The Books of Chronicles are ranked among the khethubim or hagiographa. They are alluded to, though not directly quoted, in the New Testament ( Heb. 5:4 ; Matt. 12:42 ; 23:35 ; Luke 1:5 ; 11:31 , 51 ).
Cyrus
(Heb. Ko’resh), the celebrated “King of Persia” (Elam) who was conqueror of Babylon, and issued the decree of liberation to the Jews ( Ezra 1:1 , 2 ). He was the son of Cambyses, the prince of Persia, and was born about B.C. 599. In the year B.C. 559 he became king of Persia, the kingdom of Media being added to it partly by conquest. Cyrus was a great military leader, bent on universal conquest. Babylon fell before his army (B.C. 538) on the night of Belshazzar’s feast ( Dan. 5:30 ), and then the ancient dominion of Assyria was also added to his empire (cf., “Go up, O Elam”, Isa. 21:2 ). Hitherto the great kings of the earth had only oppressed the Jews. Cyrus was to them as a “shepherd” ( Isa. 44:28 ; 45:1 ). God employed him in doing service to his ancient people. He may posibly have gained, through contact with the Jews, some knowledge of their religion. The “first year of Cyrus” ( Ezra 1:1 ) is not the year of his elevation to power over the Medes, nor over the Persians, nor the year of the fall of Babylon, but the year succeeding the two years during which “Darius the Mede” was viceroy in Babylon after its fall. At this time only (B.C. 536) Cyrus became actual king over Palestine, which became a part of his Babylonian empire. The edict of Cyrus for the rebuilding of Jerusalem marked a great epoch in the history of the Jewish people ( 2 Chr. 36:22 , 23 ; Ezra 1:1-4 ; 4:3 ; 5:13-17 ; 6:3-5 ). This decree was discovered “at Achmetha [R.V. marg., “Ecbatana”], in the palace that is in the province of the Medes” ( Ezra 6:2 ). A chronicle drawn up just after the conquest of Babylonia by Cyrus, gives the history of the reign of Nabonidus (Nabunahid), the last king of Babylon, and of the fall of the Babylonian empire. In B.C. 538 there was a revolt in Southern Babylonia, while the army of Cyrus entered the country from the north. In June the Babylonian army was completely defeated at Opis, and immediately afterwards Sippara opened its gates to the conqueror. Gobryas (Ugbaru), the governor of Kurdistan, was then sent to Babylon, which surrendered “without fighting,” and the daily services in the temples continued without a break. In October, Cyrus himself arrived, and proclaimed a general amnesty, which was communicated by Gobryas to “all the province of Babylon,” of which he had been made governor. Meanwhile, Nabonidus, who had concealed himself, was captured, but treated honourably; and when his wife died, Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, conducted the funeral. Cyrus now assumed the title of “king of Babylon,” claimed to be the descendant of the ancient kings, and made rich offerings to the temples. At the same time he allowed the foreign populations who had been deported to Babylonia to return to their old homes, carrying with them the images of their gods. Among these populations were the Jews, who, as they had no images, took with them the sacred vessels of the temple.