Captive
Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897) · International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)
THE DICTIONARY — Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897)
one taken in war. Captives were often treated with great cruelty and indignity (1 Kings 20:32; Joshua 10:24; Judges 1:7; 2 Samuel 4:12; Judges 8:7; 2 Samuel 12:31; 1 Chronicles 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 (Isaiah 20; 47:3; 2 Chronicles 28:9-15; Psalm 44:12; Joel 3:3), and exposed to the most cruel treatment (Nah. 3:10; Zechariah 14:2; Esther 3:13; 2 Kings 8:12; Isaiah 13:16, 18). Captives were sometimes carried away into foreign countries, as was the case with the Jews (Jeremiah 20:5; 39:9, 10; 40:7).
THE FULL ARTICLE — from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), general editor James Orr — public domain, printed whole.
kap'-tiv (shebhi, galah; aichmalotos and its derivatives): The frequent references in the Old Testament to captives as men forcibly deported (from the Hebrew root shabhah) or inhabiting a land foreign to them (from Hebrew galah) reflect the universal practice of the ancient world. The treatment of captives was sometimes barbarous (2Sa 8:2) but not always so (2Ki 6:21,22).
See further under ASSIR and WAR.
Figurative: Except in Job 42:10 the figurative use of the idea is confined to the New Testament, where reference is made to the triumphal reign of the Lord Jesus (Lu 4:18; Eph 4:8), or, on the other hand, to the power of the devil (2Ti 2:26), or of false teachers (2Ti 3:6); compare also Ro 7:23; 2Co 10:5.
See CAPTIVITY.
F. K. Farr