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Jer_22:26-27
But, it may be asked, how then are we to understand the deplorable pictures drawn by the prophets; and how to take the historical records and the sculptured memorials of the most cruel treatment of prisoners of war? We may even be referred back to our own recent observations on those barbarities.
The answer is easy. These atrocities are inflicted upon the chiefs and leaders, or those whose conduct has been peculiarly offensive to the conquerors, immediately after the capture, or immediately on their being brought to the presence of the king, should he have been absent at the time, as was Nebuchadnezzar when Zedekiah was seized in the attempt to escape. This treatment did not affect the mass of the people destined for exile: but there can be no doubt that these also suffered much petty maltreatment from the brutal troopers before they commenced their journey, especially if they belonged to a town that had been taken by fire and sword; and we may well believe, that under the escort of such soldiers, the long journey to their appointed land must have been replete with hardship and suffering, especially as whole families were taken away, with the women and children, to whom such a journey would have been severely trying under the most favorable circumstances, and who had now to make it under the rude conduct of hostile bands, careless of their ease, indifferent to their suffering, and with blood yet warm from recent conflict. These could have no other care than to get the train of exiles along as speedily as they could, and with as little loss of life as circumstances might permit. In all such cases of enforced expatriation, whether to slavery or to comparative freedom, and whether by land or sea, the horrors of “the middle passage” are great, and never to be forgotten.
The Assyrian sculptures throw much and interesting light upon the whole subject—the more valuable, as the first series of expatriations recorded in Scripture were by this very people; and because, although the latter series were by the Babylonians, these were founded on the same principles, and doubtless conducted in the same manner.
The information derivable from this source, as to the results of a city being taken by assault, with the subsequent treatment of the prisoners, as well as of the milder treatment of expatriated populations not thus taken in conflict, tallies in all respects with the accounts in Scripture. The statement in which Layard embodies this information, is that which we shall chiefly follow, because he is not open to any suspicion of straining his interpretation of the sculptures to make them illustrative of Scripture. This is scarcely even incidentally his object; and even in the page or two for which we take his guidance, several illustrations of Scripture occur, of which he appears to be unconscious, but which it will be our duty to indicate.
In the Assyrian sculptures, it is seen that when the battering-ram has effected a breach, and the assault has commenced, the women appear on the walls, and tearing their hair, or stretching forth their arms, implore for mercy. The men are not infrequently represented as joining in this cry for quarter. But when the assailants became masters of the place, an indiscriminate slaughter appears to have succeeded, and the city was generally given over to the flames. In the bas-reliefs, warriors are seen decapitating the conquered, and plunging swords or daggers into their hearts, holding them by the hair of their heads. Layard says, “The prisoners were either impaled and subjected to horrible torments, or carried away as slaves.” From this we differ; as, where the men are represented as impaled, the siege is perceived to be still in progress—showing that the persons thus treated were not taken in the city, but such as fell into the assailant’s hands in the course of the siege, and with whom they thus dealt in order to terrify the besieged. The tortures we take to be exceptional instances of exemplary punishment; and it is certainly likely, that the men whom the warriors chose to spare in the sack of a city became their slaves, whom they might sell for their profit. The case of persons so taken is all along to be carefully distinguished from that of expatriated inhabitants. As to the prisoners being so disposed of as slaves, we have Joel’s testimony to the fact: “They have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.” Note: Joe_3:3. The particulars of what takes place when the enemy enters the city, call strongly to mind the statements of Jeremiah: “The Chaldeans burnt the king’s house, and the houses of the people, with fire, and brake down the walls of Jerusalem.” “The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets; my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword.” Note: Jer_39:8; Lam_2:21. And still more forcibly illustrate the historical statement: “The king of the Chaldees slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age.” Note: 2Ch_36:17.
We have not seen any representations of the migrations of large bodies of the conquered people—men, women, and children—because this is not properly an incident of warlike action, but a subsequent and deliberate measure. What we do see mostly is the evacuation of cities by the women and children, who are, of course, the chief or sole survivors—the men having been slaughtered; together with the removal of the spoil, indicated chiefly by flocks and herds. “Eunuchs and scribes were appointed to take an inventory of the spoil. They appear to have stood near the gate, and wrote down with a pen, probably upon rolls of leather, the number of prisoners, sheep and oxen, and the amount of booty, which issued from the city. The women were sometimes taken away in bullock carts; and are usually seen in the bas-relief, having a part of their property with them, either in a vase or sack, perhaps filled with household stuff. They were sometimes accompanied by their children; and they are generally represented as tearing their hair, throwing dust upon their head, and bewailing their lot.” Note: Layard, ii. 372. The lot in such cases may have been slavery—the usual doom of those taken in a captured town; or it may be that they are being conveyed to the rendezvous or starting-point of the larger migration. Sometimes there are men as well as women captives. In that case, the men have almost always their hands bound behind or before them, and sometimes their feet are also fettered. They are roughly handled by the troopers, being urged along by blows from staves and the butt-ends of spears, as well as by “punches in the head.” In one case, a prisoner turns back as if to remonstrate with the soldier whose hand is uplifted against him. One fact tells favorably: this is, that the female captives are never bound, nor personally maltreated; and that they are always well laden with baskets and bundles, containing, no doubt, portions of their property, that they were allowed to take with them.
These scenes painfully illustrate the whole of this part of the subject, and call to mind the Lord’s denunciation by the prophet against the reigning king, Coniah (Jeconiah): “I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bare thee, into another country, where ye were not born, and there shall ye die.”
After the city had been taken, a throne for the king appear to have been placed in some conspicuous spot within the walls. He is represented in the sculptures as sitting upon it, attended by his eunuchs and principal officers, and receiving the prisoners brought bound to his presence. The chiefs prostrate themselves before him, while he places his foot upon their necks. This reminds one of Joshua’s commanding the captains of Israel to put their feet upon the necks of the captive kings; Note: Jos_10:24. and of such expressions as—“Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies, that I might destroy them that hate me.” Note: Psa_18:40; 2Sa_22:41. This was, in fact, a symbolical action of completed triumph and mastery, on the one part, and of as complete subjugation and humiliation, on the other; and as such it is represented, not only in the Assyrian, but in Egyptian and Persian sculptures. It has escaped the describers of Nineveh antiquities, that this setting of the conquering king’s throne in the conquered city is pointed out with marked emphasis by Jeremiah: “Lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the Lord; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem.” Note: Jer_1:15. And so, when at Tahpanhes in Egypt, the prophet foreshows the future and not remote conquest of that country by the Babylonians in a very remarkable manner, he hides some great stones “in the clay of the brick-kiln that is at the entry of Pharaoh’s house;” and, in doing so, declares, in the name of the Lord, to the men of Judah there present, that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, should come, and “set his throne upon these stones that I have hid, and spread his royal pavilion over them.” Note: Jer_43:9-10.