Captive

From BibleEncyclopedia.Net

kap´tiv (שׁבי, shebhī, גּלה, gālāh; αἰχμάλωτος, aichmálōtos and its derivatives):

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 20:1-6; Isaiah 47:3; 2 Chronicles 28:9-15; Psalms 44:12; Joel 3:3), and exposed to the most cruel treatment (Nahum 3:10; Zechariah 14:2; Esther 3:13; 2 Kings 8:12; Isaiah 13:16, Isaiah 13:18). Captives were sometimes carried away into foreign countries, as was the case with the Jews (Jeremiah 20:5; Jeremiah 39:9, Jeremiah 39:10; Jeremiah 40:7).

The frequent references in the Old Testament to captives as men forcibly deported (from the Hebrew root שׁבה, shābhāh) or inhabiting a land foreign to them (from Hebrew גּלה, gālāh) reflect the universal practice of the ancient world. The treatment of captives was sometimes barbarous (2 Samuel 8:2) but not always so (2 Kings 6:21, 2 Kings 6:22).

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 (Luke 4:18; Ephesians 4:8), or, on the other hand, to the power of the devil (2 Timothy 2:26), or of false teachers (2 Timothy 3:6); compare also Romans 7:23; 2 Corinthians 10:5.

See Captivity.