Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2020 June 10

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June 10

Was the Babylonians purpose for the Babylonian Captivity hostages or what?

The thing I had read from history about small numbers royal/noble hostages that Rome took from countries and tribes made me assume that the Jewish Exiles were also hostages to the obedience and tribute of Judah to Babylonia. But the extremely large numbers like 40,000 don’t fit that. It’s more akin in numbers to the deportation of the Ten Lost Tribes? What exactly was the purpose then. (I should also ask what motive the Assyrians had in deporting the ten tribes. Some military purpose?Was there a similar reason for that?)Rich (talk) 07:20, 10 June 2020 (UTC)

Read Resettlement policy of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The Babylonians inherited the same policy for conquered people.KAVEBEAR (talk) 08:28, 10 June 2020 (UTC)

Also, don't always trust the veracity of large numbers in records or orally transmitted tales from this era and milieu (meant in the broadest senses): sometimes they may not have been meant literally, but might rather have been a customary expression meaning "a great many" or something similar. At other times thay may have been chosen for their supposed mystical significance (see Numerology in the Bible and Significance of numbers in Judaism). For some reason, numbers involving 4 multiplied by some power of ten seem to be particularly popular in this context.

Compare the supposed number of the victims of the Massacre of the innocents – those male infants under two years old in and around the village of Bethlehem supposedly killed on the orders of King Herod, a tale found only in the Gospel of Matthew (and subsequent writings dependent on it). This is variously reported in later religious works as anything up to 144,000, although the demographic unlikelyhood of this should be obvious, and a 20th-century estimate in the Catholic Encyclopedia suggest a more reasonable estimate (assuming that the episode happened at all) to be between 18 and 32. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.202.208.38 (talk) 20:34, 10 June 2020 (UTC)

Followup questions, are there traditional Jewish holidays, memorials, songs, prayers concerning the Ten Lost Tribes? Same question about the Babylonian Captivity. Thanks. 144.35.45.71 (talk) 18:57, 11 June 2020 (UTC)

The Book of Lamentations is traditionally recited on Tisha B'Av, --ColinFine (talk) 21:23, 11 June 2020 (UTC)

Psalm 137 famously concerns the captivity. Alansplodge (talk) 11:02, 12 June 2020 (UTC)