Hostage

A hostage in the ancient Near East was a person of standing—typically a royal family member or noble's son—given as a security pledge for the faithful performance of a treaty, tribute payment, or surrender agreement. The Hebrew ben-taʿarubot (son of pledges) describes this arrangement. By holding the pledges, the dominant party had leverage to ensure compliance; harm to the hostage would be threatened if the weaker party defected.

The Bible mentions hostages in two military contexts. When Amaziah of Judah was defeated by Jehoash king of Israel at Beth-shemesh, Jehoash took Amaziah as a prisoner and then took hostages from Jerusalem—presumably members of the royal family or nobles—as security when he returned north after dismantling a section of Jerusalem's wall (2 Kings 14:14; 2 Chronicles 25:24). The institution of hostage-taking reflects the common ancient Near Eastern practice of binding defeated parties to loyal submission through personal guarantees, a practice attested in Egyptian, Assyrian, and Hittite treaty records throughout the second and first millennia BC.