343. Enemies Beheaded

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2 Kings 10:88And there came a messenger, and told him, saying, They have brought the heads of the king's sons. And he said, Lay ye them in two heaps at the entering in of the gate until the morning. (2 Kings 10:8). There came a messenger, and told him, saying, They have brought the heads of the king’s sons. And he said, Lay ye them in two heaps at the entering in of the gate until the morning.
Beheading enemies is a very ancient custom. Thus David cut off the head of Goliath and carried it to Saul (1Sam. 17:51,5751Therefore David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled. (1 Samuel 17:51)
57And as David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him, and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand. (1 Samuel 17:57)). So also the Philistines cut off the head of Saul (1 Sam. 31:99And they cut off his head, and stripped off his armor, and sent into the land of the Philistines round about, to publish it in the house of their idols, and among the people. (1 Samuel 31:9)). Layard found at Nineveh representations of scenes which well illustrate the text. Heads of slain enemies are collected and brought to the king, or to the officer appointed to take account of their number. Morier, in his narrative of his second journey through Persia, states that prisoners have been known to be put to death in cold blood in order to increase the number of heads of the slain which are deposited in heaps at the palace gate. Many such heaps of heads are piled up in Persia. Sir William Ousely, who was in Persia in the early part of this century, saw the remains of some of these heaps on which the skulls seemed to be stuck together in a mass of clay or mortar. Similar accounts are given by later travelers.