I thought I was an old man when we were brought to Babylon, and I am ten years older now. I never expected to live this long under what I assumed would be the acute hardships of being captives, held against our wills in this strange land so far from home.

But actually, daily life since we reached here has not been all that difficult. The journey from Jerusalem was very difficult. The Babylonian soldiers who had herded us together saw to that. There were not enough horses or donkeys to carry us all, and many of us came most of the way on foot. The soldiers hurried us along each day, though we grew wearier and wearier from traveling. The crumbs of food that were provided did little to sustain our strength and, of course, we were weak to begin with, for the siege of Jerusalem had been almost i…