Category:Booty

Boo"ty, n. Etym: [Cf. Icel. b exchange, barter, Sw. byte barter, booty, Dan. bytte; akin to D. buit booty, G. beute, and fr. Icel. byta, Sw. byta, Dan. bytte, to distribute, exchange. The Scandinavian word was influenced in English by boot profit.]

Defn: That which is seized by violence or obtained by robbery, especially collective spoil taken in war; plunder; pillage. Milton. To play booty, to play dishonestly, with an intent to lose; to allow one's adversary to win at cards at first, in order to induce him to continue playing and victimize him afterwards. [Obs.] L'Estrange.

- ---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Booty - Captives or cattle or objects of value taken in war. In Canaan all that breathed were to be destroyed (Deuteronomy 20:16). The "pictures and images" of the Canaanites were to be destroyed also (Numbers 33:52). The law of booty as to its division is laid down in Numbers 31:26-47. David afterwards introduced a regulation that the baggage-guard should share the booty equally with the soldiers engaged in battle. He also devoted of the spoils of war for the temple (1 Samuel 30:24; 2 Samuel 8:11; 1 Chronicles 26:27).