What happened to the lost tribes of Israel?

Shalmaneser, King of Assyria, then came against him, and Hoshea became his servant. The Biblical account is meager, but the Assyrian inscriptions have a great deal to say about this period. Shalmaneser's name is given in these inscriptions as "Salmanu-ussir" and Hoshea's as "A-usi." From these inscriptions we learn that after the siege of Samaria had lasted two years Shalmaneser was succeeded by Sargon, who took Samaria in the first year of his reign. While Sargon is not mentioned in the record here it is significant that the capture of Samaria is not attributed to Shalmaneser. Both passages, 2 Kings 17:6 and 18:10-11, speak only of the king of Assyria. These inscriptions declare that Sargon captured Samaria, led away 27,290 of its inhabitants and appointed a governor over Samaria. There is also a record of the deportation of Israel and the colonization of the land. What would these interesting ancient inscriptions mean if it were not for the Bible? Again we say they are proven true because the Word of God confirms them.

Hoshea had, after he had become the vassal of the king of Assyria, made a conspiracy against the king by sending messengers to So, king of Egypt, and then he refused to pay the tribute. (The proper reading of "So" is given as "Seve" or "Sava." By the Greeks he is called "Saba Kon" on the monuments "Shabaka," in cuneiform inscriptions "Shabi-i.") He was imprisoned and we hear nothing whatever of his fate. (Hosea 10:7 tells of his death.) Samaria completely in the hands of the king of Assyria, the people were carried away captives into Assyria. The places are given, but beyond this little is known. Nor do we know anything about their subsequent history. They did not return from the captivity. Various attempts have been made to locate them. The American Indians, the Afghans, Armenians, Nestorians and others have been mentioned as the descendants of the ten tribes, but no substantial evidence can be given to verify this supposition. The so-called "Anglo-Israel theory" is so full of unreasonable speculations and inventions that it does not deserve any consideration. God knows where they are located, and in His own time He will surely gather them and together with the remnant of the house of Judah bring them back to their land. At that time the many unfulfilled promises made to Israel and to Judah will all be literally fulfilled.

In the next place, we have a description of the distribution of the people. (See also 1 Chr. 9:2-16.) In Jerusalem there were, besides priests and Levites, children of Judah and children of Benjamin (vv. 4, 10, etc.); while in the cities there were "Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the Nethinims, and the children of Solomon's servants."* We may briefly glance at the details. Of Judah there were in the holy city "four hundred threescore and eight valiant men" — all "sons of Perez" or Pharez; i.e., they are traced back to the son of Judah, as evidence that they could show their genealogy. Of Benjamin there were nine hundred and twenty-eight. Of these "Joel the son of Zichri was their overseer: and Judah the son of Senuah was second over the city." We find here abundant confirmation of the fact that, apart from the priests and Levites, only the two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, or representatives of these, were brought back from Babylon. That there might have been individual members of other tribes, such, for example, as Anna, who was "of the tribe of Aser" (Luke 2:36), in no wise affects this statement. As tribes, Judah and Benjamin only were restored; and thus the remaining ten tribes are "lost" to this day, hidden, in the ways of God, among the peoples of the earth; but the time is fast approaching, though it may be not until after the appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, when they will be brought out of their hiding-place, and set in security and blessing in their own land under the peaceful sway of their glorious Messiah. (See Jeremiah 29:14, 31; Ezekiel 20:33-44.)

Israel when carried away were placed in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan (in the neighbourhood of the river Khabour, an affluent of the river Euphrates), and in the cities of the Medes. As far as is known they never returned, though doubtless individuals found their way back in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, and in the four hundred years that followed before the Lord appeared. Jews from those districts were present on the day of Pentecost; but as a body they are still commonly regarded as 'the Lost Tribes.' God knows where to find them when His set time of blessing arrives. The twelve tribes surely exist, and remnants of them will again come into the land. Ezek. 48:1-29; Matt. 19:28; Acts 26:7; James 1:1; Rev. 7:5-8.

Again, no believing king is found in Israel (the ten tribes), in spite of the grace of the prophet Elisha. Israel's growth in evil leads to the invasion of the land by the king of Assyria, who carries them captive out of their land. Since that time the ten tribes have been lost sight of, and only God knows where to find them and bring them back to their land, as He will do in days yet to come.

Naturally the nationality of immigrants soon becomes undiscernible; it is blended with that of the native, or both together evolve a new character. Our own land where are welded Saxon, Dane, and Norman, with aborigines is an instance of a nation different from any one of the various elements. Perhaps each nation in Europe can point to similar facts in its own history. But the Jew, notwithstanding his association with Gentiles and sharing their pursuits, has ever remained distinct and discernible. It is the mark of God. Recent legislation would obliterate this mark and the world's policy approves. But the word "shall dwell alone" abides, and man cannot reverse it. It may be said that the ten tribes are so mingled with other peoples that their nationality is quite gone. They are truly lost to the eye of man, in the dust of the earth. Is that a proof that their identity is lost to God? In His time they will come forth in the light, and then they will be recognised by all. This should at least lead professed believers not to speculate as to this or that nation being the lost tribes. All such guesses are the merest folly. Nor do I doubt that this bold inquisitiveness of the human mind prying into the hidden things of God is mainly controlled by Satan who knows no more than man where the ten tribes are. It is God's secret, and He has hidden them from the malice and persecuting power both of Satan and of the world. The Jew not hidden has suffered. But whether hidden as the ten tribes, or persecuted as the Jew, the word stands out in prominent truth, "they shall dwell alone." It was true in Egypt, in the wilderness, in the land, in captivity, and will be in their future greatness and glory. "Lo, the people shall dwell alone and shall not he reckoned among the nations."

Daniel the prophet did not slur over his own sins, holy as he was, but he also confessed the sins of all Israel. Yet there was but a small part of Israel in Babylon, a little remnant of two tribes. Where were the ten? They are still in the east; and as Ps. 83. calls them, "hidden ones," to emerge in due time. What nonsense has been talked about them! The American Indians, the Nestorians, the Anglo-Saxons! Nobody as yet knows anything of them; but all the world shall learn at the right moment. This will begin when the Lord has performed His whole work upon mount Zion and upon Jerusalem.

Then comes another word which might not be easily apprehended, but on which I must say a little. "We have a little sister" (ver. 8). Now who is this sister — this little sister that was not yet grown like the bride? It is the ten tribes, not the two. It is not Jerusalem, it is Ephraim. It is the house of Joseph. And why is it the house of Joseph? I refer to it now particularly to guard you from those nauseous publications that are floating about, talking about the lost ten tribes, as if that was anything for a Christian, as regards our connection with it. I hope there is not a single heart here that meddles with such trash — such delusive trash. Why, beloved friends, I think I can say that I never saw a more lowering, debasing, worldly thing in its character than a pamphlet that was, I suppose, sent for my edification only last night. Just turning over the leaves of it I found the one object to be the glory of man as he is now — the dragging down people from the heavenly place which they have got — the heavenly place in Christ — to glorify themselves because they have got a big city like this, and an active commercial country like this; to think that these are the glories of the ten tribes of Israel. I can hardly conceive anything more debasing to Christian persons than that kind of thing: and you will excuse me, therefore, if I speak in these strong and peremptory terms of it, because it is not everybody that is able to discern the character of a thing. But if the Lord gives me any light at all on spiritual or scriptural subjects, I am bound to say that that is my judgment of what I have seen and read of this foolish, absurd, and groundless attempt to trace the ten tribes of Israel in the Anglo-Saxon race.

Those who returned from exile were the two tribes, Judah and Benjamin (unless any few of the ten tribes may have accompanied them; cf. Luke 2:36). They retained possession of the land, under many changes and vicissitudes, until their Messiah appeared. His rejection and crucifixion resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans A.D. 70, and the scattering of the Jews to all parts of the world.

But, thirdly, the restoration of the ten tribes seems to be in a different manner. We have just seen how the Jews pass through the last tribulation in the land, the wicked being thus purged from amongst them. They are the progeny of those who crucified their Messiah, and they suffer the consequences to the very end of this age. The ten tribes having gone into captivity long before the first coming of Christ, have not to suffer for the sin of crucifying him, and so are not involved in these final troubles in the land. The wicked are purged from amongst them before they reach the land. "As I live, saith the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand, and with stretched-out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you; and I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face … And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant: and I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me; I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the Lord." (Ezek. 20:33-38.) It would seem to be to this part of the nation that Amos 9:9-10, and Jer. 31:8-9, refer. The return of the ten tribes would appear to be in progress at the time the Jews, properly so called, are undergoing their final sifting in the land: the arrival of the ten tribes occurring soon after this sifting has been completed. In Isaiah 49 we have their arrival predicted, and a most touching picture of the effect produced by it on the poor heartbroken remnant, who survive the desolations at Jerusalem. We have a view (verses 9-13) of the return of the ten tribes, guided by the out-stretched arm of God, while heaven and earth are called on to rejoice in his mercy to them. Then in verse 14 we are led back to the moment when Zion said: "The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me." God himself addresses Zion in verses 15-17. And then, as though calling her attention to something on which his eye had been fixed, but which she had not yet noticed, he says: "Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold; all these gather themselves together and come to thee," etc. (verses 18, 19) Nothing can exceed the beauty of verses 20, 21. "The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me; give place to me that I may dwell. Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? And who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?"

It is interesting to trace the testimony in Scripture as to the disposition of the twelve tribes, and if Levi is counted, thirteen. After the division between the two and the ten tribes was effected, we learn that the tribe of Levi joined itself to Judah, and that the spiritually minded in all Israel, such as set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel, came to Jerusalem to sacrifice, and so strengthened the kingdom of Judah (see 2 Chr. 11:13-17).

Further, this disposition to leave the ten tribes and cast in their lot with the two became very noticeable when there was revival in Judah. Israel’s history was unrelieved by revival. So we read in the reign of the pious King Asa that—“He gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and the strangers with them out of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and out of Simeon; for they fell to him out of Israel IN ABUNDANCE, when they saw that the LORD his God was with him” (2 Chr. 15:9).