Breadcrumbs
When Israel was exiled the Ten Tribes were known as Ephraim; …then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and all the house of Israel his companions… (Eze 37:16) In his blessing, Moses had said of Ephraim …and his horns are the horns of the wild–ox: With them he shall push the peoples all of them, even to the ends of the earth. (Deut 33:17)
Many believe that after their captivity the tribes became merged with adjoining states. The following Scriptures support the fact, Israel was certainly scattered into the nations vanishing as a people. Hosea 8:8, Israel is swallowed up: now shall they be among the Nations as a vessel wherein there is no pleasure.
The swallowing up mentioned by Hosea is twofold. (1) Israel was cast into the nations and (2) their name was removed forever. Deut 32:26 …I would scatter them into corners; I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men. This is why the truth of this history has been lost through the generations. But the blindness is now being removed in this age. (See Rom 11:25)
Some also believe the name Israel became attached to Judah, and by assumption the Jews at the time of Christ. And there are passages in the Gospels, and the Book of Acts, which appear to support this. Some have gone as far to suggest, the name Israel was even transferred to the Church. These views are seriously flawed. Prior to being scattered, Israel’s ancestral name was removed and replaced with Ephraim, as we see in Ezekiel 37. We will look at this in more detail, but it throws up a big question regarding the use of the names Israel and Israeli in today’s world.
It is true the LORD cut off Israel and sent them into the nations. Yet, if Israel has been absorbed as many believe, then the Covenants given by the LORD have not been fulfilled. The promises given to Abraham and Jacob, clearly state their seed would be a blessing to the world, which we do see in Christ, the root and offspring of David. Yet, if Israel is nothing more than a memory, it is the end of things pertaining to the promises given in the Old Testament, everything concerning them became irrelevant a long time ago. Unless, there is something important we have overlooked.
By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. (Gen 22:15-18)
According to the Ever-Living God, Abraham’s seed would be vast in numbers, counted as the stars and the sand and a blessing to every nation and people. As God cannot lie (Exo 20:16) Abraham’s seed must exist in the world today. So, what happened to the people taken captive by the Assyrians 700 years before Christ entered our world? …and thou shall spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. (Gen 28:14)
Exile
In the 2nd Book of Kings we find the ten tribes were carried …into Assyria, and placed in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, (2Ki 17:6) which is all we can glean from the Bible after they were removed by the Assyrians and taken into upper Mesopotamia.
Gozan was anciently known as Besilius; the river Habor was once the Araxes. Habor is also the name of a city on the same river. Halah (Harran) was in ancient northern-eastern Syria, which became an Assyrian province. It is there we find the captives in Assyria and northern Persia, now northern Arabia, Iraq, Iran and eastern Turkey. The Jewish historian, Josephus placed them in Medo-Persia;
this conquest proved wholly destructive to the kingdom of Israel, Hoshea being made prisoner, and his subjects being transported to Media, in Persia, and being replaced by people whom Shalmanezer caused to remove from the borders of Chuthah, a river in Persia, for the purpose of settling the land of Samaria. (Josephus: Antiquities IX: 13, 14)
A matching report is found in 2Kings 17:24. And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Chuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria…
Later known as the Samaritans, these replacements kept their customs of idolatry, witchcraft and the worship of ancient gods. Some of their rituals were plainly barbaric …and the Sepharvites burnt their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. (2 Kings 17:31) It was their former cities, Babylon, Chuthah, Ava, Hamath and Sepharvaim, which Jesus forbade the Apostles to enter when taking the Gospel to the nations. (Matt 10:5)
The Books of the Apocrypha: Gk: apokruphos meaning secret or hidden, not doubtful or made-up as oddly used today, contain surprisingly useful information on the tribes during their captivity. Tobit tells us he was from the tribe of Naphtali and a supplier of goods to the Assyrian King, Sargon. Being one of the northern most tribes, Naphtali was taken early in the deportation around 738-BC; placed near Nineveh, which was later destroyed by the Babylonians c.688BC.
In this engaging little book, we clearly see the LORD’S hand at work; one of His Angels being sent as a guide and healing hand for Tobit and his family. And Raphael was sent to heal them both, that is, to scale away the whiteness of Tobit’s eyes, and to give Sara the daughter of Raguel for a wife to Tobias the son of Tobit; and to bind Asmodeus the evil spirit; because she belonged to Tobias by right of inheritance. (Tob 3:17) Raphael bound Asmodeus in Egypt.
Another is the 2nd Book of Ezra. It is important historically and a continuation of Book One, which is part of the Bible Canon. In it we find this unexpected passage, again recording the LORD’S helping hand: Those are the ten tribes, which were carried away prisoners out of their own land in the time of Osea (Hoshea) the king, whom Shalmaneser the king of Assyria, led away captive, and he carried them over the waters, (the major rivers) and so came they into another land.
But they took counsel among themselves that they would leave the multitude of the heathen, and go forth into a further country, where never mankind dwelt. That they might there keep their statutes, which they never kept in their own land. And they entered into Euphrates by the narrow passages of the river. For the Most High then showed signs for them, and held still the flood until they were passed over. For through that country there was a great way to go, namely, of a year and a half and the same region is called Ar-Sareth. Then they dwelt there until the latter time… (2 Ezra 13:40-46) (KJVA)
So, here we have evidence, Ephraim (House of Israel) after a short captivity had broken free c.687-BC moving to another place. Clearly the LORD was in this, when we look at the following sections you begin may see the reason why … for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of… (Gen 28:15) Also, this is the fourth mention of water being held back for Israel; others being the Exodus from Egypt, Elisha (2Kings 2:14) and in Joshua 4:18 with the Ark of the Covenant.
End of Part 2