What really happened to the 10 "lost tribes" of Israel?
King Solomon during his reign had fallen deeply into idolatry because of the influences of his many wives whom he had married from many surrounding nations in violation of God's commandments.
Scripture records;
1 KINGS 11:1-13
1 But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites—
2 from the nations of whom the Lord had said to the children of Israel, “You shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love.
3 And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.
4 For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David.
5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
6 Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not fully follow the Lord, as did his father David.
7 Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, on the hill that is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the people of Ammon.
8 And he did likewise for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
9 So the Lord became angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned from the Lord God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice,
10 and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not keep what the Lord had commanded.
11 Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, “Because you have done this, and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant.
12 Nevertheless I will not do it in your days, for the sake of your father David; I will tear it out of the hand of your son.
13 However I will not tear away the whole kingdom; I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen.”
Solomon knew the law of Moses, for every king was required by God to write his own copy of the Law and to read from it daily.
DEUTERONOMY 17:14-20
14 “When you come to the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and possess it and dwell in it, and say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me,’
15 you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses; one from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother.
16 But he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall not return that way again.’
17 Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself.
18 “Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites.
19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes,
20 that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.
As you can see from the laws given above, Solomon committed at least 4 major sins during his reign.
1. He multiplied wives who turned his heart away from God;
2. He multiplied silver and gold to himself, becoming one of the richest men in history.
As Scripture records;
1 KINGS 10:14-23
14 The weight of gold that came to Solomon yearly was six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold,
15 besides that from the traveling merchants, from the income of traders, from all the kings of Arabia, and from the governors of the country.
16 And King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; six hundred shekels of gold went into each shield.
17 He also made three hundred shields of hammered gold; three minas of gold went into each shield. The king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon.
18 Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with pure gold.
19 The throne had six steps, and the top of the throne was round at the back; there were armrests on either side of the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the armrests.
20 Twelve lions stood there, one on each side of the six steps; nothing like this had been made for any other kingdom.
21 All King Solomon’s drinking vessels were gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. Not one was silver, for this was accounted as nothing in the days of Solomon.
22 For the king had merchant ships at sea with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the merchant ships came bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and monkeys.
23 So King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom.
3. He multiplied horses to himself;
1 KINGS 4:26
26 Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand
horsemen.
4. He did not read the Law as he should have.
While he had more than likely made a copy of the Law for himself he failed to read it all
the days of his life as commanded, or he would have been aware of his sins and would not
have fallen into idolatry.
Therefore Solomon had no excuse for his actions and while many acclaim him as one of Israel's greatest kings he could very well be classed with the evil kings for his idolatry, disobedience and rebellion against the Lord.
As a result, God ordained that because of his sins 10 tribes of Israel would rebel and break away from the kingdom during the time of his son. But in remembrance to His promise to David, He kept two tribes, Judah and Benjamin for David's descendants to reign over. (The tribe of Benjamin had been absorbed by Judah therefore God had said He’d leave one tribe to Solomon’s son.)
The Lord also kept Judah as the tribe which David's descendants should rule over for He had promised David a dynasty of kings that would come from his lineage. As He told David;
2 SAMUEL 7:8-16
8 Now therefore, thus shall you say to My servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: “I took you from the sheepfold, from following the sheep, to be ruler over My people, over Israel.
9 And I have been with you wherever you have gone, and have cut off all your enemies from before you, and have made you a great name, like the name of the great men who are on the Earth.
10 Moreover I will appoint a place for My people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more; nor shall the sons of wickedness oppress them anymore, as previously,
11 since the time that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel, and have caused you to rest from all your enemies. Also the Lord tells you that He will make you a house.
12 “When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.
13 He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
14 I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men.
15 But My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you.
16 And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever.” ’ ”
Christians will immediately see that the son that God was referring to was His Son, Jesus Christ
who would be the descendant of David. He would inherit David's throne as the eternal King of
Israel, establishing it forever with His resurrection from the dead. Solomon was never chastised
with the stripes of men but the New Testament records that Jesus was savagely beaten before He
went to the cross.
God also kept Judah under the Davidic dynasty so as to fulfill Jacob's ancient prophecy of ;
GENESIS 49:8-10
8 “Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s children shall bow down before you.
9 Judah is a lion’s whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down, he lies down as a lion; and as a lion, who shall rouse him?
10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to Him shall be the obedience of the people.
Ok, back to the main subject.
1 KINGS 11:26-43
26 Then Solomon’s servant, Jeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite from Zereda, whose mother’s name was Zeruah, a widow, also rebelled against the king.
27 And this is what caused him to rebel against the king: Solomon had built the Millo and repaired the damages to the City of David his father.
28 The man Jeroboam was a mighty man of valor; and Solomon, seeing that the young man was industrious, made him the officer over all the labor force of the house of Joseph.
29 Now it happened at that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite met him on the way; and he had clothed himself with a new garment, and the two were alone in the field.
30 Then Ahijah took hold of the new garment that was on him, and tore it into twelve pieces.
31 And he said to Jeroboam, “Take for yourself ten pieces, for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and will give ten tribes to you
32 (but he shall have one tribe for the sake of My servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel),
33 because they have forsaken Me, and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the people of Ammon, and have not walked in My ways to do what is right in My eyes and keep My statutes and My judgments, as did his father David.
34 However I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, because I have made him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of My servant David, whom I chose because he kept My commandments and My statutes.
35 But I will take the kingdom out of his son’s hand and give it to you—ten tribes.
36 And to his son I will give one tribe, that My servant David may always have a lamp before Me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen for Myself, to put My name there.
37 So I will take you, and you shall reign over all your heart desires, and you shall be king over Israel.
38 Then it shall be, if you heed all that I command you, walk in My ways, and do what is right in My sight, to keep My statutes and My commandments, as My servant David did, then I will be with you and build for you an enduring house, as I built for David, and will give Israel to you.
39 And I will afflict the descendants of David because of this, but not forever.’ ”
40 Solomon therefore sought to kill Jeroboam. But Jeroboam arose and fled to Egypt, to Shishak king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon.
41 Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, all that he did, and his wisdom, are they not written in the book of the acts of Solomon?
42 And the period that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years.
43 Then Solomon rested with his fathers, and was buried in the City of David his father. And Rehoboam his son reigned in his place.
Note that even though God had told Solomon what was going to happen, Solomon in his wickedness and rebellion still tried to thwart God's prophecy and judgment by trying to kill Jeroboam.
God also promised Jeroboam that if he was obedient and followed God all the days of his life,
God would make his line a dynasty just as He had promised David, and that his descendants
would rule over Israel for many generations. Quite a promise to a young man!
1 KINGS 12:1-5
1 And Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone to Shechem to make him king.
2 So it happened, when Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard it (he was still in Egypt, for he had fled from the presence of King Solomon and had been dwelling in Egypt),
3 that they sent and called him. Then Jeroboam and the whole assembly of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam, saying,
4 “Your father made our yoke heavy; now therefore, lighten the burdensome service of your father, and his heavy yoke which he put on us, and we will serve you.”
5 So he said to them, “Depart for three days, then come back to me.” And the people departed.
The people of Israel must have thought much of Jeroboam to have brought him from Egypt to be
their designated leader to speak to Rehoboam. And note that the first thing they did was to ask
him for relief from the crushing burden of taxation that Solomon had put them under to finance
his wealthy lifestyle.
1 KINGS 12:6-14
6 Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who stood before his father Solomon while he still lived, and he said, “How do you advise me to answer these people?”
7 And they spoke to him, saying, “If you will be a servant to these people today, and serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever.”
8 But he rejected the advice which the elders had given him, and consulted the young men who had grown up with him, who stood before him.
9 And he said to them, “What advice do you give? How should we answer this people who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke which your father put on us’?”
10 Then the young men who had grown up with him spoke to him, saying, “Thus you should speak to this people who have spoken to you, saying, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you make it lighter on us’—thus you shall say to them: ‘My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s waist!
11 And now, whereas my father put a heavy yoke on you, I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scourges!’ ”
12 So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king had directed, saying, “Come back to me the third day.”
13 Then the king answered the people roughly, and rejected the advice which the elders had given him;
14 and he spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scourges!”
Rehoboam was young, weak, and inexperienced. His companions saw an opportunity to sway the
king and rule through him. Rehoboam was also probably giddy with the power of being king over
such a mighty nation, and thought himself to be all powerful. Power corrupts......
1 KINGS 12:15-19
15 So the king did not listen to the people; for the turn of events was from the Lord, that He might fulfill His word, which the Lord had spoken by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
16 Now when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying: “What share have we in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Now, see to your own house, O David!” So Israel departed to their tents.
17 But Rehoboam reigned over the children of Israel who dwelt in the cities of Judah.
18 Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was in charge of the revenue; but all Israel stoned him with stones, and he died. Therefore King Rehoboam mounted his chariot in haste to flee to Jerusalem.
19 So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.
Rehoboam undoubtedly knew of the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite concerning the splitting of
the kingdom, but the rebellion of the father was passed to the son. Rehoboam sent the head of the
taxation to Israel to force tribute upon them, essentially trying to subjugate them. But as he
quickly found out, the people were in open rebellion against him and he had to flee for his life.
1 KINGS
12:2020 Now it came to pass when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had come back, they sent for
him and called him to the congregation, and made him king over all Israel. There was none
who followed the house of David, but the tribe of Judah only.
Thus it came to pass that in 931 B.C. the kingdom of Israel became a house divided against itself,
a division that would never be healed, and that would pit the two houses of Israel against each
other for 208 years when God would command Assyria to destroy the entire northern kingdom of
Israel and deport the remnant as captives to Assyria in 721 B.C.
1 KINGS 12:21-24
21 And when Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah with the tribe of Benjamin, one hundred and eighty thousand chosen men who were warriors, to fight against the house of Israel, that he might restore the kingdom to Rehoboam the son of Solomon.
22 But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying,
23 “Speak to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, to all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, saying,
24 ‘Thus says the Lord: “You shall not go up nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel. Let every man return to his house, for this thing is from Me.” ’ ” Therefore they obeyed the word of the Lord, and turned back, according to the word of the Lord.
Some people just don't learn, do they? I suspect that the men of Judah listened to the prophet
Shemiah more than Rehoboam did and returned to their homes. Thus God forced Rehoboam to
accept the fulfillment of His words to Solomon.
1 KINGS 12:25-27
25 Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the mountains of Ephraim, and dwelt there. Also he went out from there and built Penuel.
26 And Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom may return to the house of David:
27 If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn back to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah.”
Despite the fulfillment of the prophecy of the division of the kingdom and his being made king of
Israel, Jeroboam still didn't believe the promise of the Lord, apparently thinking that blood ties
were stronger than the power of almighty God.
1 KINGS 12:28-33
28 Therefore the king asked advice, made two calves of gold, and said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!”
29 And he set up one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.
30 Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan.
31 He made shrines on the high places, and made priests from every class of people, who were not of the sons of Levi.
32 Jeroboam ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast that was in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did at Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made. And at Bethel he installed the priests of the high places which he had made.
33 So he made offerings on the altar which he had made at Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month which he had devised in his own heart. And he ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and offered sacrifices on the altar and burned incense.
How quickly the spiritual rot sets in when one turns from away from God! Jeroboam immediately returned to the idolatry of Israel in the wilderness, by making two golden calves and worshiping them, as well as ordaining priests for the calves from among the worst of the people and causing Israel to follow his wickedness.
However the spiritual wickedness of Israel must have been well-advanced for them to turn so quickly from worshiping the Lord to worshiping the golden calves, knowing very well what had happened in the wilderness when their ancestors had done the very same thing.
Those who know the book of Judges will remember that an Israelite named Micah of the tribe of Ephraim had set up an ephod, a teraphim, a graven image and a molded image in his house in the far north of Israel, and had ordained a Levite to attend to it.
They were subsequently forcibly taken from him by the tribe of Dan for worship, so Dan had already fallen into idolatry some time before. Therefore it should come as no surprise that Jeroboam set up a golden calf in the city of Dan and the city of Bethel. (For more information concerning the previous calf in Dan, see Judges chapters 17 and 18)
The books of 1 Kings, 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles record the many wars between Israel
and Judah, the corruption and the righteous acts of the kings of both kingdoms as well as
the afflictions to the kingdom of Judah as the Lord had promised.
Finally, in 721 B.C. the Assyrians under Sargon II besieged and destroyed the northern
kingdom of Israel, deported the survivors into Assyria and the 10 northern tribes vanished
into history.
Or did they?
The Mormon Church teaches that the members of the exiled tribes eventually migrated to North
America, and the Mormons believe that they are the descendants of these "lost tribes". However
there has never been any historical or archaeological proof for their claims.
In August of 612 B.C.E., Nineveh, the capital of Assyria was destroyed by a coalition of Medes, Babylonians and Scythians under the command of a young crown prince named Nebuchadnezzar. After a 2 month siege, the coalition army diverted the river Khoser into the city, which dissolved the sun-dried brick buildings of the city in a fascinating fulfillment of Nahum's prophecy against Nineveh when he said;
NAHUM 2:6
6 The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved.
It was the general policy of the time for conquerors to deport the nobles, craftsmen and artisans of a conquered country into their own country to enrich their culture. Therefore the Jews who were in Nineveh and the surrounding countryside of Assyria who survived the war would have been deported to Babylon as captives.
In 586 B.C.E., Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and Judah and
deported it's inhabitants to Babylon for 70 years. Therefore the Jews who were taken captive
to Babylon were met by the remnant of the Jews from the 10 "lost" tribes who were already
there.
What does Scripture indicate concerning these lost tribes?
JEREMIAH 3:6-18
6 The Lord said also to me in the days of Josiah the king: “Have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there played the harlot.
7 And I said, after she had done all these things, ‘Return to Me.’ But she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
8 Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also.
9 So it came to pass, through her casual harlotry, that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.
10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to Me with her whole heart, but in pretense,” says the Lord.
11 Then the Lord said to me, “Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.
12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say: ‘Return, backsliding Israel,’ says the Lord; ‘I will not cause My anger to fall on you. For I am merciful,’ says the Lord; ‘I will not remain angry forever.
13 Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the Lord your God, and have scattered your charms to alien deities under every green tree, and you have not obeyed My voice,’ says the Lord.
14 “Return, O backsliding children,” says the Lord; “for I am married to you. I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.
15 And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.
16 “Then it shall come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land in those days,” says the Lord, “that they will say no more, ‘The ark of the covenant of the Lord.’ It shall not come to mind, nor shall they remember it, nor shall they visit it, nor shall it be made anymore.
17 “At that time Jerusalem shall be called The Throne of the Lord, and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem. No more shall they follow the dictates of their evil hearts.
18 “In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given as an inheritance to your fathers.
Note several things here. First God calls for the return of deported Israel before Nebuchadnezzar deported the Jews to Babylon. King Josiah reigned between 639-608 B.C. which means Jeremiah spoke these words between 22-53 years before the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.
He also said that He would bring them "one of a city, and two of a family" which would make sense if those He spoke of were survivors of a major war such as Nebuchadnezzar waged against Nineveh.
God then speaks of the future, in which He says that the Jews will no longer remember the Ark
of the Covenant, neither will they visit it any more.
This means that the Ark of the Covenant will never again be found, despite Man's best efforts to locate it.
Many believe that the Ark of the Covenant was given to the Queen of Sheba by Solomon, because of the Scripture which says;
1 KINGS 10:13
13 Now King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all she desired, whatever she asked, besides what Solomon had given her according to the royal generosity. So she turned and went to her own country, she and her servants.
I don't see where they believe this to be the case, as it merely says he granted her wishes in all that she desired. And Solomon had not grown so wicked yet as to give her the Ark of the Covenant. If he had tried, the priests would surely have opposed him, and Scripture would have recorded such an event. (Scripture also recorded what happened when the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant and the disasters that befell them in 1 Samuel chapters 5 & 6)
Besides, Solomon died in 930 B.C. and yet Josiah who reigned nearly 300 years later speaks of the Ark. And God would never accept a duplicate of His Ark, so it must have been the real thing.
As Scripture records;
2 CHRONICLES 35:1-6
1 Now Josiah kept a Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem, and they slaughtered the Passover lambs on the fourteenth day of the first month.
2 And he set the priests in their duties and encouraged them for the service of the house of the Lord.
3 Then he said to the Levites who taught all Israel, who were holy to the Lord: “Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, built. It shall no longer be a burden on your shoulders. Now serve the Lord your God and His people Israel.
4 Prepare yourselves according to your fathers’ houses, according to your divisions, following the written instruction of David king of Israel and the written instruction of Solomon his son.
5 And stand in the holy place according to the divisions of the fathers’ houses of your brethren the lay people, and according to the division of the father’s house of the Levites.
6 So slaughter the Passover offerings, consecrate yourselves, and prepare them for your brethren, that they may do according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses.”
So, the Ark remained in Judah until the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C. There is no mention of the Ark being carried away to Babylon, and the list of items taken by the Babylonians is meticulously described in Scripture. The implements of the Temple service are described as being taken, but the Ark is conspicuously absent.
Jeremiah describes the things taken by the Babylonians as:
JEREMIAH 52:17-26
17 The bronze pillars that were in the house of the Lord, and the carts and the bronze Sea that were in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and carried all their bronze to Babylon.
18 They also took away the pots, the shovels, the trimmers, the bowls, the spoons, and all the bronze utensils with which the priests ministered.
19 The basins, the firepans, the bowls, the pots, the lampstands, the spoons, and the cups, whatever was solid gold and whatever was solid silver, the captain of the guard took away.
20 The two pillars, one Sea, the twelve bronze bulls which were under it, and the carts, which King Solomon had made for the house of the Lord—the bronze of all these articles was beyond measure.
21 Now concerning the pillars: the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, a measuring line of twelve cubits could measure its circumference, and its thickness was four fingers; it was hollow.
22 A capital of bronze was on it; and the height of one capital was five cubits, with a network and pomegranates all around the capital, all of bronze. The second pillar, with pomegranates was the same.
23 There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; all the pomegranates, all around on the network, were one hundred.
24 The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and the three doorkeepers.
25 He also took out of the city an officer who had charge of the men of war, seven men of the king’s close associates who were found in the city, the principal scribe of the army who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the midst of the city.
26 And Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took these and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.
Jeremiah would have certainly have described the Ark being taken, had it been captured and carried away as booty! Therefore we can only assume that it was hidden by the priests during the siege and that those who knew it's location were killed during the destruction of the city, so that no one knows it's whereabouts to this day, just as God promised.
Ok, back to the main subject.
JEREMIAH 30:1-4
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,
2 “Thus speaks the Lord God of Israel, saying: ‘Write in a book for yourself all the words that I have spoken to you.
3 For behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘that I will bring back from captivity My people Israel and Judah,’ says the Lord. ‘And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.’ ”
4 Now these are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel and Judah.
God tells Jeremiah to write His words in a book that both Israel and Judah would return to the
Land after the captivity had ended. Note carefully that He says that both houses would return.
Remember, the Northern Kingdom had been destroyed 150 years previously!
After the prophesied 70 years of captivity in Babylon were finished, God stirred up Cyrus the
Great who with a coalition of Medes and Persians conquered Babylon. Scripture then records;
2 CHRONICLES 36:22-23
22 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying,
23 Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: “All the kingdoms of the Earth the Lord God of heaven
has given me. And He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is in
Judah. Who is among you of all His people? May the Lord his God be with him, and let
him go up!”
EZRA 1:1-11
1 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying,
2 Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: “All the kingdoms of the Earth the Lord God of heaven has given me. And He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah.
3 Who is among you of all His people? May his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel (He is God), which is in Jerusalem.
4 And whoever is left in any place where he dwells, let the men of his place help him with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, besides the freewill offerings for the house of God which is in Jerusalem.
5 Then the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, with all whose spirits God had moved, arose to go up and build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem.
6 And all those who were around them encouraged them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with precious things, besides all that was willingly offered.
7 King Cyrus also brought out the articles of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and put in the temple of his gods;
8 and Cyrus king of Persia brought them out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah.
9 This is the number of them: thirty gold platters, one thousand silver platters, twenty-nine knives,
10 thirty gold basins, four hundred and ten silver basins of a similar kind, and one thousand other articles.
11 All the articles of gold and silver were five thousand four hundred. All these
Sheshbazzar took with the captives who were brought from Babylon to Jerusalem.
Note again, that Scripture is mysteriously silent concerning the Ark of the Covenant. If the
Ark had been in Babylon, Cyrus would surely have given it back, and Scripture would
have recorded the rejoicing of the people at receiving it back again.
Now comes a very important part of Scripture.
Ezra the scribe, a priest well-versed in the Law of Moses, had been among those who returned from Babylon after Cyrus' decree. Note carefully what he did as recorded by Scripture below.
EZRA 8:35
35 The children of those who had been carried away captive, who had come from the captivity, offered burnt offerings to the God of Israel: twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, and twelve male goats as a sin offering. All this was a burnt offering to the Lord.
Note that Ezra sacrificed for all 12 tribes! This was to purify the people from their sins, and bring them to repentance before the Lord, which means that representatives from all 12 tribes were in Jerusalem, the remnant of Israel returning with the remnant of Judah and Benjamin just as the Lord had promised.
The Lord keeps His promises, and if people would only search the Scriptures they could
discover the truth, and wild theories such as the Mormons ascribe to would be seen for
what they are, unfounded, unproven theories.
Scripture has proven that the 12 tribes still exist, that the 10 "lost" tribes were never truly lost, and that the remnants of the 10 tribes of the Northern Kingdom of Israel returned to the Land as God had promised.
As He prophesied, Israel walks as one with Judah today as none of the Jews today know
what tribe they are from, the genealogical records having been destroyed in the destruction
of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 A.D.
This also points to errors in the Mormon religious beliefs for I have proven through Scripture that their doctrine of their being descendants of the "lost" tribes of Israel is false. May the God of the true Israel open their eyes to the truth!
Questions? Comments? E-mail: watchmen_777@yahoo.com