The Ten Tribes

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The Exile of the Ten Tribes

TANAKH

The exile of the Ten Tribes is a pivotal event in Jewish history, and understanding the specific tribes and their destinations provides crucial historical context. The first book of Chronicles details the exile of the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh by the Assyrian kings Pul and Tillegath-pilneser.

So the God of Israel roused the spirit of King Pul of Assyria—the spirit of King Tillegath-pilneser of Assyria—and he carried them away, namely, the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and brought them to Halah, Habor, Hara, and the river Gozan, to this day.

I Chronicles 5:26

The Search for the Lost Tribes

HALAKHAH

Eldad HaDani's accounts, though met with skepticism, inspired hope and curiosity about the lost tribes of Israel, particularly influencing Jewish thought and exploration in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Eldad ha-Dani, a 9th-century traveler, claimed to be from Ethiopia and provided unique descriptions of Jewish communities and the dispersed tribes not found in rabbinic literature.

9th century – Eldad ha-Dani (“the Danite”) appears in Kairouan, Tunisia (about 180 kilometers south of Tunis, the capital city). He claims he is from Ethiopia, and relates that Jewish communities exist there. His stories about the dispersed tribes and the Sambatyon River rely partially on ancient sources, descriptions in the Bible and midrashic material, but he also gives descriptions that have no parallels in rabbinic literature. Rabbi Zemach Gaon accepts ha-Dani’s statements in principle, and considers him a member of the tribes of Israel who preserve the ancient tradition of the Oral Torah…

From Sinai to Ethiopia, Introduction, A Short History of Ethiopian Jewry 13

The Sequential Redemption Process

COMMENTARY

The redemption process involves two distinct messiahs and occurs in a specific sequence. Ezra ben Shlomo of Gerona, a 13th-century Kabbalist, provides a detailed eschatological framework in his commentary on the Song of Songs.

Those who first went forth into exile will be the first to return. Some time later, the children of Judah will return. So Isaiah prophesied when he said: “In that day my Lord will apply His hand a second time to redeem the other part of His people from Assyria—as also from Egypt, Pathos, Nubia, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the coastlands” [Isa. 11:11]. The verse specifies “a second time,” for the redemption of the ten tribes will come first. And thus “the other part of His people” who will have remained in Assyria…

Ezra ben Solomon on Song of Songs 8:13:3

Elisha's Divine Opportunity

COMMENTARY

Elisha used the Aramean attacks as a divine opportunity to inspire the Northern Kingdom of Israel to return to Torah. This contemporary study of the book of Kings explores Elisha's spiritual mission and the transformative power of Teshuvah.

We suggest an alternative approach that takes into account Elisha’s primary spiritual mission of drawing the Bnei Yisrael in Malchut Yisrael to a complete return to Torah. Elisha seeks to creatively transform the persistent attacks of the Aramean soldiers into a spiritual opportunity for the leadership of Malchut Yisrael. We believe that Elisha seeks to show that the Aramean soldiers are mere pawns in the hand of Hashem. He wants to demonstrate that if one is fully devoted to Hashem, there is nothing to fear from the Arameans…

From David to Destruction, Elisha and the Northern Kingdom, Elisha and the Aramean Army 7

Lineage Controversies Explored

TALMUD

The concern about the daughters of the ten tribes intermingling with the people of Tarmod raises significant issues about lineage and the status of offspring. The Gemara discusses the prohibition against accepting converts from Tarmod due to potential intermarriage with the exiled ten tribes, leading to offspring considered illegitimate in some ways.

The Gemara asks: Is that so? But aren’t there Rabbi Yoḥanan and the Elders who both say that one may not accept converts from Tarmod? This is due to a concern that the daughters of the ten tribes exiled during the First Temple period might have intermingled with them, and according to Rabbi Yoḥanan the offspring of a Jewish woman and a gentile is a mamzer, who may not marry a Jew of fit lineage.

Niddah 56b:13

The Downfall of the Northern Kingdom

SECOND TEMPLE

Jeroboam's actions led to the spiritual and political downfall of the northern kingdom. Josephus, a first-century Jewish historian, details how Jeroboam's strategic manipulation established alternative worship sites, preventing the ten tribes from returning to Jerusalem.

4. When therefore Jeroboam had built him a palace in the city Shechem, he dwelt there. He also built him another at Penuel, a city so called. And now the feast of tabernacles was approaching in a little time, Jeroboam considered, that if he should permit the multitude to go to worship God at Jerusalem, and there to celebrate the festival, they would probably repent of what they had done, and be enticed by the temple, and by the worship of God there performed, and would leave him, and return to their first kings; and if so, he should run the risk of losing his own life…

The Antiquities of the Jews 8:8:4

Loyalty Amidst Division

MIDRASH

The refusal of the ten tribes to engage in civil war against Judah and Jerusalem demonstrates profound loyalty and reluctance to shed the blood of fellow Israelites. Louis Ginzberg's early 20th-century work, Legends of the Jews, offers a rich narrative of Jewish folklore and biblical stories, including the historical division of the Kingdom of Israel.

So entrenched, Jeroboam brought about the division between Judah and Israel, a consummation which his father, Sheba the son of Bichri, had not been able to compass under David, because God desired to have the Temple erected before the split occurred. Not yet satisfied, Jeroboam sought to involve the Ten Tribes in a war against Judah and Jerusalem. But the people of the northern kingdom refused to enter into hostilities with their brethren, and with the ruler of their brethren, a descendant of David…

Legends of the Jews 4:6:10

The Emergence of the Samaritans

REFERENCE

The Assyrian exile led to a significant transformation in the demographics and identity of the Israelites, giving rise to the Samaritans. Gershom Bader's historical account delves into the origins and evolution of the Samaritans following the Assyrian conquest.

It is stated on historical grounds that the Samaritans are a mixture of a small remnant of the Ten Tribes whose kingdom in Samaria was destroyed by King Sargon of Assyria (722 B. C.). This king exiled over 27 thousand inhabitants of the Samarian population to Habor, the river Gozan, Halach and the cities of Media and in their place he settled people from Babylonia, Kutha, Ava, Hamath and Sfarvaim. The remaining people of the Ten Tribes mixed with the newly settled peoples and as a result of this union there developed in time the so-called Samaritans.

The Jewish Spiritual Heroes, Volume I; The Creators of the Mishna, The Samaritans 2

Divinely Ordained Exile

COMMENTARY

A significant portion of the Jewish people were exiled to a mysterious and inaccessible place as a divine act of justice. Ramban, a medieval Jewish scholar, offers a profound commentary on Deuteronomy 32:26, exploring the fate of these exiled groups and their separation from the rest of the world.

[‘AMARTI’ (I SAID)] ‘APHEIHEM.’ Grammarians explained it as meaning: “I will disperse them into every ‘corner.’” And if so, the word amarti means that it was the Will before Him by the attribute of justice that they be so scattered forever in every corner, and that their memory cease forever from among men — were it not that I was in dread of the wrath from the enemy. And in my opinion the word apheihem is a composite word, as is mentioned in the Sifre, that it consists of these three words: aph ei heim [“I said in My ‘anger’ that I will banish them so…

Ramban on Deuteronomy 32:26:1

The Merit of the Righteous

MIDRASH

Despite their extreme wickedness, a remnant was preserved due to the merit of future righteous individuals. The early medieval midrash Bereshit Rabbah compares the sins of certain generations to those of the Flood and Sodom.

Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said: What was not done [even] by the generation of the Flood was done by the ten tribes. Regarding the generation of the Flood it is written: “And that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the day” (Genesis 6:5), while regarding the ten tribes it is written: “Woe, the devisers of iniquity and the evildoers on their beds” (Micah 2:1) – that is at night. From where is it derived during the day as well? The verse states: “They perform it at the morning light” (Micah 2:1)…

Bereshit Rabbah 28:5

The Fate of the Ten Tribes

JEWISH THOUGHT

Rabbi Akiva's statement about the exiled ten tribes not returning to Israel applies only to the generation that was exiled due to their wickedness, and not to their descendants. Rabbi Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller, in his commentary, clarifies the fate of the ten tribes and their descendants in the context of Jewish eschatology.

Rabbi Akiva stated that in the Ultimate Future, the Ten Tribes will not return to Eretz Yisrael. This does not contradict the prophecy mentioned above, for as Rashi explains, Rabbi Akiva was only referring to the generation that was exiled: “This does not refer to their children and their descendants, but only to those who were exiled. [The exiled] do not possess a portion [in the land], because they were utterly wicked men. Their children and their coming generations, by contrast, merit a portion in the land, and convey that right [to their descendants]…

The Third Beit HaMikdash, Concluding Statements 5

Why They Were Exiled

COMMENTARY

The exile and destruction of the ten tribes were due to collective public sins, not individual transgressions. The 13th-century Torah commentary, Chizkuni, explains how communal sins like public idolatry led to the downfall of the ten tribes.

שרפה כל ארצה, “its whole land is as if burned.” Is it conceivable that G-d would become so angry on account of a sin committed by a single individual? The fact is that the destruction of the area occupied by the Ten tribes and the population being sent into exile, had nothing to do with an individual’s sins, but with erection of public idols, two golden calves built to block the route to Jerusalem during the lifetime of Solomon’s son Rechavam, hundreds of years before theKingdom of the Ten Tribes went into exile and the idol erected by Michah…

Chizkuni, Deuteronomy 29:22:3

The Division of the Kingdom

TARGUM

The division of the united monarchy of Israel into two separate kingdoms was a pivotal moment in Jewish history. The Aramaic Targum to Ecclesiastes provides an interpretive account of Rehoboam's harsh policies and the subsequent rise of Jeroboam as the ruler of the ten tribes.

There was no end to all the house of Israel, to all the righteous before whom he ruled; but they advised him in their wisdom to lighten their yoke, and he in his folly went and took counsel with the youth, and they in their folly, advised him to make heavier the yoke of his kingdom upon the people of the house of Israel, and he left the advice of the aged, and followed the advice of the latter; but these latter ones were afterwards confounded and displeased with him, and they caused him to flee, so that the ten tribes should separate from him ; and the wicked Jeroboam ruled over them …

Aramaic Targum to Ecclesiastes 4:16

Israel's Moral Collapse

COMMENTARY

The moral and spiritual decline of the northern kingdom of Israel during Hosea's time serves as a powerful lesson on the consequences of societal corruption. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks provides a historical and ethical exploration of the prophet Hosea's messages, emphasizing themes of faithfulness and the impact of lawlessness and idolatry.

Hosea lived in the eighth century BCE. The kingdom had been divided since the death of Solomon. The northern kingdom in particular, where Hosea lived, had lapsed after a period of peace and prosperity into lawlessness, idolatry, and chaos. Between 747 and 732 BCE there were no less than five kings, the result of a series of intrigues and bloody struggles for power. The people, too, had become lax: “There is no faithfulness or kindness, and no knowledge of God in the land; there is swearing, lying, killing, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds and murder follows murder” (Hos…

Essays in Ethics; A Weekly Reading of the Jewish Bible, Tazria; The Circumcision of Desire 6

Perversion of Justice

COMMENTARY

The moral and ethical failings of the Kingdom of Israel, including their perversion of justice and betrayal of the innocent, are starkly highlighted. The prophet Amos, from the 8th century BCE, addresses these injustices, drawing parallels to the sale of Joseph.

Amos begins the primary portion of this prophecy, which deals with Samaria and the Kingdom of Israel. So said the Lord: For three transgressions of the Kingdom of Israel I will not dispense punishment, but for the fourth, I will not relent: For their sale of the righteous for silver and the indigent for a pair of shoes, an insignificant profit. They pervert justice and betray the innocent, vindicating the guilty in exchange for bribes. The latter phrase of the verse is also interpreted by the Sages as a reference to the sale of Joseph.

Steinsaltz on Amos 2:6

The Divine Division of Israel

TANAKH

The division of the kingdom of Israel was not merely a political event but a divine intervention orchestrated by God. In the biblical book of Kings I, the prophet Ahijah informs Jeroboam that God will take ten tribes away from Solomon's rule and give them to Jeroboam.

“Take ten pieces,” he said to Jeroboam. “For thus said the ETERNAL, the God of Israel: I am about to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hands, and I will give you ten tribes.

I Kings 11:31

Compassion Among the Ephraimites

TANAKH

The moral and ethical responsibility of the Ephraimites to treat captives humanely is a powerful lesson in compassion and justice. II Chronicles recounts how the chief men of the Ephraimites urged soldiers to release captives and then took care of them, providing clothing, food, and transportation back to Jericho.

Some of the chief men of the Ephraimites—Azariah son of Jehohanan, Berechiah son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah son of Shallum, and Amasa son of Hadlai—confronted those returning from the campaign and said to them, “Do not bring these captives here, for it would mean our offending the LORD, adding to our sins and our offenses; for our offense is grave enough, and there is already wrath upon Israel.” So the soldiers released the captives and the booty in the presence of the officers and all the congregation…

II Chronicles 28:12-15

Rise of Israel's North

COMMENTARY

The Northern Kingdom of Israel, distinct from Judah and Benjamin, played a crucial role in the history and politics of ancient Israel. Tamar Weissman’s work delves into the formation, ruling dynasties, and geographical centers of the Northern Kingdom, providing a comprehensive understanding of its historical context.

Malkhut Yisrael Northern Kingdom of Israel, formed in the wake of the monarchial split in Israel, ruled by various dynasties, based in Shechem and Shomron, from 930s Bce until 720s Bce. Includes a confederation of tribes, excepting Judah and Benjamin.

Tribal Lands, Glossary of Commonly Used Terms 8

Relatedראו גם

Yoash (King of Israel)

Jeroboam (Son of Nebat)

Exile

Opposedמתנגדים

Assyria

Sheetsדפי מקורות

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