What happened to the ten tribes of Israel that were captured and taken away? (2024)

Bible Question:

Whatever happened to the 10 tribes of Israel that were captured and taken away? Judah was returned after their capture, but I can't find in Scripture what happened to Israel when they were captured.

Bible Answer:

There are at least three different views about what happened to “the ten lost tribes” of Israel after they were taken into exile by the Assyrian Empire in 722 B.C. Some claim the ten tribes of Israel became the Anglo-Saxons. This view is mere speculation and cannot be supported by Scripture nor can it be supported by historical data. Another view says that ten of the tribes were lost because they contend that there is no clear traceable family lineage. One such person is Rabbi Jonathan Packman in Israel. He believes that the ten tribes of Israel are lost. He said,

The first Jewish Diaspora is the one historians know least about – there are no traces of where these Jews dispersed to. The Diaspora of 720 BC was initiated when the Assyrians forced the Jews out of Israel. Ten tribes left the Promised Land and were never heard from or found. These are known as the 10 lost tribes.

The third view that we will consider says the ten tribes were never lost. We believe this last view is correct. The explanation follows.

What happened to the ten tribes of Israel that were captured and taken away? (1)

Twelve Tribes of Israel – Used by Permission Bible Mapper Atlas

Division of Israel Into Two Kingdoms

Before and during the reign of King Solomon, the term “Israel” referred to all of the Jewish people in the land of Canaan. The nation at that time was called Israel. But King Solomon sinned by not loving God and worshiping other gods. As a result, God responded by dividing Solomon’s kingdom into a northern and southern kingdom.

Two Kingdoms WereDefeatedand Deported

Neither the kingdom of Israel nor the kingdom of Judah learned from God’s punishment of King Solomon. Israel rebelled against God and became wicked. They worshiped other gods. Consequently, God caused the Assyrian Empire to invade Israel and take them captive into exile. The territory the ten tribes occupied later was known as Samaria and Galilee.

Then the king of Assyria invaded the whole land and went up to Samaria and besieged it three years. In the ninth year of Hosea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried Israel away into exile to Assyria, and settled them in Halah and Habor, on the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. Now this came about, because the sons of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God . . . and they had feared other gods. 2 Kings 17:5-7 (NASB)

The Assyrians deported the northern Kingdom of Israel and mixed them with other captives to break down their national loyalty. This encouraged the Israelites to inter-marry and blur family lines of birth. Later God removed the southern Kingdom of Judah because they continued sinning and did not repent. They were taken away into Babylon by the Babylonian army.

And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. For through the anger of the LORD this came about in Jerusalem and Judah until He cast them out from His presence. 2 Kings 24:19-20 (NASB)
Now it came about in the ninth year of his reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, camped against it, and built a siege wall all around it . . . Then the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was led away into exile from its land. 2 Kings 25:1, 21 (NASB)

Kingdom of Judah Returned

So Israel went into Assyrian captivity and Judah into Babylonian captivity. Seventy years later God moved the heart of King Cyrus of Persia to allow the Jews who were living in Babylon to return to the city of Jerusalem (Ezra 1:1-5), and God stirred the Jews to move back.

Then the heads of fathers’ households of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and the Levites arose, even everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up and rebuild the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem. Ezra 1:5 (NASB)

From this verse it appears that God returned only a portion of the tribe of Levi, and most of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin back to the Promised Land. At the time of Christ, the northern region of the Promised Land was called Samaria. The Samaritans and the Jews from Judah were at odds with each other. Israel was again dispersed in A.D. 70 when God allowed the Romans to destroy Jerusalem because they rejected the Messiah Jesus Christ (Luke 19:43-44). At that point all of the twelve tribes of Israel were scattered.

“Lost Tribes of Israel” Are Not Lost

But none of the twelve tribes of Israel were lost, nor are any of them lost today for a number of reasons. The first reason is that when the Assyrian army defeated the northern kingdom, (the kingdom of Israel), and took them into exile, some of the descendants of the ten tribes were living in the southern kingdom, the kingdom of Judah.

2 Chronicles 15:9; 30:18; and 34:6, state that people from the tribes of Ephraim (son of Joseph), Manasseh, Issachar, Zebulun, Naphatli, Simeon, and “from all the remnant of Israel” were present in the kingdom of Judah. Notice that we are told some of the remnant of Israel lived in the southern kingdom. This means men, women, and children from each of the northern ten tribes were also living in the southern kingdom at the time the Assyrians invaded the northern kingdom. Those living in the southern kingdom were not taken captive and deported by the Assyrians. They were taken to Babylon. This means that the ten tribes were not entirely lost for some of them lived in the kingdom of Judah.

Nehemiah 11:20 tells us that men from all the tribes from the northern kingdom of Israel were living in the cities of Judah – the southern kingdom. The book of Nehemiah was written at the time the Jews were returning from Babylon. This means that none of the tribes have been lost.

A second reason the ten tribes are not lost is that Luke 2:36 states the prophetess Anna was from the tribe of Asher. Asher is one of the ten tribes that lived primarily in the northern kingdom.

Additionally, in James 1:1 we are told that the book of James was sent to the twelve tribes of Israel (Genesis 35:22-26). That is, people from all twelve tribes of Israel were alive at the time of Christ.

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion:
Greetings. James 1:1 (NASB)

All the Tribes Are Returning to Israel

Scripture also predicts that the nation of Israel will return some day to the land. Descendants from every tribe of Israel will return. Their return started in 1945 and continues to this day. Ezekiel 37:21-22 says this,

And say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king will be king for all of them; and they will no longer be two nations, and they will no longer be divided into two kingdoms. Ezekiel 37:21-22 (NASB)

The book of Revelation reveals another wonderful fact. All twelve tribes will be living in Israel some day before the end of the world occurs. The book of Revelation tells us that God will seal 12,000 Jews from each of the twelve tribes of Israel in the end times (Revelation 7:4-8). The book of Revelation prophesies that 144,000 witnesses will be present in the tribulation. Here is a list of all of the tribes of Israel from Revelation 7.

And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel: . . . Judah, . . . Reuben, . . . Gad, . . . Asher, . . . Naphtali, . . . Manasseh, . . . Simeon, . . . Levi, . . . Issachar, . . . Zebulun, . . . Joseph, . . . Benjamin . . . Revelation 7:4-8(NASB)

Every one of the tribes exists today somewhere in the world. Praise the Lord Jesus. Come quickly!

Conclusion:

The experience of Israel and Judah are spiritual messages for us. God will deal with each of us differently when we sin. Each day we receive blessings from Him. His blessings are rich and precious. He meets our daily needs in so many ways. Yet we often forget and become more interested in the things He gives us. We worship His gifts. We are not willing to serve Him because we are more interested in His presents. We fail to worship because we love the music He allows us to create, and the list can go on. So He disciplines us to get our attention because He wants our eyes only on Him. Let us ask Him to help us keep our eyes on Him.