1. Who Are Israel.—The children of Israel are the descendants of Abraham through the loins of Isaac and Jacob, taking their name, however, from the last-named patriarch, whose name was changed by an angel of the Lord from Jacob to Israel, which means a prince of God. Unto Jacob by four wives were born twelve sons—the heads of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Joseph, Jacob's son by his wife Rachel, being his father's favorite son, was hated by his brethren, and without the father's knowledge was sold to merchants, who carried him into Egypt. His cruel brethren rent his clothing and stained it in blood, then taking it to their father represented that his son had been destroyed by a wild beast. The Lord was with Joseph in Egypt, and gave him favor in the eyes of the rulers of that land, until he became second in authority in the kingdom. Having been warned in a dream of an approaching famine, some years before it took place, he laid up in store an abundance of corn, so that while famine distressed surrounding countries there was plenty in Egypt, and thither the sons of Israel went to purchase food. Joseph revealed his identity to his brethren, became reconciled to them, and sent for his father and all attached to his household—about seventy souls in all—to come to him and take up their abode in Egypt. This the aged patriarch did, and ended his days there.
2. Israel Enslaved.—Some time after Joseph's death, there arose a king who knew him not, and observing that the Israelites were likely to become more numerous than the Egyptians—since they did not murder their offspring either before or at birth, as many among the Egyptians did—this monarch enslaved them and placed task masters over them, and by oppression and the destruction of their male offspring sought to prevent their increase. Finally the Lord raised up Moses and delivered them from bondage amid a splendid display of his Almighty power, and eventually settled them in the land of Canaan—the land he had promised unto Abraham as an inheritance—where they became a mighty nation. [See note 1, end of section.]
3. Revolt of the Ten Tribes.—As a nation the Israelites reached the zenith of their splendor under the reign of David and his son Solomon. At the death of the latter, 975 B. C., the kingdom was divided. Ten tribes revolted against the oppression of Solomon's successor, his son Rehoboam, and formed the kingdom of Israel, choosing for their king Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, one of Solomon's servants. The new king—a man of great valor—established his capital at Shechem [Shek-em], but fifty years afterwards it was removed to Samaria.
4. The Captivity of Israel—The Lost Tribes.—This kingdom of Israel continued its existence for about two hundred and fifty years. In that time the people may be said to have departed wholly from the paths of righteousness, becoming drunken, licentious and idolatrous. So the Lord gave them up and Shalmaneser, a noted Assyrian king, made war upon them, utterly overcame them and led them captives into Assyria. From thence the Lord led many of them away into the northern country, where, no man knoweth, and hence they are denominated the Lost Tribes. Our reason for saying they were led away into the north is to be found in the fact that many predictions of the prophets plainly declare that they shall come from the land of the north, a great company, etc.;[[154]] and it must be manifest that they cannot come from the land of the north unless they are there. Messiah, when he visited the Nephites after his resurrection, plainly told them that the other tribes of the house of Israel—meaning the ten tribes—the Lord had led away out of the land;[[155]] and he also announced his intention of visiting them, and commanded the Nephites to make a record of it that a knowledge of the existence of these "other tribes" might be made known unto the Gentiles when the Nephite records should be revealed to them. These "other tribes," Messiah spoke of, he declared not to be of the land of America, nor the land of Jerusalem, "neither in any parts of that land round about whither I have been to minister."[[156]]
5. The Apocryphal writer Esdras, in relating one of his visions describes one of the great characters that figured in those visions as calling unto himself a peaceful people. "Those," said the angel sent to interpret the vision, "are the tribes which were carried away captives out of their own land in the time of Oseas (Hosea) the king, whom Salmanaser, the king of the Assyrians, took captive, and crossed them beyond the river; so were they brought into another land. But they took counsel to themselves, that they would leave the multitude of the heathen, and go forth unto a further country where never man dwelt, that they there might keep their statutes, which they never kept in their own land. And they entered in at the narrow passage of the River Euphrates. For the Most High then showed them signs, and stayed the springs of the flood till they were passed over. For through the country there was great journey, even of a year and a half, and the same region is called Arsareth (or Ararah). Then dwelt they there until the latter time, and when they come forth again, the Most High shall hold still the springs of the river again, that they may go through; therefore sawest thou the multitude peaceable."[[157]]
6. Whatever doubt may be entertained respecting the writings of Esdras, it cannot be denied that in respect to the Ten Tribes and what became of them he is in harmony with the statement made by Jesus to the Nephites, viz: that the Lord had led them away out of the land. The Most High, according to Esdras, showing them signs by staying the springs of the flood of the Euphrates, as he will do when the time comes for them to return.[[158]] He is also in harmony with the prophets who predict the return of Israel in the last days from the land in which they have been hidden by the Lord.[[159]] [See note 2, end of section.]
7. The Samaritans.—The country inhabited by the kingdom of Israel—the north half of Palestine—was taken possession of by people sent from Babylon, Persia and other countries by the Assyrian king, and these strangers, intermarrying with the few Israelites remaining in the land, after the main body of the people had been led away into captivity, became the mixed people called Samaritans, so heartily despised by the Jews.
8. The Kingdom of Judah.—In the civil dissensions which divided the Israelites at the death of Solomon, the tribe of Benjamin remained loyal to Judah, and may be said to have almost lost its identity in the kingdom which with Judah it formed after the revolt of the ten tribes. It was a stormy career that the kingdom of Judah experienced after the said revolt. It was subject in turn to the Egyptians, Assyrians, and Babylonians. In consequence of treachery to the last named power, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, about 586 B. C.,[[160]] besieged Jerusalem, reduced the city to the utmost extremity, captured the king, put out his eyes and led him and most of the Jews captive to Babylon. The walls of the city were thrown down, the temple rifled of its sacred vessels and the city left desolate to be inhabited by strangers. The captivity of the Jews in Babylon lasted about seventy years.[[161]] The Babylonians in the meantime had been overcome of the Persians, under Cyrus the Great, who in the first year of his reign permitted the Jews to return and rebuild the city and its walls.
9. The Jews, however, never wholly regained their independence; being located between Syria and Egypt, their country was held in subjection as a province to one or the other of them according as now one and now the other was successful in the unhappy wars which broke out between those nations. Finally Palestine became a province of Rome, but the people were allowed the freedom to worship God according to the teachings of Moses and their prophets. This was their condition at the birth and during the lifetime of Messiah.[[162]]
10. About forty years after the crucifixion of the Christ, the Jews foolishly rebelled against the Roman authority, which brought on a terrible war. During the siege of Jerusalem, which lasted six months, over one million of the wretched inhabitants, according to Josephus, perished of the famine. The remainder were either driven into exile or sold into slavery. The city was razed to the ground, the temple destroyed, and in their eager search for gold the Romans tore up the very foundation, and ploughed up the site, so that literally there was not left one stone to stand upon another that was not thrown down.[[163]] Since the destruction of their city and the overthrow of their nation, the Jews have been scattered among all nations, despised, hated, oppressed, until all the evil that was prophesied of by Moses[[164]] concerning them—when they should turn away from God and his law—came upon them. [See note 3, end of section.]