17. While Zedekiah occupied the throne, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, laid siege to Jerusalem,[965] took the city about 588 B. C., and soon thereafter led the people captive into Babylon, thus virtually putting an end to the kingdom of Judah. The people were scattered among the cities of Asia; and groaned under the vicissitudes of the Babylonian captivity for nearly seventy years,[966] after which they were given permission by Cyrus the Persian, who had subdued the Babylonians, to return to Jerusalem. Multitudes of the exiled Hebrews availed themselves of this opportunity, though many remained in the land of their captivity; and while those who did return earnestly sought to re-establish themselves on a scale of their former power, they were never again truly an independent people. They were assailed by Syria and Egypt, and later became tributary to Rome, in which condition they were during the personal ministry of Christ among them.
18. Jeremiah's prophecy still lacked a complete fulfillment, but time proved that not a word was to fail. "Judah shall be carried away captive, all of it; it shall be wholly carried away captive;"[967] this was the prediction. A rebellious disturbance among the Jews gave a semblance of excuse for a terrible chastisement to be visited upon them by their Roman masters, which culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem, A. D. 71. The city fell after a six months' siege before the Roman arms led by Titus, son of the Emperor Vespasian. Josephus, the famous historian, to whom we owe most of our knowledge as to the details of the struggle, was himself a resident in Galilee and was carried to Rome among the captives. From his record we learn that more than a million Jews lost their lives through the famine incident to the siege; many more were sold into slavery, and uncounted numbers were forced into exile. The city was utterly destroyed, and the site upon which the temple had stood was plowed up by the Romans in their search for treasure. Thus literally were the words of Christ fulfilled, "There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down."[968]
19. Since the destruction of Jerusalem and the final disruption of the organized people, the Jews have been wanderers upon the face of the earth, outcasts among the nations, a people without a country, a nation without a home. The prophecy uttered by Amos of old has had its literal fulfillment: truly have Israel been sifted among all nations "like as corn is sifted in a sieve;"[969] let it be remembered, however that coupled with this dread prediction was the promise, "Yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth."
20. The Lost Tribes.—As already stated, in the division of the Israelites after the death of Solomon, ten tribes established themselves as an independent kingdom. This, the kingdom of Israel, was terminated, as far as history is concerned, by the Assyrian captivity, 721 B. C. The people were led into Assyria; and later disappeared so completely that they have been called the Lost Tribes. They seem to have departed from Assyria, and while we lack definite information as to their final destination and present location, there is abundant evidence that their journey was toward the north.[970] The Lord's Word through Jeremiah promises that the people shall be brought back "from the land of the north,"[971] and a similar declaration has been made through Divine revelation during the present dispensation.[972]
21. In the writings of Esdras or Ezra, which, however, are not included among the canonical books of the Bible, but are known as apocryphal, we find references to the north-bound migration of the ten tribes, which they undertook in accordance with a plan to escape the heathen by going to "a further country where never man dwelt, that they might there keep their statutes which they never kept in their own land."[973] The same writer informs us further that they journeyed a year and a half into the north country; but he gives us evidence that many remained in the land of their captivity.
22. The resurrected Christ, while ministering among the Nephites on this hemisphere, specifically mentioned "the other tribes of the house of Israel, whom the Father hath led away out of the land;"[974] and again He referred to them as "other sheep which are not of this land, neither of the land of Jerusalem; neither in any parts of that land around about, whither I have been to minister."[975] Christ announced a commandment of the Father that He should reveal Himself to them. The present location of the Lost Tribes has not been accurately revealed.
NOTES.
1. Hebrews.—Shem is called "the father of all the children of Eber," as Ham is called father of Canaan. The Hebrews and Canaanites were often brought into contact, and exhibited the respective characteristics of the Shemites and the Hamites. The term "Hebrews" thus is derived from "Eber" (Gen. x, 21; comp. Numb, xxiv, 24).—Bible Cyclopedia, by Fausset.
The writer of the article "Hebrew" in Cassell's Bible Dictionary questions the evidence on which the derivation of "Hebrew" from "Eber" or "Heber" is asserted, and says: "All that can be confidently affirmed is that the term is employed of Abraham, and of the descendants of Jacob in general. The interest attaching to the word, coupled with its obscure origin, suffices to account for the many speculations in regard to it. It may be added that some scholars have found the name 'Hebrews,' a little changed, on the monuments of Egypt. If this interpretation is verified, it will be of value, as showing that when the Egyptians called Joseph a Hebrew, they employed the designation which was accepted among them."
2. Jews.—The term properly signifies "a man of Judah," or a descendant of Judah, but the word came to be applied to all those who were otherwise designated 'Hebrews.' It does not appear to have come into use until long after the revolt of Jeroboam and the ten tribes, and so long as the kingdom stood, it was naturally employed of the citizens of the kingdom of Judah (II Kings xvi, 6; xxv, 25); but it rarely occurs in this sense. After the exile it took the extension of meaning which it has to the present day. It was adopted by the remnants of all the tribes, and was the one name by which the descendants of Jacob were known throughout the ancient world; certainly it was far more common than 'Hebrew.' It occurs in the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Daniel, etc., is found in the Apocrypha; and is common in Josephus, and in the New Testament."—Cassell's Bible Dictionary.
"Under the theocracy they were known as Hebrews, under the monarchy as Israelites, and during foreign domination as Jews. The modern representatives of this stock call themselves Hebrews in race and language, and Israelites in religion, but Jews in both senses."—Standard Dictionary.
3. Zenos.—"A Hebrew prophet, often quoted by the Nephite servants of God. All we are told of his personal history is that he was slain because he testified boldly of what God revealed to him. That he was a man greatly blessed of the Lord with the spirit of prophecy is shown by that wonderful and almost incomparable parable of the Vineyard, given at length by Jacob (Jacob, chap. v). His prophecies are also quoted by Nephi (I Nephi xix, 10, 12, 16), Alma (Alma xxxiii, 3, 13, 15), Amulek, Alma (xxxiv, 7), Samuel the Lamanite (Helaman xv, 11), and Mormon (III Nephi x, 16)."—Dictionary of the Book of Mormon, by Elder George Reynolds.
4. The Journeyings of the Lost Tribes.—Esdras, whose books, as stated in the text, are classed among the apocrypha, describes a vision, in the course of which the Ten Tribes are noticed in this way:—"Those are the tribes which were carried away captives out of their own land in the time of Oseas [Hosea] the king, whom Shalmanezer, 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 a 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."—II Esdras xiii.
Concerning the journeyings of the Ten Tribes toward the north, Elder George Reynolds, in his little work Are We of Israel? says:—"They determined to go to a country 'where never man dwelt,' that they might be free from all contaminating influences. That country could only be found in the north. Southern Asia was already the seat of a comparatively ancient civilization; Egypt flourished in northern Africa; and southern Europe was rapidly filling with the future rulers of the world. They had therefore no choice but to turn their faces northward. The first portion of their journey was not however north; according to the account of Esdras, they appear to have at first moved in the direction of their old home; and it is possible that they originally started with the intention of returning thereto; or probably, in order to deceive the Assyrians, they started as if to return to Canaan, and when they crossed the Euphrates and were out of danger from the hosts of Medes and Persians, then they turned their journeying feet toward the polar star. Esdras states that they entered in at the narrow passage of the river Euphrates, the Lord staying the springs of the flood until they were passed over. The point on the river Euphrates at which they crossed would necessarily be in its upper portion, as lower down would be too far south for their purpose. The upper course of the Euphrates lies among lofty mountains; near the village of Pastash it plunges through a gorge formed by precipices more than a thousand feet in height, and so narrow that it is bridged at the top; it shortly afterward enters the plain of Mesopotamia. How accurately this portion of the river answers to the description of Esdras of the 'Narrows' where the Israelites crossed!"
"The tribes shall come; they are not lost unto the Lord; they shall be brought forth as hath been predicted; and I say unto you there are those now living—aye, some here present—who shall live to read the records of the Lost Tribes of Israel, which shall be made one with the record of the Jews, or the Holy Bible, and the record of the Nephites, or the Book of Mormon, even as the Lord hath predicted; and those records, which the tribes lost to man but yet to be found again shall bring, shall tell of the visit of the resurrected Christ to them, after He had manifested Himself to the Nephites upon this continent." From address by the author October 8, 1916, see Proceedings of 87th Semi-annual Conference of the Church.