Moses Predicts the Dispersion.—Prophecies of Israel's dispersion were made as early as the time of Moses, fifteen hundred years before the advent of the Savior. When the Twelve Tribes were about to possess themselves of the Promised Land, their great leader, who was soon to depart, told them that so long as they served Jehovah and honored his statutes, they should be prospered and remain an independent nation. But if they forsook Jehovah and served other gods, He would scatter them among all people, from one end of the earth even unto the other.[[1]]
A House Divided.—Joshua, succeeding Moses, conquered the land of Canaan and apportioned it among the Tribes of Israel. A season of prosperity and power was followed by decadence and ruin. As early as the days of the Judges the people began to depart from God and to invite by rebellious conduct the national calamity that had been predicted. The glory of the reigns of David and Solomon being past, the curse, long suspended, fell, and the Israelitish Empire hastened to decay. The tribes in the northern part of the land revolted and set up the Kingdom of Israel, distinct from the Kingdom of Judah, over which Solomon's son Rehoboam continued to reign. The tribe of Benjamin and the half tribe of Manasseh adhered to Judah.
Ahijah, Amos and Hosea.—Jeroboam, King of Israel, made idolatry the state religion. During his reign the dispersion was again predicted, Ahijah the prophet thus voicing the word of the Lord to his disobedient people: "The Lord shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river."[[2]] Another prophet who foretold the same disaster was Hosea;[[3]] still another, Amos, who declared that Israel should "surely go into captivity" and be "sifted among all nations."[[4]] Hosea's prophecy substitutes past for future, thus: "Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people," referring to the event in prospect as if it had already taken place. Possibly a prophetic vision—then past—had apprised this seer of what was coming, or it may have been only a figure of rhetoric, common even at the present day.
"The Wolf on the Fold."—About the year 725 B. C. these prophecies began to have their fulfillment. The Assyrians came against the Kingdom of Israel and commenced the work of its destruction. In a series of deportations they carried away the Ten Tribes—nine and a half, to be exact—and, as customary with conquerors in those days, supplied their places with colonists from other parts.
The Lost Tribes.—Concerning the deported—the famous "Lost Tribes"—very little is now known. Josephus, the Jewish historian, who wrote during the first century after Christ, states that they were then beyond the Euphrates; and Esdras, in the Apocrypha, declares that they went a journey of a year and a half into "the north country."
Scandinavian Cairns.—Missionaries returning from Scandinavia tell of rude monuments—cairns of piles of stones—yet to be seen in that northern region, and concerning which tradition asserts that they were erected many centuries ago by a migrating people. Whether or not these were the tribes of the Assyrian captivity, it is interesting to reflect that the rearing of such monuments, in commemoration of notable events, was an Israelitish custom, particularly as to the migratory movements of the nation. The miraculous passage of the Jordan by Joshua and the host led by him into the land of Canaan, was thus commemorated.[[5]]
Other Ancient Remains.—If it be objected that monuments built seven centuries before Christ's birth could not have lasted down to this day, it will be in order for the objector to explain the existence of the perfectly preserved monuments of Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, and other ancient empires, whose remains have been uncovered by modern archaeological enterprise. Such a theory need not stagger the faith of a Latter-day Saint, when he recalls that the ruins of Adam's altar are still to be seen in that part of the Old-New World now known as the State of Missouri, where they were identified by Joseph the Seer in 1838.
From the North Country.—At all events, it is from "the north country" that the lost tribes are to return, according to ancient and modern prophecy.[[6]] It is also a fact that from Scandinavia and other nations of Northern Europe, has come much of the blood of Ephraim, now to be found within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Isaiah and Jeremiah—The Babylonian Captivity—Returning to the Kingdom of Israel. The prophecies concerning it were supplemented by other predictions foretelling the fate of the Kingdom of Judah. Those great prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah, figured during this period, and both portrayed in fervid eloquence, unparalleled for pathos and sublimity, the impending doom of the Jewish nation. Their government was destroyed, and they were carried into captivity by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar, B. C. 588.
Lehi and His Colony.—Just prior to that catastrophe, and while the Prophet Jeremiah was delivering his fateful message to king, princes, priests and people, Lehi and his companions, ancestors of the Nephites and Lamanites,[[7]] warned of God, left Jerusalem and crossed over to this land—America—which, by them and by Mulek's company that came later, was thus peopled with descendants of Joseph and of Judah, both represented, though in a degenerate state, by the savage red men whom Columbus, in A. D. 1492, discovered and named Indians.[[8]]