During the administration of Moses, the Lord promised Israel, conditionally, many blessings and curses. The former if they were obedient to his commandments, the latter if they were rebellious. These promises were, in their nature, prophetic. Evidently, no man, unless inspired by the Holy Ghost, as was Moses, could have thought of blessings and curses so varied and comprehensive in their nature, much less have spoken and recorded them.

The subject of the scattering of Israel is historical, and needs to be well understood, in order to comprehend the great work of their gathering in the latter times. A moderate comprehension of the scattering of Israel requires much careful study of their history in the Old Testament, and as written by that eminent Jewish historian, Josephus, a general knowledge of history, and of the many prophecies yet to be fulfilled concerning them.

If a complete history of the house of Israel were written, it would be the history of histories, the key of the world's history for the past twenty centuries. The student is particularly recommended to study the last chapters of Deuteronomy, from the beginning of the twenty-seventh to the end of the book.

The scattering of the seed of Joseph, among all nations, was foreshadowed in the blessing of his father, Jacob: "Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall;" Gen. 49. 22.

A terrible prophetic picture of the afflictions which the Lord would heap upon Israel, is drawn by Moses in the twenty-sixth chapter of Leviticus. If persistently disobedient, they were to be scattered among all nations and suffer great afflictions in the lands of their enemies.

The prophet Abijah said to the wife of Jeroboam, "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;" 1 Kings 14. 15. This prophecy was fulfilled when the ten tribes were carried into captivity by the king of Assyria 721, B. C.; 2 Kings 17. In the Apocrypha, the prophet Esdras states that these ten tribes went a year and a half journey into the north country; 2 Esdras 13. 39-45. That many remained is evident from verses 48 and 49 of the same chapter.

The great historian of Israel, Josephus, who wrote nearly 800 years after the captivity of the ten tribes, corroborates this view of the subject. Speaking of the return of the Jews under Esdras, he says: "Many of them took their effects with them, and came to Babylon, as very desirous of going down to Jerusalem, but then the entire body of the people of Israel remained in that country, wherefore there are but two tribes in Asia and Europe subject to the Romans, while the ten tribes are beyond the Euphrates till now, and are an immense multitude, and not to be estimated by numbers;" Ant. B. 11. C. 5. Over twenty-six centuries these scattered tribes of Israel, which Josephus declared, 1800 years ago, were an immense multitude in Asia, have continued to mix up with the nations of the earth.

The second great scattering of Israel was brought about by the Babylonish captivity. The Lord said through the prophet Jeremiah, "I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon;" 20. 4. There is an account of the fulfilment of this prophecy in 2 Kings, chapters 24 and 25. Jerusalem was desolated and only the poor left to till the land.

The Jews, like the ten tribes before them, were scattered among the nations of Asia. In Ezra, Chap. 2, we have an account of those who returned to build the waste places of Judah, but multitudes of them remained in their scattered condition, as is evident from the book of Esther. Some nine years after the completion of the term of their captivity, they were scattered from India to Ethiopia, through the 127 provinces of the Persian empire; 8. 9.

Jeremiah prophesied the entire desolation of Judah; "Judah shall be carried away captive all of it, it shall be wholly carried away captive;" 13. 19. It was nearly 600 years from the consummation of the Babylonish captivity to the fulfilment of this prophecy, by the final destruction of the Jews, as a nation, by the Romans, when a remnant of some 97,000 were sold into slavery in the cities of the Roman empire, and were scattered wherever the caprice of their masters led them.

During this period, from the Babylonish captivity to the destruction of Jerusalem, the Jews suffered much from their enemies, and many thousands were sold into slavery. A few references to Josephus will assist to comprehend this subject:

Ant. B. 11. C. 5. Miserable condition of the Jews as represented to the prophet Nehemiah.

B. 11. C. 6. Haman said to the king of Persia, "There is a certain wicked nation (the Jews), and it is dispersed over all the habitable earth that is under thy dominion."

B. 12. C. 1. The first Ptolemy took a great many captives in Judea and carried them into Egypt.

B. 12. C. 2. The second Ptolemy liberated 120,000 Jews who where in bondage in Egypt.

B. 12. C. 3. Antiochus set free all the Jews who had been carried captive.

B. 12. C. 4. The Samaritans were in a flourishing condition, and much distressed the Jews, cutting off parts of their land, and carrying off slaves.

B. 12. C. 5. The daily sacrifice was taken away, and 10,000 Jews carried captive.

B. 14. C. 7. The Jews were scattered over the habitable earth. Cassius, the Roman general, carried 30,000 Jews captive.

B. 14. C. 11. Four Jewish cities sold into slavery for taxes.

B. 15. C. 3. Not a few ten thousands of Jews that dwelt about Babylonia.

B. 16. C. 2. A great multitude of Jews dwelt in the cities of Ionia.

B. 16. C. 6. The cities of Asia and Lybia ill-treated the Jews. The northern part of Africa was then called Lybia.

These references to Josephus, and their contexts, well considered, will greatly assist the student in forming a proper idea of the scattered condition of the Jews about the commencement of the Christian era.

We have no knowledge of the location or condition of that part of the ten tribes who went into the north country.

B. C. 600, a colony left Jerusalem, under one Lehi, to people the western hemisphere. Eleven years after, it was followed by another under the direction of Mulek. Their descendants have scattered over the American continent from Cape Horn to the Arctic Sea.

This branch of the house of Israel may truly be said to be scattered over half the globe. The Book of Mormon, and the monumental ruins they have left on the land, give us all the information we have of them down to the year 1492, A. D., when Christopher Columbus discovered America.

Since that time, their history forms a part of the general history of the continent, which is a record of the fulfilment of many of the prophecies, in the Bible and Book of Mormon, concerning the scattering of Israel.

Bible.

Deut. 28. 37 thou shalt become a proverb and a by-word.

64 Israel to be scattered from one end of the earth even unto the other. Chap. 32. 26.

Psalm 106. 27 to overthrow their seed also among the nations.

Isa. 5. 13 my people have gone into captivity.

10. 3 what will ye do in the day of visitation?

32. 14 the multitude of the city shall be left.

42. 24 who gave Jacob for a spoil and Israel to the robbers.

64. 10 Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.

Jer. 5. 15-18 I will bring a nation upon you from afar. Deut. 28. 49-57.

6. 8-12 their houses, fields and wives shall be turned to others. 7. 15 and I will cast you out of my sight.

8. 3 which remain in all the places whither I have driven them.

9. 11 I will make the cities of Judah desolate. 16.

10. 22 to make the cities of Judah desolate. 25.

15. 4 I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth.

34. 17 to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.

Ezek. 20. 23 I would disperse them through the countries. Chap. 22. 15. Chap. 34. 6. Chap. 36. 19.

Hos. 7. 8. Ephraim hath mixed himself among the people.

Joel 3. 2 the Lord will plead with all nations who have scattered his people.

Amos 7. 17 Israel shall surely go into captivity.

9. 9 I will sift the house of Israel among all nations.

Mic. 3. 12 Zion shall be ploughed as a field.

Zach. 7. 14 I scattered them with a whirlwind among all nations.

10. 9 I will sow them among the people.

Matt. 23. 38 your house is left unto you desolate. Luke 13. 35.

James 1. 1 to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad.

Book of Mormon.

1 Nephi 10. 12-14 the house of Israel to be scattered over all the face of the earth. Chap. 14. 14. Chap. 22. 3.

13. 14 the seed of the brethren of Nephi to be scattered and smitten of the Gentiles.

39 other books to come forth to the convincing of the Jews who were scattered over the face of the whole earth.

19. 14 they shall wander in the flesh, and perish, and become a hiss and a by-word.

22. 4 the more part of all the tribes have been led away and are scattered, to and fro, on the isles of the sea.

5 the Jews to be scattered among all nations, because they hardened their hearts against the Holy One of Israel. 2 Nephi 10. 5, 6, 22.

7 the Lord shall raise up a mighty nation in this land, and by them shall our seed be scattered.

2 Nephi 6. 8 the Lord showed Jacob that those at Jerusalem had been slain and scattered. 11.

25. 14, 15 the final destruction of Jerusalem foretold.

16 the Jews to be scourged until they believe in the Messiah.

Hel. 15. 12 the Lamanites to be hunted, and smitten, and scattered.

3 Nephi 10. 7 the places of your dwellings shall become desolate, until the time of the fulfilling of the covenant to your fathers.

16. 4 the remnant of their seed who shall be scattered on the face of the earth.

20. 27 which blessings upon the Gentiles shall make them mighty, unto the scattering of my people. Mormon 5. 9, 20.

Mormon 5. 15 this people shall be scattered and become dark.

Ether 13. 11 they are they who were scattered and gathered from the four quarters of the earth, and from the north country.