Article 10.—We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes, etc.
1. Israel.—The term Israel, in its original sense, expressed the thought of one who had succeeded in his supplication before the Lord; "soldier of God," "one who contends with God," "a prince of God," are among the common English renderings. The name first appears in sacred writ as a title conferred by the Lord upon Jacob, when the latter prevailed in his determination to secure a blessing from his heavenly visitor in the wilderness, receiving the promise "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel, for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed."[908] We read further:—"And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padan-aram, and blessed him, and God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob; thy name shall not be called anymore Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel."[909]
2. But the combined name and title thus bestowed under conditions of such solemn dignity soon acquired a wider application, and came in course of time to represent the entire posterity of Abraham, through Isaac and Jacob,[910] with each of whom the Lord had covenanted, that through his descendants should all nations of the earth be blessed.[911] The name of the individual patriarch thus grew into the designation of a nation, including the twelve tribes; who delighted in the title Israelites, or children of Israel. By such names they were collectively known during the dark days of their Egyptian bondage;[912] throughout the four decades of the exodus and the journey to the land of promise;[913] so on through the period of their existence as a powerful people under the government of the judges; and as a united nation during the hundred and twenty years comprised in the successive reigns of Saul, David, and Solomon.[914]
3. At the death of Solomon, probably about 975 B. C., the kingdom was divided; the tribe of Judah and part of the tribe of Benjamin accepted Rehoboam, the son and successor of Solomon, as their king; while the rest of the people, usually spoken of as the ten tribes, revolted against Rehoboam, thus breaking their allegiance with the house of David; they chose Jeroboam as their king. The ten tribes under Jeroboam retained the title Kingdom of Israel, though the kingdom was likewise known by the name of Ephraim,[915] from its most prominent tribe; while Rehoboam and his subjects were known as the Kingdom of Judah. For about two hundred and fifty years the two kingdoms maintained a separate existence; after which (721 B. C.), the independent status of the kingdom of Israel was destroyed, and the people were brought into captivity by the Assyrians under Shalmanezer. The Kingdom of Judah was recognized for over a century longer, after which it was brought to an end by Nebuchadnezzar, who inaugurated the Babylonian captivity. For about seventy years the people remained in subjection, which fact was in accordance with the prophecy of Jeremiah,[916] then the Lord softened the hearts of the ruling kings, and the work of emancipation was begun by Cyrus the Persian. The Hebrew people were permitted to return to Judea, and to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem.
4. The people, then commonly known as Hebrews, or Jews,[917] retained as the name of their nation the designation Israel, though they scarcely comprised two complete tribes out of the twelve. The name Israel, thus held with commendable pride by the remnant of a once mighty people, was used in a figurative manner to designate the chosen and accepted ones who constituted the Church of Christ;[918] and in that sense it is still employed. The people of Israel, as first we meet them in history, were a united people. That we may comprehend the true import of the gathering to which reference is made in the tenth of the Articles of Faith, it is necessary that we first consider the dispersions and scattering to which the people have been subjected. The scriptures abound in predictions concerning such dispersions; holy scripture and history in general unite in testimony of the fulfillment of these prophecies.
5. The Dispersion of Israel Foretold.—It has been said, that "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."[919] Justification for this sweeping statement is found in the fact that the Israelites have been so completely dispersed among the nations as to give to this scattered people a place of importance as a factor in the rise and development of almost every large division of the human family. This work of dispersion was brought about by many stages, and extended through millenniums. It was foreseen by the early prophets among the chosen people; and the spiritual leaders of every generation prior to and immediately following the Messianic era predicted the scattering of the people, as an ordained result of their increasing wickedness, or referred to the fulfillment of former prophecies regarding the dispersion, then already accomplished, and foretold a further and more complete disruption of the nation.
6. Biblical Prophecies.—In the course of Israel's troubled journey from Egypt, where they had dwelt as in a "house of bondage," to Canaan, the land of their promised inheritance, the Lord gave them many laws, and established ordinances for their government in temporal and spiritual affairs. He arrayed for their contemplation blessings beyond the power of the unaided mind of man to conceive, predicating these upon their obedience to the laws of righteousness, and their allegiance to Himself as God and King. In contrast with this picture of blessed prosperity, the Lord described with terrible distinctness, and soul-harrowing detail, a state of abject misfortune and blighting suffering, into which they would surely fall if they departed from the path of rectitude and adopted the sinful practices of the heathen peoples with whom they would have dealings. The darkest parts of this dread picture were those that depicted the prospective breaking up of the nation, and the scattering of the people among those who knew not God. These extreme calamities, however, were to befall Israel only after less severe chastisements had proved ineffective.[920]
7. When the journey following the exodus was nearing its close, as the Israelites were preparing to cross the Jordan and to take possession of the land of promise; when Moses, patriarch, law-giver, and prophet, was about to ascend Nebo, from which he was to look over the goodly land and then die there; he repeated the story of contrasted blessings and cursings which formed the condition of God's covenant with the people. "The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies"[921] was declared unto them; and again:—"The Lord shall bring thee, and thy king which thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known; and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone. And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word, among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee."[922] And yet further:—"The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand; a nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favor to the young:[923] ... And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone."[924]
8. As the sacred record progresses, the fact is made plain that Israel had chosen the evil alternative, forfeiting the blessings and reaping the curses. When the son of sinful Jeroboam lay sick almost unto death, the troubled king sent his wife in disguise to Ahijah, the blind prophet of Israel, to inquire concerning the fate of the child. The prophet, seeing beyond the physical blindness of his old age, predicted the child's death and the overthrow of the house of Jeroboam; and declared further:—"For 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, because they have made their groves, provoking the Lord to anger."[925]
9. Through Isaiah the Lord justifies His judgment upon the people, likening them to an unprofitable vineyard,[926] which, in spite of protecting hedge and fullest care, had yielded out wild grapes, and which was fit only for spoliation; "therefore," He continues, "my people have gone into captivity."[927] And yet other tribulations were to follow, against which the people were warned lest they alienate themselves entirely from the God of their fathers:—"And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help?"[928] The prophet directs the attention of his erring people to the fact that their tribulations are from the Lord:—"Who gave Jacob for a spoil and Israel to the robbers? did not the Lord, he against whom we have sinned? for they would not walk in his ways, neither were they obedient unto his law. Therefore he has poured upon them the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle."[929]
10. After the captivity of Ephraim, or the kingdom of Israel, specifically so called, the people of Judah needed yet other admonishings and threatenings. Through Jeremiah the fate of their brethren was brought to their remembrance;[930] then, as a result of their continued and increasing wickedness, the Lord said:—"And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim."[931] Their land was to be despoiled; all the cities of Judah were to be consigned to desolation,[932] and the people were to be scattered among the kingdoms of the earth.[933] Other prophets[934] revealed the Lord's words of anger and dire warning; and the Divine decree is recorded:—"I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve;"[935] and again: "I will sow them among the people, and they shall remember me in far countries."[936]
11. Book of Mormon Predictions.—The record made by that division of the house of Israel which took its departure from Jerusalem and made its way to the western hemisphere about 600 B. C., contains many references to the dispersions that had already taken place, and to the continuation of the scattering which was to the writers of the Book of Mormon yet future. In the course of the journey to the coast, the prophet Lehi, while encamped with his family and other followers in the valley of Lemuel on the borders of the Red Sea, declared what he had learned by revelation of the future "dwindling of the Jews in unbelief," of their crucifying the Messiah, and of their scattering "upon all the face of the earth."[937] He compared Israel to an olive tree,[938] the branches of which were to be broken off and distributed; and he recognized the exodus of his colony, and their journeying afar as an incident in the general plan of dispersion.[939] Nephi, the son of Lehi, also beheld in vision the scattering of the covenant people of God, and on this point added his testimony to that of his prophet-father.[940] He saw also that the seed of his brethren, subsequently known as the Lamanites, were to be chastened for their unbelief, and that they were destined to become subject to the Gentiles, and to be scattered before them.[941] Down the prophetic vista of years, he saw also the bringing forth of sacred records, other than those then known, "unto the convincing of the Gentiles, and the remnant of the seed of my brethren,[942] and also the Jews who were scattered upon all the face of the earth."[943]
12. After their arrival on the promised land, the colony led by Lehi received further information regarding the dispersion of Israel. The prophet Zenos,[944] quoted by Nephi, had predicted the unbelief of the house of Israel, in consequence of which these covenant ones of God were to "wander in the flesh, and perish, and become a hiss and a by-word, and be hated among all nations."[945] The brothers of Nephi, skeptical in regard to these teachings, asked whether the things of which he spake were to come to pass in a spiritual sense, or more literally; and were informed that "the house of Israel, sooner or later, will be scattered upon all the face of the earth, and also among all nations"; and further, in reference to dispersions then already accomplished, that "the more part of all the tribes have been led away; and they are scattered to and fro upon the isles of the sea";[946] and then, by way of prediction concerning further division and separation, Nephi adds that the Gentiles shall be given power over the people of Israel, "and by them shall our seed be scattered."[947] Though an ocean lay between the country of their nativity and the land to which they had been miraculously led, the children of Lehi learned through revelation by the mouth of Jacob, Nephi's brother, of the captivity of the Jews whom they had left at Jerusalem.[948] By Nephi they were further told of troubles then impending over the city of their birth,[949] and of a further dispersion of their kindred, the Jews.[950]
13. The Lamanites, a division of Lehi's colony, were also to be disrupted and scattered, as witness the words of Samuel, a prophet of that benighted people.[951] Nephi, the third prophet of that name, grandson of Helaman, emphasizes the dispersion of his people by declaring that their "dwellings shall become desolate."[952] Jesus Himself, after His resurrection, while ministering to the division of His flock on the western hemisphere, refers solemnly to the remnant of the chosen seed who are to be "scattered forth upon the face of the earth because of their unbelief."[953]
14. From these references it is plain that the followers of Lehi, including his own family, and Zoram,[954] together with Ishmael and his family,[955] from whom sprang the mighty peoples the Nephites, who suffered extermination because of their unfaithfulness, and the Lamanites, who, now known as the American Indians, have continued in troubled existence until the present day, were informed by revelation of the dispersion of their former compatriots in the land of Palestine, and of their own certain doom as a result of their disobedience to the laws of God. We have said that the transfer of Lehi and his followers from the eastern to the western hemisphere was itself a part of the general dispersion. It should be remembered that another colony of Jews came to the western hemisphere, the start dating about eleven years after the time of Lehi's departure. This second company was led by Mulek, a son of Zedekiah the last king of Judah; they left Jerusalem immediately after the capture of the city by Nebuchadnezzar, about 588 B. C.[956]
15. The Fulfillment of these Prophecies.—The sacred scriptures, as well as other writings for which the claim of direct inspiration is not asserted, record the literal fulfillment of prophecy in the desolation of the house of Israel. The dividing of the nation into the separate kingdoms of Judah and Israel led to the downfall of both. As the people grew in their disregard for the laws of their fathers, their enemies were permitted to triumph over them. After many minor losses in war, the kingdom of Israel met an overwhelming defeat at the hands of the Assyrians, in or about the year 721 B. C. We read that Shalmanezer IV, king of Assyria, besieged Samaria, the third and last capital of the kingdom,[957] and that after three years the city was taken by Sargon, Shalmanezer's successor. The people of Israel were carried captive into Assyria, and distributed among the cities of the Medes.[958] Thus was the dread prediction of Ahijah to the wife of Jeroboam fulfilled. Israel was "scattered beyond the river,"[959] probably the Euphrates, and from the time of this event the ten tribes are entirely lost to history.
16. The sad fate of the kingdom of Israel had some effect in partially awakening among the people of Judah a sense of their own impending doom. Hezekiah reigned as king for nine and twenty years, and proved himself a bright exception to a line of wicked rulers who had preceded him. Of him we are told that "he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord."[960] During his reign, the Assyrians under Sennacherib invaded the land; but the Lord's favor was in part restored to the people, and Hezekiah roused them to a reliance upon their God, bidding them take courage and fear not the Assyrian king nor his hosts, "for" said this righteous prince, "there be more with us than with him; With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God, to help us and to fight our battles."[961] The Assyrian army was miraculously destroyed.[962] But Hezekiah died, and Manasseh ruled in his stead; this king did evil in the sight of the Lord,[963] and the wickedness of the people continued for half a century or more, broken only by the good works of one righteous king, Josiah.[964]
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.
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.
