To Correspondents by Uriah Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 22, 1875

To Correspondents.

By Uriah Smith

Bro. Smith: If you would give us through Review the light you have on the return of the Jews from Babylonian captivity, i. e., as to whether or not some of all the different tribes did return under the grant of Cyrus, you would gratify some of the readers of your paper. We should be thankful for the scriptural argument on the point. A CORRESPONDENT.

Answer: We think that some of all the tribes did return, for the following reasons:—

1. When the ten tribes revolted, Jeroboam received from the Lord the offer of a sure kingdom, like that which he had established with David, if he would keep his commandments. See 1 Kings 11:26–40. Verse 38 reads: “And it shall be, if thou wilt hearken unto all that I command thee, and wilt walk in my ways, and do that is right in my sight, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did; that I will be with thee, and build thee a sure house, as I built for David, and will give Israel unto thee.”

But the course of Jeroboam was one of continual and persistent rebellion against God; and for this cause God uttered the threat that he would give Israel up. 1 Kings 14:16.

In 2 Kings 13:22, 23, we read that in the days of Jehoahaz, God had compassion on Israel for the fathers’ sakes, “and would not destroy them, neither cast he them from his presence as yet.” This language implies that they were at some subsequent time cast from his presence, and held no longer in any peculiar relation to himself. And this finally came to pass as we read in 2 Kings 17:22, 23: “For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them; until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets.” Verse 20 says that he rejected the seed of Israel and cast them out of his sight.

If this language does not denote the utter casting off of those to whom it refers, we know not what language could express such an idea; and we do not believe that those who were thus rejected, were then of any more account in God’s sight, or that their descendants, as such, were ever to be any more in his sight, than were the apostate nations when Noah was saved from the flood, or when Abraham was called out from his people.

Were, then, ten tribes lost, and only two saved? We answer, No; for when Jeroboam, instead of obeying God, plunged into idolatry, all the members of the ten tribes did not follow him in this, but returned and joined themselves to Judah and Benjamin. We read this in plain terms in 2 Chron. 11:13–17. Jeroboam and his sons cast off the Levites from executing the priest’s office unto the Lord. They, therefore, out of all their coasts, resorted to Rehoboam, at Jerusalem. Verses 16, 17: “And after them out of all the tribes of Israel such as set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel came to Jerusalem, to sacrifice unto the Lord God of their fathers. So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah,” &c.

The only promise the ten tribes had of continuance was on the condition that they should seek the Lord; and all who did set their hearts to seek him, joined themselves to Judah. So while the great body of the ten tribes persisted in rebellion against God, and were finally cast off by him and perished, a remnant out of every one of them still adhered to the house of David.

Hence the ten tribes were all represented in the kingdom of Judah. And when Judah went into captivity, these tribes went also. When Judah returned, they likewise returned.

After this event, the name Israel is applied to the Jews who were thus restored from captivity.

In Ezra 10:9, especial mention is made of the men of Judah and Benjamin, and in verse 25, of Israel, among those who had returned from the Babylonian captivity.

Neh. 11:20, speaks of “the residue of Israel.” And chap. 12:47, says that “all Israel, in the days of Zerubbabel, and in the days of Nehemiah, gave the portions of the singers,” &c.

Lastly, the new covenant, which our Lord confirmed, was made with Israel. Jer. 31:31–34. In verse 31, the prophet speaks of the house of Israel and the house of Judah. So it is certain that the whole Jewish nationality is meant. In verse 33, they are all spoken of as the house of Israel. Paul, in noting the fulfillment of the prophecy, Heb. 8:8–12, uses the same terms. The twelve tribes of Israel were therefore in existence in Judea in the days of Christ; and the ideas which some entertain about ten lost tribes, and their restoration in the future, are wholly without foundation in either reason or Scripture. U. S.