The House of Israel is Cast Out of the Land and Divorced

About one hundred and ninety years after the two kingdoms separated, Menahem seized the

throne by assassinating Shallum, who had ruled for a mere month. Menahem became the

sixteenth king of Israel. It was during his reign that the Assyrians invaded the land of Israel. King

Menahem was a brutal monarch who would destroy entire cities at the slightest hint of rebellion.

As a result, he had to contend both with his rapidly decreasing popularity and with the Assyrian

invasion. Rather than resist the invaders, he preferred to levy a heavy tax on his subjects in order

to pay tribute to the Assyrians in exchange for a promise to support his rule.

The weight of Assyria’s dominion over the land of Israel began to bear down more heavily.

King Pekah seized the throne after assassinating King Pekahiah, Menahem’s son. Seeing that

there was no escape from complete subjugation by Assyria, he joined the revolt, which King Rezin

of Syria had organized against Assyria. They hoped to enlist Egypt in an effort to stem the tide of

the Assyrian conquest.

After King Jotham and later his son King Ahaz of Judea refused to join the revolt against the

Assyrians, Pekah and Rezin from the northern tribes invaded Judea, killing scores of its

inhabitants. King Achaz then appealed to King Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria to come to his rescue.

King Tiglath-Pileser jumped at the opportunity and marched into Syria, defeated King Rezin and

annexed his land, making it one of Assyria’s provinces. He then turned against Israel and annexed

part of it, taking the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun captive. It was about the year 740 BC that the

first of the ten tribes were exiled.

The Assyrian king then organized a revolt against King Pekah using Hoshea who assassinated

the king, and was then appointed a vassal of Assyria. Eight years later, in the eighth year of

Hoshea’s service as a vassal to Assyria, the Assyrians captured the Reubenites, the Gadites, and

half the tribe of Manasseh, and exiled them to Halah, Habor, Hara, and the Gozan River. Seeing

this, Hoshea rebelled against the Assyrians and sent messengers to the king of Egypt for support.

He then appointed himself as an independent king over the remnants of the northern kingdom.

Additionally, he removed the blockade, which had stood for hundreds of years on the road to

Jerusalem, finally giving the Israelites the choice of either serving God in the Holy Temple or

continuing to practice idolatry. Yehovah had this to say about Hoshea: “And he did what was evil

in the eyes of Yehovah, though not like the kings of Israel who had preceded him.” Although the

sentries were removed, the House of Israel continued in their idolatrous ways and did not go up

to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

When Shalmaneser, who had succeeded Tiglath-Pileser as king of Assyria, heard of Hoshea’s

rebellion, he ravaged what was left of the land of Israel and laid siege to the capital city of

Samaria. After three years, the city finally fell, and they leveled the city not even leaving any of

its foundations standing. They then took all of its inhabitants, including the remaining inhabitants

of the northern kingdom and their king, as captives. This was the year 722 BC, at the end of the

reign of King Hoshea, the nineteenth king of the northern tribes, the northern kingdom fell and

the rest of the ten tribes were exiled.

The House of Israel never returned to the land, and they became known as the “lost tribes of

Israel.” By completely abandoning Yehovah’s Sabbath, and His feasts, Israel completely lost its

identity as being part of Yehovah’s original Kingdom. They completely rejected His image as being

part of their lives. The House of Israel had reverted to being gentiles and worshiping the way the

gentiles do. They have not repented of this, even to this day. Now, because of their lack of the

identifying sign of the Sabbath, the descendants of the House of Israel do not know who they

are.

When Yehovah drove Israel out of the land, He issued a decree of divorce along with their

exile:

Jeremiah 3:6-8 Then Yehovah said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen

what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she

was the harlot there. And I thought, ‘After she has done all these things, she will return to

Me;’ but she did not return to Me; and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. And I saw that

for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I sent her away and gave her a writ of divorce…

If you will notice, Yehovah divorced the house of Israel. Even though he was angry with Judah

He has not divorced Judah. Judah has been punished many times for his sins but he is still

Yehovah’s covenant people to this day. They have kept their identity as Yehovah’s people

because they have continued to keep the Sabbaths.

Now that Yehovah divorced Israel and sent him away the people of the northern tribes now

have a grave problem. Now that Yehovah has divorced Israel He cannot take her back because of

His own law that was given in Deuteronomy 23:24, which says, “If a man finds no favor in his wife,

and sends her away with a certificate of divorce, and then she goes out and becomes another

man’s wife, then her former husband can never take her back because it would be an abomination

to Yehovah.” Israel now has no hope of ever returning to Yehovah. Through whoredom, she has

taken another man for her husband; namely the god Baal and began performing sun god worship.

There is still hope; however, because of His love for His former Bride, Yehovah had built a

onetime exemption into His Law that would bring back the remnant who would repent of this.

His plan would allow Him to do this without compromising His integrity. As I will explain later,

Yehovah is still working through the remnant of the House of Israel to establish His purposes on

earth. He has been doing it all this time, but very few people understand whom the House of

Israel really is and how Yehovah has been using them to bring forth His plan of redemption to the

world.

Isaiah 42:24

Who gave Jacob up for spoil and Israel to plunderers? Was it not Yehovah,

against whom we have sinned, and in whose ways they were not willing to

walk, and whose Law they did not obey?

The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel after the Deportation

After the House of Israel was cast out of the Promised Land Yehovah no longer referred to

them as the House of Israel, but instead calls them Ephraim. This is because as an entity the

House of Israel no longer exists. Since the House of Israel is no more, when referring to the cast

out people as a whole they are called Ephraim. It is very important to understand this when

reading Bible prophecy.

Remember that the House of Israel was forced out of the Promised Land by the Assyrians.

Initially the Assyrians deported them north of Israel into an area between the Black and Caspian

seas. (2 Kings 17)

When reading the many books that trace the migrations of Ephraim it becomes apparent that

Ephraim scattered in many directions. Many colonies sprang up out of this deportation. The

groundwork for this began in the time of David. During the time of David, Israel was one of the

most prominent sea traders in the world. David sent his people out to all parts of the world to

bring back materials for his building projects. David desired to build a temple for Yehovah and he

was importing massive amounts of materials from all over the world for this project. During his

time, David had a close relationship with the King of Tyre. During the times of David and Solomon,

Tyre and Israel were sister nations. Most people do not realize that the Phoenicians consisted of

both the Israelites and the peoples of Tyre. Most people do not realize that the Phoenicians were

for a large part Israelites, primarily from the tribe of Dan. The word Phoenician was what the

Greeks called the sea fairing peoples from the coastlands of Tyre and Israel. It is well known that

the Phoenicians used a Semitic language. This is because of the close relationship between Tyre

and Israel.

As the Phoenicians traveled the world, they created many outposts throughout the world.

They had outposts all throughout the Mediterranean Sea, through Europe, and up and down the

cost of Africa. Many of these outposts grew up to be strong and vibrant cities. These places

became attractive destinations for the Israelites trying to flee from the ravages of their war torn

nation.

Eventually the Babylonians came to power and drove the Assyrians off. This cleared the way

for the Israelites to stay in Asia and create their own nation. Out of this group, the nations of

Parthia and Scythia arose. The history of these nations has been obscured by our western society

that has grown out of the Roman Empire. Few people realize that Parthia was a rival Empire to

the Roman Empire. These two empires grew up at the same time and were about the same in

strength and stature. In fact, the Parthians were better warriors than the Romans and defeated

them in their many battles. This is why the Roman Empire never spread to the north of the

Euphrates River.

Parthia was still a strong and vibrant nation at the time of the Messiah. Most people consider

the Magi to be Persians, but this is incorrect. The Persians were actually a vassal of the Parthian

State. The Magi were Parthians.

Parthia was called by the apostles “Galatia.” The Hebrew word “galuth” was used in reference

to those who were carried away and taken captive. So the captives of Israel were known as the

galuth, or as it was translated into English Galatians. If you look up a map of Parthia and Galatia,

you will see that most maps put them in the exact same area.

Yeshua knew of the Galatians, which he called the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He sent

twelve of His disciples to go and preach the gospel to them:

These twelve Yeshua sent out, charging them, "Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and

enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And preach as you go, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand. (Mat 10:5-7)

What destroyed the Parthian Empire was a war that took place between the Parthians and

the Romans. Somewhere around 220AD a Roman General made and expedition into Parthia

vandalizing villages and desecrating the graves of former Parthian Kings. This so incensed the

Parthians that they waged an all-out war against the Roman Empire. Even though the Parthians

defeated the Romans, this war so devastated their army they could no longer defend themselves.

After this, the empire began to fracture as various vassal states increasingly claimed

independence or were subjugated by others. Finally, in 224, the Persian Sassanids, a formerly

minor vassal from southwestern Iran, vanquished the Arsacids, who were the ruling class of

Parthia.

Because of the breakup of the Parthian Empire Ephraim was once again cast out of the land in

which he lived. This caused many of the descendants of the lost tribes to be scattered even

further from the Promised Land. From Parthia, they migrated over the Caucus Mountains into

what we now call Europe. This is where the name Caucasian comes from. The indigenous peoples

referred to all of these peoples coming out of the Caucus Mountains as Caucasians.

When I was a young man, the first time I filled out a form that asked for my ethnicity there

was no space for white person. When I inquired what I was supposed to put down as my ethnic

origin the person told me Caucasian. Since then I always thought that Caucasian simply meant

white person. I was quite surprised to discover that the word Caucasian was tied to the lost tribes

of Israel.

In the overall scheme of things, the lost tribes, or Ephraim, have been involved to some extent

in the development of a major portion of the world’s nations. By reviewing Bible prophecy, we

can see that this is all according to Yehovah’s plan to bless the nations through Isaac the

covenantal seed of Abraham.

In Jacobs’s prophecies over his sons, we get a glimpse of Yehovah’s plans for the lost tribes. If

you do not know who Jacob was, Jacob was the man who had the twelve sons who became the

twelve tribes of Israel. Yehovah changed Jacobs name to Israel, saying, “You have wrestled with

man, and with God, and you have prevailed, therefore you shall be called Israel.” (Genesis 32:29)

Israel’s first-born son was Reuben. The first-born would normally mean that he would have

the birthright, which would give him preeminence over the family after the father’s death.

However, the birthright was taken from Reuben because he defiled his father’s bed. Because of

this Israel gave the birthright to Joseph. This will be important to your understanding of why the

lost tribes became known as Ephraim after they left the Land of Israel.

Most people know the story of Joseph, how he was hated by his brothers because he was

favored by their father Israel. One day the brothers all got together and threw Joseph in a pit

where they were going to leave him to die. Later they saw a caravan of slave traders going to

Egypt, so to ease their consciences they pulled Joseph out of the pit and sold him to the slave

traders. Joseph went through many trials and tribulations in Egypt, but through divine

intervention, he ended up being picked by the Pharaoh to be Prime Minister of all of Egypt. This

made Joseph the most powerful man in Egypt because the Pharaoh gave Joseph control over all

of the affairs of Egypt.

Eventually God caused a drought in the land of Israel that forced Israel and his family to go to

Egypt to find food. There in Egypt Joseph was reunited with his family. (Genesis 27-50) Joseph

forgave his brothers, and the brothers repented for what they had done. They ended up staying

in Egypt and living the rest of their lives out.

Back in those days, it was the custom for the father to bless the children before he died. When

Israel was near his death, he brought all of his sons together to give them their blessing. Here is

the account of the blessing that Joseph received in Genesis 48:3-22:

Then Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan

and blessed me, and he said, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and numerous, and I will

make you a company of peoples, and will give this land to your descendants after you for

an everlasting possession.’

“And now your two sons who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to

you in Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are.

But your offspring that have been born after them shall be yours; they shall be called by

the names of their brothers in their inheritance.

“Now as for me, when I came from Paddan, Rachel died, to my sorrow, in the land of

Canaan on the journey, when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath; and I buried

her there on the way to Ephrath.”

When Israel saw Joseph’s sons, he said, “Who are these?” And Joseph said to his father,

“They are my sons, whom Yehovah has given me here.” So he said, “Bring them to me,

please, that I may bless them.”

Now the eyes of Israel were so dim from age that he could not see. Then Joseph

brought them close to him, and he kissed them and embraced them. And Israel said to

Joseph, “I never expected to see your face, and behold, God has let me see your children

as well.”

And Joseph took them both, Ephraim with his right hand toward Israel’s left, and

Manasseh with his left hand toward Israel’s right, and he brought them close to him. But

Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, who was younger,

and his left hand on Manasseh’s head, crossing his hands, although Manasseh was the

first-born.

And he blessed Joseph, and said, “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and

Isaac walked,

“The God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, “The angel who has

redeemed me from all evil, Bless the lads; and may my name live on in them, and the

names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; And may they grow into a multitude in the midst

of the earth.”

When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on Ephraim’s head, it displeased

him; and he grasped his father’s hand to remove it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s

head. And Joseph said to his father, “not so, my father, for this one is the first-born. Place

your right hand on his head.”

But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know; he also shall become a people

and he also shall be great. However, his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his

descendants shall become a multitude of nations.

And he blessed them that day, saying, “By you Israel shall pronounce blessing, saying,

‘may Yehovah make you like Ephraim and Manasseh!’” Thus, he put Ephraim before

Manasseh.

Then Israel said to Joseph, “Behold, I am about to die, but Yehovah will be with you,

and bring you back to the land of your fathers. And I gave you one portion more than your

brothers, which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow.”

It is with these verses that we can identify Yah’s plan for the lost tribes, and it gives us clues

to who they are now. I need to recap the verses to bring out the points that they are making.

When Israel blessed Joseph, he gave Joseph a double portion of the blessing. The double

portion was represented by Joseph’s two sons Ephraim and Manasseh. In other words, the

double portion blessing to Joseph will be given through Joseph’s sons who will represent Joseph.

One portion of the blessing will be given to Joseph through Ephraim, and the other portion of the

blessing will be given through Manasseh.

I told you earlier that Joseph was given the birthright to the family. This gives Joseph

preeminence over the family. When Israel blessed Ephraim, he gave him the birthright over

Manasseh even though Manasseh was older. This gave Ephraim preeminence over Manasseh.

Since the sons represent Joseph in the family, this means that Ephraim will represent Joseph’s

preeminence over all of his brothers.

When Yehovah brought the nation of Israel out of Egypt and established them as tribes,

Joseph’s tribe was called Ephraim and Manasseh. There are still only twelve tribes because

Ephraim and Manasseh is the tribe of Joseph, but they represent his double portion. Throughout

the Bible Yehovah still counts them as being twelve tribes. Even though there are now more than

twelve tribes they are always represented as twelve. This is because the number twelve stands

for divine Law. It is through the nation of Israel that Yehovah is going to establish His divine Law

on earth; therefor, the tribes of Israel are always represented as twelve tribes, even though there

are now more than twelve tribes.

Israel said that Ephraim would become a great nation and a multitude of nations. Another way

to say this is that Ephraim would become a “common wealth of nations.” Then Israel said that

Manasseh would also become a great nation, but with the inference that Ephraim would be first

and bigger. Manasseh would serve Ephraim for a time, but would break away also becoming a

great nation. When Ephraim and Manasseh reach their fullness as nations, the other nations of

the world would wish that they were like Ephraim and Manasseh.

After telling them that they were going to be great nations Israel turned around and said,

“Behold, I am about to die, but Yehovah will bring you back into the land of your fathers.” About

four hundred years later Yehovah delivered Israel out of their bondage to the Egyptians and

established them in the Promised Land. The land of Joseph’s fathers is the land of Israel. It was

later, after the breakup of Israel that Ephraim and Manasseh went out to become great nations

on their own. When the Assyrians drove Ephraim out of Israel, they went out into the world and

became the great nations as prophesied by Jacob.

Remember that Joseph is represented by Ephraim as the one with preeminence over the tribes

of Israel. What this means is that while the House of Israel is out in the world, being great nations,

they are called by the name Ephraim. While they were still in the land of Israel Yehovah referred

to them as “the House of Israel.” After the House of Israel left the land of Israel, it no longer

existed so Yehovah began referring to them as “Ephraim.”

Now you know that the “House of Israel” is the northern ten tribes of Israel who went into

exile from the land of Israel. You also know, that through the blessing of Joseph, the ten tribes of

Israel were to become a great common wealth of nations with Ephraim as the head, and

Manasseh would then become a great nation during the exile. The question then becomes, what

nations did the House of Israel become?

The apocryphal book of 2 Esdas records the tradition that the exiled Israelites took counsel

among themselves, saying that they would leave and go to the further country where never

mankind dwelt. They were last seen going up the headwaters of the Euphrates River. This would

have taken them to the north of the Caucasus Mountains to the northern shore of the Black Sea.

From there they migrated up the Danube and Rhine River basins into northwestern Europe.

Because they came out of the Caucasus Mountains, they became known as Caucasians.

Eventually many of them ended up in the British Isles. These became known as the Celts. Another

group settled in the Eurasian Plain of Russia, which was anciently called Scythia. This group of

Israelites became known Scythians, which is the origin of the names Scotland, Saxon and

Scandinavia.

Due to the seven times judgment that Yehovah gave in His Law, (Leviticus 26:18) warning Israel

what would happen if she was unfaithful, the House of Israel was punished for 2,730 years.

Remember that Ezekiel had to lie on his side one year for each year of the House of Israel’s sin.

(Ezekiel 4:4). Ezekiel lay on his side 390 days for the sins of the House of Israel. If you multiply

this by seven, it means that the House of Israel cannot return to the land of Israel for 2,730 years

until their time of punishment is over. The capital of Israel, Samaria, was taken somewhere

around 722BC. This means that the time of punishment would be over sometime around 2002AD.

This could be true because around this time there was suddenly a great increase in the interest

in the Hebrew roots of the Bible throughout the Christian Church. The curse that Yehovah put on

Ephraim was that while they were in exile, during the time of their punishment, they would serve

the false gods in the lands where they go. (Deut 28:57-65) Suddenly Ephraim is beginning to

discover who he is and it is waking up to the need to return to Yehovah’s covenants.

Ephraim and Manasseh

Ephraim and Manasseh are the birthright nations. If you will remember, Joseph was given the

birthright and that birthright is carried out by Joseph’s sons Ephraim and Manasseh. The primary

birthright goes to Ephraim. This means that Ephraim has preeminence among the family.

Manasseh being a son of Joseph would come in second.

The clans of Ephraim and Manasseh formed the backbone of the Parthian Empire. After the

breakup of Parthia, these people migrated to Europe. When they came the name of Isaac

remained on them. “Sache,” or “Saxon” (Saac’s Son or Isaac’s Sons) are all forms of Isaac’s name.

Out of this and many other migrations the nations of Europe were formed. Ephraim is mostly

associated with the nation of Great Britain. Later Manasseh broke away from Great Britain

becoming the United States of America. Because they are the birthright nations, they received

the largest portion of the inheritance, becoming the largest and most powerful of the nations.

It is interesting to note that the word “British” in the Hebrew language means, covenant

people, or people of the covenant. The word “Brit,” is number1286 in a Bible concordance, which

means, covenant; and the word “is,” pronounced “ish,” is number 376, which means “people, or

peoples.”

There are very good reasons to believe that Great Britain and the United States are the nations

of Ephraim and Manasseh. First Ephraim was told that he would be a multitude of nations. Great

Britain is the only nation in history that fits the description of being a multitude of nations. Great

Britain even to this day has colonies all over the world. At its peak, it controlled more than twenty-

five percent of the earth. Among those holdings has been Canada, much of Africa, India, Australia,

Hong Kong, New Zealand, the land of Israel, parts of Mexico, many of the Bermuda Islands, Parts

of the Middle East, and the original thirteen colonies of the United States. There has never been

a greater nation in all of history. Not even the Roman Empire compared. The US may have greater

wealth and military strength, but in size and scope, it does not come close.

The British did not set out to conquer all of this territory; in fact, it had a relatively small

military. This is unlike many nations who have set out to become great through military conquest

and then ended up burning out all of their strength and resources. The supernatural force of

Jacobs blessing upon Ephraim caused Britain to become what it is. Because Britain was a

magnanimous ruler, many peoples came under its rule because it would be preferable to the rule

of other nations. Many of the nations that Britain possessed were thrust upon it. Canada came

as a settlement payment from the French after the Seven Years War ended in 1763. Many in

Parliament argued against taking the land because it would use up to many human resources to

control it. Australia and New Zealand came to Britain by similar happenchance. All of this is

indicative of the blessing at work on the nation.

The next compelling reason to believe that Great Britain is the nation of Ephraim is this:

Yehovah chose Israel to be His representation on the earth. Through indirect means, Great Britain

has fulfilled this task. Overall, British influence has been beneficial for the whole world, just as

Yehovah prophesied that it would be. The British navy wiped out the international slave trade.

The British and Foreign Bible Society was responsible for the Bible being translated into virtually

every language and made available to peoples all over the earth. Britain established civilized

governments everywhere it went. As imperfect as they are, Yehovah used Great Britain to

maintain His purposes in the earth, and to maintain the message of His love for humanity,

through the message of His son, Yeshua the Messiah, whom He gave on the cross as a propitiation

for our sins.

As the prophetic blessing predicted, Manasseh broke away from Ephraim and become a great

nation, the United States of America. Throughout the history of the U.S., there have been waves

of peoples migrating into our nation. This is all part of the fulfillment of Yehovah’s prophecy that

said, “...I will sift the House of Israel through the nations as a grain is shaken in a sieve, but not a

kernel will fall to the ground.” (Amos 9:9) Each of the waves of emigrants brought forth people

who wanted to be part of what the U.S. once stood for, and that was to be a Godly righteous

people.

Many of the Ephraimites (the lost tribes) still left out in the dispersion migrated to the U.S.,

along with many other peoples who Yehovah wished to add. The Israelites were a nation of white

people, but as was the desired of Yehovah for His own nation of Israel, G.B. and the U.S. have

become melting pots for all the peoples of the earth. As was the case of Ruth when she went to

the land of Israel, the immigrants coming here wanted to make the people of the U.S. their

people, and the God of the U.S. their God. As our morals have decayed this is no longer the case.

The shining beacon of righteousness no longer shines from our nation, as it once did.

I have heard it taught that the multicolored coat that Jacob gave to Joseph was a prophetic

picture of the multi-ethnicity of the tribe of Joseph. I cannot prove this in the Bible, but it sounds

like Yehovah to me. If you look at the prophetic picture of the story of Joseph’s life, you see him

cast out of his land, put into prison, and then by divine intervention he became the most powerful

man in all of Egypt. Egypt is often used as a metaphor for the world system. Following in the

spiritual footprints of Joseph, Ephraim has become the leader of the world.

The U.S. has also played a vital role in bringing forth the blessing of Yehovah to the world.

Missionaries have gone to every part of the world with the Gospel of Christ. We have brought

the economies of most of the world to a higher standard. We are always the first ones to assist

others in times of national disasters. The U.S. has made the world better for everyone. This fulfills

part of Yehovah’s promise to Abraham, as stated in Genesis 22:18, “And in your seed all of the

nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” The bulk of that

blessing will come when Yeshua returns and establishes His Kingdom on earth; however, in the

meantime Yehovah has been blessing the earth through Ephraim.

In his book, Israel’s Tribes Today, Steven M. Collins describes possible whereabouts of each of

the tribes as they came into their final destinations. You have to understand that none of these,

including Ephraim and Manasseh, is purely descendants of Israel. The descendants are mixed in

with the other peoples of the earth, but the influence of the descendants of Israel can be seen. I

will give a brief description of each of these:

Reuben – The Reubenites were taken captive and sent to Asia along with the Manassehites.

In the formation of the Parthian Empire, they most likely allied with Manassehites, who were

called the Massagetae. When the Parthian Empire fell, they would have migrated into Europe

along with the rest of the Caucasians. Reuben was the firstborn, but he lost the birthright.

Because he was the firstborn, he still would have been given a large portion of the inheritance.

Collins believes that the most likely nation that is represented by Reuben would be France, which

is the third largest nation in Europe and third most influential.

Naphtali – This tribe was the first tribe to be deported by the Assyrians. They were taken as

an entire tribe and taken into Asia. There they were known as the “Ephthalite” or “Nephthalite”

Huns. Their capital was Sakala, which was named after Isaac. They remained there until the sixth

century when they were defeated and left Asia. Collins gives them a possible modern location of

Sweden.

Zebulon – After their deportation, the clans of Zebulon were part of the many related Sacae

tribes. They would have migrated to Europe with the other tribes after the fall of Parthia. One of

the evidences for where Zebulon went is Jacob’s prophecy, "Zebulun shall dwell at the seashore;

and he shall be a haven for ships…” (Gen 49.13) This prophecy points to Zebulon being the Dutch

of Holland, which has the largest seaport in the world.

Asher – The tribe of Asher would have migrated out of Asia with the other tribes also. Asher’s

prophecy was, "As for Asher, his food shall be rich, and he shall yield royal dainties. (Gen 49:20)

Collins associates the royal dainties as those things given to dignitaries as tribute such as gold

and gemstones. The heaviest mining for these things takes place in South Africa. Because of this

South Africa is a likely modern location for Asher.

Issachar – The clans of Issachar took its migrations out of Asia farther to the north. Jacobs’s

prophecy to this son said, “Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens: And he

saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and

became a servant unto tribute.”(Gen 49:14-15) This is a good description of Finland, which has

been a buffer between the state of Russia and the European nations. Finland has had to pay

tribute to the Russian Tsars in years past.

Benjamin – When Israel and Judah split up the tribe of Benjamin stayed with the Judeans.

When the Babylonians began their campaigns against Judea some of the Benjaminites migrated

into Asia Minor. There is evidence that they were still there during the times of the Apostles.

Others migrated back to Judea with the Judeans. Jacob’s prophecy over Benjamin was, “Benjamin

shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the

spoil.” (Gen 49:27) This is a very good description of the Vikings, who are now settled in Norway.

Dan – The clans of Dan were a sea fairing peopel. They tended to leave the name Dan

wherever they went. The Egyptians called them the Danauna and the Greeks called them

Danaans. In ancient Turkey, the region associated with ancient troy was called Dardania. The

area between the Aegean and Black sea is still called the Dardanelles. The Tuatha De Danaan

arrived in Ireland during the time the Israelites were fleeing from the Assyrians. There are Black

Sea Rivers named the Danube, Dnepr and the Don. Then there is the Danes of Denmark. There

are many more throughout the world. This explains Jacob’s prophecy that, “Dan shall be a serpent

by the way…” (Gen 49:17)

Gad – The prophecy over Gad was, “Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall

overcome at the last.” (Gen 49:19) Collins says that this could point to Germany who was

overcome by the Allied forces. Germany was then divided, but after the fall of the Berlin wall, it

was reunited now having returned to being an economical force in the European Union. Within

the nation of Parthia was a tribe known as the “Kermans” or Germanii. These people were called

“German” by the Romans. This is the likely source for the name German.

Judah – We know who Judah is, they are the Jewish people of today. They have continued

to know who they are as a people because they have tenaciously kept the Sabbaths wherever

they have gone. They are comprised of the tribe of Judah the tribe of Benjamin and the tribe of

Levi. These comprise the House of Judah.

So the house of Judah knows, for the most part, who it is, but the other tribes, which comprise

the House of Israel, do not know whom they are. In the end, the Bible tells us that they will be

identified by the fact that they return to the Sabbaths. When YEHOVAH cast Israel out of the Land

He did so because they refused to keep His commandments. When the great and mighty day of

YEHOVAH GOD comes, and He gathers all of His people who have been scattered throughout the

earth, He will know who His people are because they will have turned back to his commandment

and have a desire to once again be His people.