Redemption Begins from America. 5th May 2025.
Manasseh ben Israel (MBIs).
Lost Ten Tribes to Return from North America.
An Understandable Mistake that was partially correct.
Lost Ten Tribes to Return from North America.
Adapted from 2 previous articles:
re
Hebrew America -1.
Manasseh ben Israel (MBIs)and the Ten Tribes.
https://hebrewnations.com/articles/america/america.html
Hebrew America -2.
Manasseh ben Israel (MBIs) and America Today.
Manasseh is often spelt "Menesseh."
https://hebrewnations.com/articles/america/america2.html
MBIS (1604-1657) lived more than a 100 years after America had been discovered. The Spaniards and Portuguese were then present in what became known as Latin America. The French, Dutch, and English were active in the North. Nevertheless, Amerindians were still dominant over much of the area. People did not know much about the region. Information was still coming in. In those days new knowledge took longer than it now does to become widely circulated. MBIS believed that the Amerindians were the Lost Ten Tribes. He had been misled by false reports. MBIS supported his misunderstanding by appealing to the Bible and Rabbinical Comments on the Bible. These said (in his view) that the LTTs would return in the End Times from America! He assumed that the End Times were just around the corner. If the LTTs were going to shortly return from there then the peoples living in that area must be them. Amongst other things he takes Biblical verses concerning the "Isles" to mean the West Indies. The West Indies are in the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean. They comprise such places as the Antilles, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Dominica, Haiti, etc. Originally, in the time of MBIS they were populated by mixed groups of different Amerindian tribes. A good portion of these were later to be exterminated or heavily intermixed with African slaves and/or European settlers. The verses MBIS adduced could more consistently be applied to the British Isles and to North America both of which are also in the Atlantic. Other sources also say the LTTs were in the British Isles and related peoples in Western Europe as well as among their offshoots in North American, Australia, New Zealand, and such places.
Many researchers in the past did identify the Amerindians with the LTTs. Some still do. We cannot say they were wrong. We had a few friends and acquaintances who were partly of their stock and they identified with the LTTs. There may have been some of the LTTs among them. Even so the main thrust of sources concerning the LTTs points to Western Europeans and North Americans etc., who emerged from them.
The Sages understood "Another Land" mentioned in the Bible as a place where the LTTs would be.
"Another Land" is spoken of in Deuteronomy:
Deuteronomy 29:28 AND THE L-RD ROOTED THEM OUT OF THEIR LAND IN ANGER, AND IN WRATH, AND IN GREAT INDIGNATION, AND CAST THEM INTO ANOTHER LAND, AS IT IS THIS DAY.
The Talmud (Mishna, Sanhedrin 10) says that this Biblical Prophecy refers to the Lost Ten Tribes who had been exiled and were destined to remain in 'Eretz Acheret' ("Another Land") until close to the End Times. The Hebrew Translation of "Another Land" is 'Eretz Acheret.' This expression in Hebrew also means "New World" which is the term applied in the time of MBIS to the Americas.
The expression "Another Land" could mean "New World."
'Eretz Acheret.'
"Eretz" translated as "Land" can also mean "World."
"Acheret" translated as "Another" can connote "Later" or 'Newer".
MBIS also finds the LTTs in "Islands."
MBIs quotes:
Isaiah (JPS Tanakh 1917) 60:
9 SURELY THE ISLES SHALL WAIT FOR ME, AND THE SHIPS OF TARSHISH FIRST, TO BRING THY SONS FROM FAR, THEIR SILVER AND THEIR GOLD WITH THEM, FOR THE NAME OF THE LORD THY GOD, AND FOR THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL, BECAUSE HE HATH GLORIFIED THEE.
The expression "Tarshish" can mean "Atlantic Ocean." This accords with passages in the Talmud (Hulin) and also with an Aramaic translation of the Bible ("Yam Okyanus"). Tarshish is the Phoenician name for Tartessus an important ancient city near Gibraltar facing the Atlantic Ocea. Ships of Tarshish would therefore refer to ships plying the Atlantic Ocean.
The word translated as "ISLES" in Hebrew is "EYIM" sometimes rendered as "COASTLANDS" but "ISLES" is more correct from a literal point of view, and that is how Menasseh understood it.
MBIS says:
# They shall then come with seed from those countries, prostrating themselves at the Mountain of the LORD in Jerusalem, as the Prophet Hosea says of that Redemption:
Hosea 11:
10 THEY SHALL WALK AFTER THE LORD.
HE WILL ROAR LIKE A LION.
WHEN HE ROARS,
THEN HIS SONS SHALL COME TREMBLING FROM THE WEST;
11 THEY SHALL COME TREMBLING LIKE A BIRD FROM EGYPT,
LIKE A DOVE FROM THE LAND OF ASSYRIA.
AND I WILL LET THEM DWELL IN THEIR HOUSES,
SAYS THE LORD.
so says Isaiah in:
Isaiah 60:
8 WHO ARE THESE WHO FLY LIKE A CLOUD,
AND LIKE DOVES TO THEIR ROOSTS?
[9 SURELY THE ISLES SHALL WAIT FOR ME, AND THE SHIPS OF TARSHISH FIRST, TO BRING THY SONS FROM FAR, THEIR SILVER AND THEIR GOLD WITH THEM, FOR THE NAME OF THE LORD THY GOD, AND FOR THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL, BECAUSE HE HATH GLORIFIED THEE. ]
The Prophecies quoted indicated a return by flying. These days we fly in aeroplanes. It is quite common and relatively easy. In the 1600s they did not have aeroplanes and may not have even imagined the possibility of such things.
We may therefore take Manasseh as having been correct concerning a future return from America but being mistaken as to who the returnees were to be.
Isaiah 60:
8 WHO ARE THESE WHO FLY LIKE A CLOUD,
AND LIKE DOVES TO THEIR ROOSTS?
Hosea 11:
10 ...THEN HIS SONS SHALL COME TREMBLING FROM THE WEST;
11 THEY SHALL COME TREMBLING LIKE A BIRD FROM EGYPT,
LIKE A DOVE FROM THE LAND OF ASSYRIA....
Brit-Am has also opined that the Ten Tribes in America will be the first to be redeemed. We based this on a Midrash saying that the Redemption will begin from descendants of the Tribe of Manasseh in Gilead east of the Jordan.
The USA is dominated by the LTTs and amongst them descendants of Manasseh are especially important.
Manasseh says that Isaiah 60:9 may be understood to refer to the West Indies because it lies in the midst of the Ocean and has many islands.
Isaiah 60:
[9 SURELY THE ISLES SHALL WAIT FOR ME, AND THE SHIPS OF TARSHISH FIRST, TO BRING THY SONS FROM FAR, THEIR SILVER AND THEIR GOLD WITH THEM, FOR THE NAME OF THE LORD THY GOD, AND FOR THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL, BECAUSE HE HATH GLORIFIED THEE. ]
He says:
Sect. 15.
p. (29) Sect. 15.
# You must know that all the Ten Tribes were not all carried away at the same time. Pul the King of Assyria ... conquered, and carried away the Tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half-Manasseh, in the reign of Peka, as you may see in 1-Chronicles 5:26, and Josephus in 9.11.1.
Tiglath-pileser eight years after that took Ijon, Abel beth-Maachah, Hazor-Gilead, Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and he carried away all the captives into Assyria, in 2-Kings 15:29.
At last Shalmaneser, King of Assyria, nine years later in the reign of Hoshea the son of Ela, besieged Samaria three years; which being taken, he carried away Hoshea with the rest of the Tribes in 2-Kings 17:6.
Of these three times the Prophet Isaiah speaks, Isaiah 9:1, saying, the first captivity was gentle if you compare it with the last which was grievous, and unsufferable, when the Kingdom and Monarchy of Israel ceased.
MBIs continues:
# The Prophet adds in Isaiah 11.12. AND HE SHALL SET UP A SIGN FOR THE NATIONS, AND HE SHALL ASSEMBLE THE OUT-CASTS-OF ISRAEL, AND GATHER TOGETHER THE DISPERSED OF JUDAH FROM THE FOUR QUARTERS OF THE EARTH. Where he notes two things: 1. that he calls the Israelites out-casts, but the Jews were scattered; and the reason is, because the Ten Tribes are not only far off from the Holy Land, but also they live in the extremities and ends of Countries; from whence the Prophet calls them cast out. But he does not say, that the Israelites (LTTS) are to be gathered from the four quarters of the earth, because they are not so dispersed through the world, as the Tribe of Judah is, which now hath synagogues, not only in three parts of the world, but also in America. The Prophet adds in Isaiah 11:13. THE ENVY ALSO OF EPHRAIM SHALL DEPART, AND THE ADVERSARIES OF JUDAH SHALL BE CUT OFF. For then there shall be no contention between Judah, and the 10 Tribes, which are comprehended under the name Ephraim, because their first King Jeroboam was of that Tribe. And then, as it is in Ezekiel 37.22. ONE KING SHALL BE KING OVER THEM ALL, AND THEY SHALL BE NO MORE TWO NATIONS, NEITHER SHALL THEY BE DIVIDED ANY MORE INTO TWO KINGDOMS. There shall be one King to them both, of the family of David.....
Isaiah (TCT) 11:
11 AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS THAT ON THAT DAY, THE LORD SHALL CONTINUE TO APPLY HIS HAND A SECOND TIME TO ACQUIRE THE REST OF HIS PEOPLE, THAT WILL REMAIN FROM ASSYRIA AND FROM EGYPT AND FROM PATHROS AND FROM CUSH AND FROM ELAM AND FROM SUMERIA AND FROM HAMATH AND FROM THE ISLANDS OF THE SEA.
The Prophet here is referring to places the Israelites were referring to. When he says they will return from Assyria he does not necessarily mean the area known then as "Assyria" but rather the descendants of exiles taken to Assyria who later moved elsewhere. Some of these names can also refer to other places. Egypt can mean an area of Europe as well as the place now known as Egypt. Also, he may intend the Exiles of both Judah (the Jews) and Israel though MBIS apparently understands him here to mean only the LTTs.
MBIS says:
#.... THE ISLANDS OF THE SEA; so almost all translate it; but I think it is to be rendered, THE ISLANDS OF THE WEST, for YAM [Hebrew for "Sea"] in Holy Scripture signifies "THE WEST," as in Genesis 28.14 [ALSO YOUR DESCENDANTS SHALL BE AS THE DUST OF THE EARTH; YOU SHALL SPREAD ABROAD TO THE WEST (to "YAM") AND THE EAST, TO THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH; AND IN YOU AND IN YOUR SEED ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH SHALL BE BLESSED] and in many other places; and upon this account those Israelites are implied, who are Westward from the Holy Land, among whom the Americans are. #
# Isaiah 11:11....The Islands of the Sea, so most translate it; but I think it is to be rendered 'The islands of the West,' for ("YAM") in Holy Scripture signifies The West, as in Genesis 28:14, and in many other places; and upon this account those Israelites are implied, who are westward from the Holy Land, among whom the Americans are.
# ... it is certain, and Jeremiah [who translated the Bible into Latin] assents to all our Authors, that when Judah is joined with Israel, by Israel, the Ten Tribes are meant.
Isaiah 27:
13 SO IT SHALL BE IN THAT DAY:
THE GREAT TRUMPET WILL BE BLOWN;
THEY WILL COME, WHO ARE ABOUT TO PERISH IN THE LAND OF ASSYRIA,
AND THEY WHO ARE OUTCASTS IN THE LAND OF EGYPT,
AND SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD IN THE HOLY MOUNT AT JERUSALEM.
#.... the outcasts (which are in America, from the LTTS) shall come by the Mediterranean Sea to Alexandia in Egypt....
And because the gathering together of the Captivity, shall begin at those who are in America, therefore Isaiah says,
Isaiah 60:
9 SURELY THE ISLES SHALL TRUST IN [WAIT FOR] ME, AND THE SHIPS OF TARSHISH FIRST, TO BRING THY SONS FROM FAR, THEIR SILVER AND THEIR GOLD WITH THEM...
# They shall then come with seed from those countries, prostrating themselves at the Mountain of the LORD in Jerusalem, as the Prophet Hosea says of that Redemption, in
Hosea 11:
10 THEY SHALL WALK AFTER THE LORD.
HE WILL ROAR LIKE A LION.
WHEN HE ROARS,
THEN HIS SONS SHALL COME TREMBLING FROM THE WEST;
11 THEY SHALL COME TREMBLING LIKE A BIRD FROM EGYPT,
LIKE A DOVE FROM THE LAND OF ASSYRIA.
AND I WILL LET THEM DWELL IN THEIR HOUSES,
SAYS THE LORD.
so says Isaiah in:
Isaiah 60:
8 WHO ARE THESE WHO FLY LIKE A CLOUD,
AND LIKE DOVES TO THEIR ROOSTS?
[9 SURELY THE ISLES SHALL WAIT FOR ME, AND THE SHIPS OF TARSHISH FIRST, TO BRING THY SONS FROM FAR, THEIR SILVER AND THEIR GOLD WITH THEM, FOR THE NAME OF THE LORD THY GOD, AND FOR THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL, BECAUSE HE HATH GLORIFIED THEE. ]
Isaiah 27:
13 SO IT SHALL BE IN THAT DAY:
THE GREAT TRUMPET WILL BE BLOWN;
THEY WILL COME, WHO ARE ABOUT TO PERISH (LOST) IN THE LAND OF ASSYRIA,
AND THEY WHO ARE OUTCASTS IN THE LAND OF EGYPT,
AND SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD IN THE HOLY MOUNT AT JERUSALEM.
MBIs says:
#... he (Isaiah 27:13) calls the Israelites (LTTS) out-casts, but the Jews scattered (Isaiah 11:12); and the reason is, because the Ten Tribes are not only far off from the Holy Land, but also they live in the extremities and ends of Countries; from whence the Prophet calls them cast out. But he doth not say, that the Israelites are to be gathered from the four quarters of the earth, because they are not so dispersed through the world, as the Tribe of Judah is, which now hath synagogues, not only in three parts of the world, but also in America. #
The human evidence was mistaken BUT the other sources were not.
The written evidence concerning Prophecy does indicate that the Lost Ten Tribes will return from America in the End Times.
In this Rabbi Manasseh was correct but he thought it would be in his time.
He was too early. Manasseh was speaking BEFORE descendants of the LTTS had arrived in North America from Europe.
The People of America as they NOW are (and their kinfolk overseas) are the descendants of the Lost Ten Tribes the sources were speaking of.