The Ten Tribes, especially those of Joseph, are brother nations to the Jewish People in more ways than one (11 February, 2015, 22 Shevet, 5775)
In the End Times Judah and the Ten Tribes shall re-unite (Ezekiel 37). This applies especially to the Tribes of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, who today are predominant amongst the English-speaking peoples.
Indications are that even before the final unification there will be a degree of drawing together accompanied by periods of tension between the two.
Isaiah 11:
12 He will raise a signal for the nations,
and will assemble the outcasts of Israel,
and gather the dispersed of Judah
from the four corners of the earth.
13 The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart,
the hostility of Judah shall be cut off;
Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah,
and Judah shall not be hostile towards Ephraim.
We see evidence of a drawing closer today. The English-speaking nations such as the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the USA are not always exactly sympathetic to the State of Israel i.e. to Judah. Nevertheless when everything else is taken into account they are the best friends the State of Israel has got, for what it is worth. In some ways they are today indeed the ONLY friends! On some occasions they even seem more friendly to the Jews than Jews overseas (e.g. in the USA) are to themselves!
This present articles shows that NOT only amongst the English-speaking nations are there many from Ephraim and Manasseh but also within Judah do we find them!
It could be that this mutual family element helps explain the feeling of mutual empathy the two sides recognize with each other.
Descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh amongst the English-speaking peoples have therefore a closer familial connection to the peoples of Judah than do those nationalities from other Tribes.
Scripture shows that in addition to the Tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi many from Ephraim and Manasseh must also have remained attached to the Kingdom of Judah from whose inhabitants derive the Jewish Nation.
Descendants of the Ten Tribes amongst Judah from the Bible.
Over the centuries many non-Jews have converted and become Jewish. According to traditions many of these may have been descended from Jews or from the Ten Tribes.
On the other hand a MUCH GREATER number of Jews have been assimilated amongst the Gentiles. Indications are that they who were lost through no real fault of their own will be found again. Their return may be linked together with that of the Ten Tribes as emphasized several times over in the writings of the Biblical Commentator, Don Isaac Abarbanel.
In addition we find indications in the Bible that before the Exile elements from the Ten Tribes joined Judah.
We have spoken of this before,
See:
The Completeness of the Exile. Answers to Deniers of Brit-Am Biblical TruthÂ
http://www.britam.org/CompleteExile.html
Rabbi Chaim Chanon also deals with this matter.
Amongst other things he remarks that amongst those from the Ten Tribes who joined Judah descendants of Joseph seem to have been pre-eminent.
During the First Temple Era there were 20 monarchs from the House of David that reigned over Judah:
Solomon (Shlomoh)
Rehoboam
Abiam
Asa
Yehoshaphat
Yehoram
Achaziah
Yoash
Amatsiah
Uziah
Yotam
Achaz
Hezekiah
Menasseh
Amon
Yoshiah
Yehoachaz son of Yoshiah
Yehoyakim son of Yoshiah
Yehoyakin son of Yehoyakim
Zekekiahu son of Yoshiah
In the time of Rehoboam son of Solomon many from the Ten Tribes left Jeroboam son of Nebat and went to live in Judah.
2-Chronicles 11:
13 The priests and the Levites who were in all Israel presented themselves to him [i.e. to Rehoboam King of Judah] from all their territories. 14 The Levites had left their common lands and their holdings and had come to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons had prevented them from serving as priests of the LORD, 15 and had appointed his own priests for the high places, and for the goat-demons, and for the calves that he had made. 16 Those who had set their hearts to seek the LORD God of Israel came after them from all the tribes of Israel to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the LORD, the God of their ancestors. 17 They strengthened the kingdom of Judah, and for three years they made Rehoboam son of Solomon secure, for they walked for three years in the way of David and Solomon.
Also in the time of Asa (grandson of rehoboam) many from the Ten Tribes joined Judah.
2-Chronicles 16:
8 When Asa heard these words, the prophecy of Azariah son of Oded, he took courage, and put away the abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the towns that he had taken in the hill country of Ephraim. He repaired the altar of the LORD that was in front of the vestibule of the house of the LORD. 9 He gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who were residing as aliens with them, for great numbers had deserted to him from Israel when they saw that the LORD his God was with him.
Notices that here people from the Tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon are mentioned as having joined Judah.
Yehoshaphat the son of Asa is also mentioned as having ruled over areas of Ephraim that Asa had conquered.
2-Chronicles 17:
1 His son Jehoshaphat succeeded him, and strengthened himself against Israel.
2 He placed forces in all the fortified cities of Judah, and set garrisons in the land of Judah, and in the cities of Ephraim that his father Asa had taken.
Eighty years AFTER the Ten Tribes had been exiled we find Manasseh and Ephraim and others mentioned alongside Judah and Benjamin from the kingdom of Judah.
2-Chronicles 34:
8 In the eighteenth year of his [i.e. of King Yoshiah son of Amon] reign, when he had purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan son of Azaliah, Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah son of Joahaz, the recorder, to repair the house of the LORD his God. 9 They came to the high priest Hilkiah and delivered the money that had been brought into the house of God, which the Levites, the keepers of the threshold, had collected from Manasseh and Ephraim and from all the remnant of Israel and from all Judah and Benjamin and from the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
[Chanon assumes that those from "Manasseh and Ephraim and from all the remnant of Israel" are descended from those who joined Judah in the time of Rehoboam and Asa.
In addition (as explained in our books "The Tribes" and "Origin") in the time of King Josiah Northern Israelites amongst the Scythian forces did make a short-lived attempt to re-settle in the Land of Israel but the attempt was not successful. According to Nachmanides, in the "Book of Redemtion," and others these members of the Ten Tribes (identified by us as Scythians who were then in the land) returned to their places of Exile. We are now exploring the possibility that some of them moved to Egypt and from there went westward.]
We later find in the time of Ezra when the Jews began to return from their exile in Babylon that people from Ephraim and Manasseh are also mentioned.
1-Chronicles 9:
1 So all Israel was enrolled by genealogies; and these are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel. And Judah was taken into exile in Babylon because of their unfaithfulness.
2 Now the first to live again in their possessions in their towns were Israelites, priests, Levites, and temple servants.
3 And some of the people of Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh lived in Jerusalem.
[Nachmanides points out that in continuation the Book of Chronicles gives genealogies of families who returned from Judah and Benjamin and Levi. The other Tribes are not mentioned.
Nachmanides (1194-1270):
# Those from the Tribes of Ephraim and Shimeon from Israel that were present with Judah were they who dwelt in the Land of Judah or perhaps to some degree also those who had dwelt in their own territories adjoining Judah and had fled to Judah. They are referred to in a general sense as from Israel [in 2-Chronicles 35:18] and not by their specific tribes since they represented only a small portion of their tribe. These are they who returned under Ezra with the Jews from Babylon. They were not expressly mentioned by their tribes since they were attached to Judah. They all settled in the cities of Judah. There was no Redemption for the Ten Tribes who remained in exile. #
Book of Redemption (Sefer HaGeulah).
See Also: World Conquest. How, according to the Bible, the Ten Tribes will Conquer the Heathen. Source: "Chazon Ha-Naviim" [Vision of the Prophets] by Rabbi Chaim Chanon, Jerusalem, 5774