Answers to Questions by Yair Davidiy (7 September 2017, 16 Elul, 5777)
Why were the 10 tribes of Israel exiled/separated? In the Bible, it is mentioned because of the sins. What sins specifically?
https://www.quora.com/Why-were-the-10-tribes-of-Israel-exiled-separated-In-the-Bible-it-is-mentioned-because-of-the-sins-What-sins-specifically/answer/Yair-Davidiy
The picture depicts three bulls. On the left is a bronze bull from Samaria in Israel dated at ca. 800 BCE. The center is a faithful drawing of a Bronze Bull associated with Hallstatt Celtic civilization from Czechia dated at ca. 300 BCE. The third is made of clay and hails from Essex in Eastern England and dates from ca. 100 CE in the Celtic Era. These pictures are linked to the account below.
The Ten Tribes first separated from the Kingdom of Judah and set up their own Kingdom. Less than 2 centuries later they were exiled, taken elsewhere and lost awareness of. This was part of a Divine Plan on the One Hand since it was needed for the sake of humanity. The Ten Tribes had to devolve to the level of the Barbaric Gentiles and then evolve back up dragging the rest of the world with them. This is what they did. Judah (i.e. the Jews) had a task of his own which meant maintaining knowledge of who he was and acting accordingly. Nevertheless the way it was all done and what the Ten Tribes went through to do it was, to a degree, a punishment. The Ten Tribes had transgressed. Therefore they were punished by Exile. The Prophets spoke of their transgression and warned them. Much of the Bible speaks of this but see especially the Books of Isaiah, Amos, and Hosea. The prophet Amos was a Priest (Cohen) came from Tekoa in Judah but he mainly prophesied concerning the Ten Tribes before their Exile. Hosea was one of the Ten Tribes and according to Tradition his father was a Prince of the Tribe of Reuben.
The Exile.
The Exile of the Israelites is described in Scripture (1-Chronicles 5:26, 2-Kings 15:29, 17:3-6, 23, 18:11-12).
2-Kings (NASB) 17:
 1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah became king over Israel in Samaria, and reigned nine years. 2 He did evil in the sight of the LORD, only not as the kings of Israel who were before him. 3 Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against him, and Hoshea became his servant and paid him tribute. 4 But the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea, who had sent messengers to So king of Egypt and had offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year; so the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison. 5 Then the king of Assyria invaded the whole land and went up to Samaria and besieged it three years. 6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried Israel away into exile to Assyria, and settled them in Halah and Habor, on the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
Sins that caused the Exile.
The Exile happened because the Israelites had sinned. Some of their offences are enumerated in 2-Kings 17:7-17. The Northern Israelites were to loose consciousness of their ancestry yet physically to remain together and/or to re-coalesce with each other. They became part of the peoples of Western Europe. We find that in their places of exile they continued to sin in the same way as they had done before being exiled.
2-Kings (NASB) 17:
7 Now this came about because the sons of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and they had feared other gods.
The Israelites gave reverence to deities apart from the One God of Israel.
8 and walked in the customs of the nations whom the LORD had driven out before the sons of Israel, and in the customs of the kings of Israel which they had introduced.
They adopted practices of the Canaanite peoples that had been expelled before them. They had also invented superstitions of their own.
9 The sons of Israel did things secretly which were not right against the LORD their God. Moreover, they built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city.
The expression "did things secretly" in Hebrew is "Yi[c]hapu" from the root "ChaPaH" meaning to cover over ("Daat Mikra"). In other words they did not deny God altogether but rather invented a kind of theology that enabled them to acknowledge the Almighty but act otherwise.
10 They set for themselves sacred pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree,
Sacred pillars survived in Britain in the form of maypolls. "Asherim" were sacred groves of trees such as the Druids of the British Isles worshiped in. The groves were also associated with a goddess named "Asherah." A form of this goddess was known (as recorded by Bede) to the Angles and Saxon under the name Eostre.
11 and there they burned incense on all the high places as the nations did which the LORD had carried away to exile before them; and they did evil things provoking the LORD.
The "high places" (in Hebrew "bamot") were elevated ramps of earth and/or stones that were used for public gatherings for worship.
12 They served idols, concerning which the LORD had said to them, You shall not do this thing.
13 Yet the LORD warned Israel and Judah through all His prophets and every seer, saying, Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments, My statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you through My servants the prophets.
The Israelites did not keep the commandments. They should have done so.
14 However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in the LORD their God. 15 They rejected His statutes and His covenant which He made with their fathers and His warnings with which He warned them. And they followed vanity and became vain, and went after the nations which surrounded them, concerning which the LORD had commanded them not to do like them.
16 They forsook all the commandments of the LORD their God and made for themselves molten images, even two calves, and made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal.
Jeroboam the first king of Northern Israel had made two golden calves. He set one up in Dan and the other in Beth-el (1- Kings 12:28-30). Bronze bulls have been found from Samaria and elsewhere in Israel. So too, the Cimbri who were of Israelite descent and later moved from Denmark to the south, carried a bronze bull with them in their movements. The peoples of Celtic Gaul and Britain had a bull-worshiping cult. Their cults under druid priests worshiped at groves i.e. Asherah. The chief god of the Druids was known as “Bel†which is another form of the name Baal.
17 Then they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and practiced divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him.
Causing their offspring to pass through the fire was practiced in Ireland, Britain, and elsewhere. It still is in some places. This practice is known as the Beltain which is a Gaelic term meaning "Fire of Bel" i.e. of Baal.
18 So the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them from His sight; none was left except the tribe of Judah.
In the End times the Ten Tribes will repent and return.
Hosea (NASB) 2:
16 It will come about in that day, declares the LORD,
That you will call Me Ishi [i.e. "My Husband"]
And will no longer call Me [m]Baali.
17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth,
So that they will be mentioned by their names no more.
18 In that day I will also make a covenant for them
With the beasts of the field,
The birds of the sky
And the creeping things of the ground.
And I will abolish the bow, the sword and war from the land,
And will make them lie down in safety.
19 I will betroth you to Me forever;
Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice,
In lovingkindness and in compassion,
20 And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness.
Then you will know the LORD.