Where Did the Lost Tribes of Israel Go?

Until the reign of King Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, Israel existed as a United Kingdom made up of the 12 Tribes of Israel. After King Solomon died in 931 B.C.E., these clans divided, forming the Northern Kingdom of Israel with 10 tribes and the Southern Kingdom of Judah with two. In 722 B.C.E., the Assyrians invaded and conquered Israel, scattering its 10 tribes, who never again lived as one people and became known as the Lost Tribes of Israel. But where did they go?

The Assyrians employed a shrewd tactic. They didn’t just defeat their conquests; they moved them out of their homelands, relocating them to different parts of their empire and moving others to inhabit newly seized lands. This strategy of shifting people groups around aimed to disconnect the vanquished from their homelands and extinguish their national and cultural identities. Assyria wanted the people they conquered to fully assimilate into its Empire. Removing them from their land was designed to absorb them as subjects of the ever-expanding Assyrian Empire and quash any hopes of revolution, redemption or return to self-governance.

Where did the Lost Tribes of Israel go?

Captives from Israel were taken north, south and east after Assyria overpowered Israel. The Bible tells us where some of them went.

The king of Assyria invaded the entire land, marched against Samaria and laid siege to it for three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River and in the towns of the Medes. –– 2 Kings 17:6

These areas of Halah, Gozan and cities of the Medes are believed to be within modern Syria, Iraq and Iran. However, not all members of the Lost Tribes of Israel were apprehended – many evaded captivity by fleeing to other parts of the world.

To the Far East

Some who escaped followed established trade routes eastward. Merchants from the Far East used the ancient Silk Road to sell their goods from China to the Mediterranean Sea. Members of the Lost Tribes of Israel settled in locations along this route and, over the millennia, continued their migrations in Central Asia and China, with some settling further south into India. The B’nei Menashe are a Jewish people group in the northern parts of India. As the name they’ve given themselves suggests, they claim to be from the Tribe of Manasseh.

South into Africa

Some who fled captivity went south into the Saudi Peninsula, Egypt and Africa. Like those who settled in Asia, their migrations continued over the years, often due to persecution. Today, communities claiming Jewish ancestry can be found in Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Zambia and several other African countries. Ethiopia is home to many groups of Jewish people who believe themselves to be descendants of the Tribe of Dan. In Zimbabwe and Zambia, the Lemba have clear ties to ancient Jewish people, particularly the Levites.

Lost Tribes of Israel Found

The Lost Tribes of Israel were never really lost. They may have lost their Kingdom, but they never lost their Jewish identity. Nor did they lose their national identity as the people of Israel, even though the Kingdom of Israel no longer existed. Throughout the thousands of years since Assyria conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel, the Lost Tribes of Israel have always known who they are. Persecution caused some to outwardly “convert” to the religions of their locales, while many continued to follow the biblical practices and traditions of Judaism in secret. As they quietly lived out their faith in the God of their forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the world at large considered them vanished or utterly dissipated and absorbed into their places of refuge – lost.

Through other persecutions over time, Jewish people from both the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah have come to reside all over the world. In recent history, however, they have been discovered. And God is doing as He promised to gather them back to the Land of Israel.

"And say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign Lord says: "I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land."'" ––Ezekiel 37:21