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The Ten Tribes Move Westward
The
last Ten Tribes study revealed from God's Word in Hosea, our Father's intent to scatter
the 'house of Israel', causing them to forget their heritage as part of God's People,
taking on new names and customs and "...hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a
wall, that she shall not find her paths." (Hosea 2:6). This 'wall' or hedged up
way was to bring about the moving of the ten tribes to the lands our Father intended. It
was done in similar manner that Rehoboam's heart was hardened towards the ten tribes after
his father Solomon's death, to cause God's prophecy of the split of both 'houses' to come
true (I Kings 12). The ten tribes had 'forgotten' their knowledge as God's People, similar
to the forty years in the wilderness of being led by Jehovah out of Egypt through Moses
until the time when they were to come to the promised land. Through generations this
migration of the ten tribes came about. It didn't happen all at once. And it happened in
stages, just as their captivity to Assyria was in stages (II Kings).
My plan with this particular study is not to document
totally this migration through historical means. I only propose to call attention to a
previously missing archaeological link to the lost ten tribe's migrations. In this, others
will have reference to some valuable information and resources for their further study on
the ten tribes of Israel, i.e. the 'house of Israel'.
And we ask our Father to give us a Word of Wisdom in this
study, in Christ's Precious Name, Amen.
The Ten Tribes Scattered Further
Hosea the prophet revealed a summary of God's intent to scatter the ten tribes of Israel
in all countries. Just to make sure that was no fairy tale from God's Word, and that we
will know 'who' was to be scattered, let's cover a little from the Book of Ezekiel:
Ezek 1:3 The word of the LORD came expressly unto
Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river
Chebar; and the hand of the LORD was there upon him.
Ezekiel the prophet was in captivity to Babylon at this verse. This Chebar of
Ezek.1:3 was in Babylon at his captivity home.
Ezek
3:4 And He said unto me, Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of
Israel, and speak with My words unto them.
5 For thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech and of an hard
language, but to the house of Israel;
God
sent Ezekiel to give a Message to both 'houses'. Here He is telling Ezekiel specifically
to "...get thee unto the house of Israel". If you'll remember from the
past studies, the 'house of Israel', i.e. the ten lost tribes, were taken captive by the
Assyrian to Halah, Habor by the river Gozan, and to the cities of the Medes (II Kings 17
& 18). These areas of Assyria, were to the north of Babylon (modern day Iraq) where
the 'house of Judah' went captive later. The house of Judah's captivity to Babylon came
130 years after Israel's, so the ten tribes were captive in 'the land of the Chaldeans'
first. They were just a little farther north than Judah.
Ezek
3:15 Then I came to them of the captivity at Telabib, that dwelt by
the river of Chebar, and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished
among them seven days.
16 And it came to pass at the end of seven days, that the word of the
LORD came unto me, saying,
17 "Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house
of Israel: therefore hear the word at My mouth, and give them warning
from Me."
This 'Chebar' here in verse 15 is not the same place where Ezekiel lived in
Babylon. This area is where God sent him to give prophesy to the 'house of Israel', as
evidenced by these verses. That means to Assyria where the ten tribes were. This is very
important, because many think Ezekiel was talking to his Jewish brethren in Babylon only,
and not to the 'house of Israel' or ten tribes. This Chebar in Ezek.3:15 is
modern Khabour, a tributary of the Euphrates, forty-five miles from Babylon.1
Ezekiel is then
brought to those of the 'house of Israel', and is told by God to make a drawing on a tile
of Jerusalem, showing what God would do to it. And this Message was all to the 'house of
Israel' even though Judah is mentioned along with it (Ezek.4 - 6). Part of God's Message
in Ezekiel to the 'house of Israel', or the ten tribes, reveals they were to be further
scattered after their Assyrian captivity:
Ezek
6:8 Yet will I leave a remnant, that ye may have some that
shall escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered
through the countries.
9 And they that escape of you shall remember Me among the nations whither
they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish
heart, which hath departed from Me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their
idols: and they shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all
their abominations.
10 And they shall know that I am the LORD, and that I have not said in
vain that I would do this evil unto them.
11 Thus saith the Lord GOD; "Smite with thine hand, and stamp with
thy foot, and say, 'Alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel!
for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.
We know the 'house
of Israel' was still being held captive in Assyria during Ezekiel's time of Babylon
captivity. Even those of the 'house of Judah' had not returned to Jerusalem at this point,
and were still in Babylon. And yet, God through Ezekiel is telling the ten tribes that
there would be a 'remnant' which will escape the sword of captivity, when they are
scattered through the countries (Ezek.6:8). That means the 'house of Israel' or ten tribes
were to be further 'scattered' from Assyria, not back to the Holy Land, but 'through the
countries'.
E. Raymond Capt and Missing Links Discovered in Assyrian Tablets
Biblical historian, archaeologist, and educator E. Raymond Capt has provided us a
very important archaeological link for the lost ten tribes of Israel in his excellent work
Missing Links Discovered in Assyrian Tablets. He has joined many 'links' together
about the 'house of Israel' from hard work done by researchers, historians, and
archaeologists of the past. In my opinion, the conclusions Capt arrives at from his
research and of others, concerning the Behistun and Assyrian Tablet artifacts, is possibly
the single most important work on the 'Ten Lost Tribes of Israel', from the scientific
aspect. There is 'hard' evidence in stone, not just from The Bible standpoint. Our Father
has ensured His People would find His Truth, even to our day and time.
The "Jehu Stele"
or "Black Obelisk"
Sir
Austin Henry Layard of England, found a stele in Kurkh on the Tigris river in A.D. 1846,
which depicts Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, in triumph over Syria and portions of the
Northern Kingdom of Israel (II Kings 17 & 18). It shows one of Western Semitic dress
bowing on all fours to Shalmaneser. The text inscription above the scene states:
The tribute of Jehu
(Iaua) son of Khumri (Omri): I received from him silver, gold, a golden
bowl, a golden vase with pointed bottom, golden tumblers, golden buckets, tin, a staff for
a king, purukhti fruits.2
This 'Jehu' was the son of Jehoshaphat and one of the anointed kings over the 'house of
Israel' (1 Kings 19:16). The word 'Khumri' in the "Jehu Stele" is the Assyria
name for Omri. Thus the Assyrians called the kings of the 'house of Israel' at
that time 'son of Omri'. This 'Omri' was a captain of Northern Kingdom Israel (ten tribes)
which the people appointed their king (1 Kings 16:16).
Therefore, the word Khumri, which refers to Omri
king of northern Israel, is the first name used by Assyria for the ten tribes, or 'house
of Israel'. More evidence coming up...
The Assyrian Tablets
English archaeologist Sir Austin Henry Layard also discovered, later at Kiyunjik in 1847,
stores of clay tablets with Assyrian cuneiform writing along with Sennacherib's
palace, and the ancient capitol city of Nineveh. An Assyrian text
translated from 1,471 of these 23,000 clay tablets discovered by Sir Austin Henry Layard,
was published by R.F. Harper, and an English translation made available in 1930 by Leroy
Waterman at the University of Michigan.3
These tablets cover a period of Assyrian
history at the time of the captivity to Assyria of the 'house of Israel', i.e. ten tribes.
The Assyrian name of Khumri for the 'sons of
Omri' taken from the Jehu Stele mentioned above, was a pre-captivity name for the
Israelites. These Assyrian Tablets further link the later Assyrian names for the 'house of
Israel'. According to translations from these Assyrian Tablets, Khumri became
changed to 'Gamir' and 'Gamera', during the house of Israel's captivity
in Assyria. The Assyrian name "ga-me-ra-a-a" is translated to 'Cimmerian'
by Prof. Leroy Waterman in Royal Correspondence of the Assyrian Empire, published
by the University of Michigan in 1930.4 Thus, the word Cimmerian
became one of the identifiers for those of the 'house of Israel'.
The Assyrian tablet gives proof for this Cimmerian
marker in "Letter 112 - Arad-Sin to the Overseer of the Palace", by
connecting the Cimmerians with those of Gamir and Gamera.5
These Assyrian Tablets have provided a strong archaeological missing link to the 'ten
tribes of Israel' which have been searched for many years. As several ancient histories,
such as by Herodotus, Strabo, etc., mention the Cimmerians, their origins have
been hard to determine without any archaeological foundation. The discovery of the
Assyrian Tablets and their translation bridges the missing link in the gap.
The Greek geographer Strabo states this about the
Cimmerians:
Those Cimmerians whom they
also call Trerans, or some tribe of the Cimmerians, often overran the countries on the
right of the Pontu (south of the Black Sea) and those adjacent to them, at one time have
invaded Paphlagnia, and at another time Phrygia even, at which time Midas drank bull's
blood, they say, and thus went down to his doom. 6
Strabo also goes
further about where these Cimmerians migrated:
Lygdamis (Tugdamme in
Assyrian records) king of the Cimmerians, at the head of his own soldiers, marched as far
as Lydia and Ionia, and captured Sardis (capitol of Lydia) but lost his life in Cilicia.7
Interestingly enough, these areas where Strabo said these Cimmerians migrated to,
are all regions where Paul and the Apostles went to preach The Gospel of Christ. Paul
himself was from Tarsus, in Cilicia (Acts 9:11; 22:3). And Christ told the Apostles in
Matthew 10:5: "...Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of
Samaritans enter ye not: 6:But go rather to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel." Paul's commission in Acts 9:15 was to
preach Christ to the Gentile, kings, and children of Israel. With Christ's command to go
to the lost sheep, these nation links and migrations of the Cimmerians should
become apparent. The seven Churches of Revelation were also in these areas of Asia Minor
where Strabo says the Cimmerians migrated to.
This link Strabo and other ancient and modern histories
cited by Capt in Missing Links Discovered in Assyrian Tablets, joins many peoples
of seemingly separate tribal names into the majority of one peoples, which went north, and
west, northwest and southwest, from Assyria.
Another branch of the Israelites which can be traced to
the Scythians are the 'Iskuza', mentioned also in the Assyrian Tablets.
As the term 'house of Isaac' is used to refer to the 'house of Israel' in Amos 7:16, this
word 'Iskuza' was a natural Assyrian corruption of 'Isaac'. This label further
grew into the labels of 'Shuthae' by the Greeks and the word 'Sacae' by
the Persians, which refer to the Scythians.8
By these two groups, one called Cimmerians, which
migrated west to Asia Minor and Western Europe from Assyria first, and the second group of
Scythians who later migrated west to take over many of the Cimmerians' lands, the
ancestry of the peoples of Europe and Asia Minor can be traced to modern times. These
would later form the Celts (Cimmerians), the Gauls, Normans,
Norsk or Norse, Goths, and Germani peoples. A
migration to ancient Britain by the Angles and Saxons (Isaac's sons),
would also form the several Welsh, English, Scots, and Irish peoples. These various
peoples, of seemingly different ancestry, have mixed to make up the founding ancestral
nations of today's Europe. And those peoples who formed Europe all have one major trait in
common. Though they had different names, and languages, they made up the Caucasian race
which settled in Europe, having migrated from Assyria of Israelite origins. As can be
discovered by Britain's history especially, the various conquests of Britain by supposedly
different nations of heritage, such as the Anglo-Saxons from Germany, the Danish and
Norse, and then lastly the Normans of France, it should have been made up of many
different races. All these various peoples which invaded Britain were of one common stock,
either descendents of the Cimmerians, or of the Scythians. And they all
have a heritage as being part of the 'house of Israel'.
The Behistun Rock
On an old caravan road from Babylon to Ecbatana, the ancient capitol of Median, there is a
carving on a mountain side made by Darius the Mede dated at 515 B.C. An English
officer named Henry C. Rawlinson deciphered the cuneiform inscriptions on this carved
mountain side, called the Behistun Rock. The inscriptions on the Behistun Rock were in
three languages, Babylonian (Accadian), Elamite (Susian), and Persian.9 |
Click map to enlarge.
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There are 20
panels of carvings. In the center is a depiction of King Darius with his foot over one
captive chief, and 9 other captives all bound together. |
Each captive
chief is dressed differently, some with short tunics, others with long robes, and still
others with the characteristic Hebrew cap. |
Click image to enlarge.
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Click to enlarge.
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Each
paragraph of each inscription panel begins with the following: "I am Darius, the king
of kings, the king of Persia." And the 10th panel mentions "Sarocus",
the Sacan, one in Hebrew attire.10 |
The word Armenia
is mentioned also, as this was the area where these captives were taken and placed by the
Assyrians. The word Sakkas is named in these inscriptions also. In the Elamite
and Persian language inscriptions, the word Sakka is used to name some of these
'chieftans' in captivity to Assyria, but in the Babylonian inscription version, the word
employed is Gimiri (verified for the British Museum by L.W. King and R.C. Thomson
- Sculptures and Inscriptions of Behistun, pg.161).11 That word Gimiri
links back to what the Assyrians called the sons of Omri of the 'house of
Israel', that is Khumri, and Cimri, or Cimmerian.
The Greek historian Herodotus gives an account of the Scyths (Sythians)
in pursuit of the Cimmerians following a small passage known as the Dariel Pass, through
the Caucasus Mountains northeast of the Black Sea. |
Click to enlarge.
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Herodotus states:
Scythia still retains traces
of the Cimmerians; there are Cimmerian castles, and a Cimmerian ferry, also a tract called
Cimmeria, and a Cimmerian Bosphorus. It appears likewise that the Cimmerians, when they
fled into Asia (Asia Minor) to escape the Scyths, made a settlement in the peninsula where
the Greek city of Sinope was afterwards built. The Scyths, it is plain, pursued them, and
missing their road, poured into Media. For the Cimmerians kept the line which led along
the sea-shore, but the Scyths in their pursuit held the Caucasus upon their right, thus
proceeding inland, and falling upon Media. This account is one which is common both to
Greeks and barbarians.12
The
name of Caucasian was derived from those peoples who once held and migrated through the
Caucasus Mountains, east of the Black Sea. These would then further migrate west to the
isles in Europe. II Esdras 13 in the Apocrypha is possibly another reference to this
Passage in the Caucasus by the Cimmerians and Scythians.
The Scythian migrations also went further east, to the
Orient. These 'Sok-wang', meaning 'Sakka princes', fled to a valley of
the upper Indus with Kashmir and Afghanistan as borders.13
The
historic traces of the Sacae, the Scythians, and the Cimmerians,
have been written of by many historians, both ancient and modern. The evidence for their
later migrations to Europe is plentiful. The only 'link' missing was that of the lost ten
tribe's captivity while in Assyria, and just how their identity as Israel was lost. Truly
as our Heavenly Father said through Hosea:
Hosea
2:13 And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she
burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she
went after her lovers, and forgat Me, saith the LORD.
He
would hedge up their paths so they could not be found, and visit upon them the full Baalim
of pagan idolatry which caused their falling away. And the very Baalism which the 'house
of Israel' coveted became the system which gave them new names (khumri), losing their
original heritage as God's People 'Ammi'. They became 'Lo-Ammi', not God's People.
Hosea 2:14 Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring
her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.
15 And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of
Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in
the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
Then when it was time, they would be lured through the 'wilderness' and scattered through
the countries, until... they came to new lands, and new vineyards, and Israel began to
remember GOD through His Son Jesus Christ.
Hosea 2:16 And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou
shalt call Me Ishi; and shalt call Me no more Baali.
17 For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they
shall no more be remembered by their name.
18 And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of
the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I
will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to
lie down safely.
And when they finally migrated to their new lands, and Christ our New Covenant was
offered, GOD took away their 'names of Baalim' out of their mouths which Assyria gave
them, becoming again 'Ammi', God's People.
Yet, paganism and worship of false gods, which are no
gods, is still with His People of the 'house of Israel'. Once again God's People of the
'house of Israel' are becoming lost and again 'Lo-Ammi' (not My People). And another cycle
of the same false Babylon World Order system is taking God's People into another
captivity. This time that bondage is not of geographical paths to Babylon and Assyria, but
enslavement of our hearts and minds away from GOD and Christ, a spiritual captivity. Only
through deception can one go into captivity again today. Understanding The Knowledge of
Christ is the only Way to prevent that slavery of deception upon us today. Our founding
fathers of the Western Christian Nations suffered that captivity and battled for our
freedoms we have been so accustomed to. Let us not go into bondage again, for we are
'Ammi', His People, GOD's People. And 'Ammi' includes all believers on Christ Jesus, a
spiritual and a physical Israel.
Blessings
to you in Christ Jesus,
Dave Ramey.
Footnotes:
1
The Companion Bible, (Kregel Publishing, Grand Rapids, MI., 1990), margin note,
p.1109.
2
Missing Links Discovered in Assyrian Tablets. E. Raymond Capt, M.A., A.I.A.,
F.S.A. Scot. (Artisan Sales, Muskogee, OK, 1985), p. 97-99.
3 Ibid., pp. 100-101.
4 Ibid., pp. 122-123.
5 Ibid., p. 115.
6 Ibid., p. 125.
7 Ibid., pp. 135-126.
8 Ibid., pp. 120-123.
9 Ibid., p. 137.
10 Ibid., p. 139.
11 Ibid., pp. 139-140.
12
The Histories of Herodotus, Book IV.12. Translated by George Rawlinson, (Everyman's
Library, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1997), p.308.
13
Missing Links Discovered in Assyrian Tablets. E. Raymond Capt, M.A., A.I.A., F.S.A.
Scot. (Artisan Sales, Muskogee, OK, 1985), p. 157.
Original source of all Behistun
images from either Wonders of The Past, Vol.2 (1937), J.A. Hammerton, Wise &
Compton; or History of The World. Vol.I (1909), J.C. Ridpath (Jones Brothers
Publishing), as presented through Art Today.
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