2 Kings 17:41

Unto this day. It is evident from these words that the writer was not a contemporary of the events he has been describing, but that he lived some time after, perhaps after the destruction of the kingdom of Judah (see p. 716). The Elephantine papyri (see Vol. I, p. 108) bear witness to the fact that in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah “the Jews,” as the writers of these papyri term themselves, had a religion in which they worshiped a number of heathen deities besides Jehovah. These Jews had settled in Egypt, but maintained contact with both the high priest at Jerusalem and the sons of Sanballat, governor of Samaria.

Thus ends the history of Israel — a people who should have been a “peculiar treasure” to the Lord and “above all people” (Ex. 19:5). Never had a people started out with greater promise, never did a nation meet with greater ignominy and reproach. Israel discovered by sad experience that “righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people” (Prov. 14:34).

Little is known of the northern tribes subsequent to their being taken into captivity. Many probably merged with the peoples among whom they lived, and lost their identity. Others continued the worship of Jehovah and united with the Jews of the Babylonian captivity (see Jer. 50:4, 20, 33). Some returned with the exiles from Judah under Zerubbabel and Ezra (Ezra 8:35; 1 Chron. 9:3). In NT times Jews and their proselytes were found in Media, Parthia, Elam, Cappadocia, Phrygia, Egypt, Libya, Cyrene, Crete, Arabia, and throughout the East (Acts 2:9-11). How many of these were descendants of the Israelites taken captive by Assyria cannot be known.

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