Dr. Paul Manuel—Revised November 2003
The Bible traces the history of Israel's descendants from their beginnings as a loose tribal confederation to their formation as a cohesive nation, from their division into two kingdoms to their eventual fall and exile, and to a partial restoration of the people in their land. The post-exilic authors write from the perspective of the returnees, the members of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi, who constituted the Southern Kingdom. What became of the other tribes? Their almost total absence from post-exilic literature is not simply the result of writer bias; something happened to wipe them from the pages of history.
The Assyrian exile was certainly a contributing factor in the disappearance of the northern tribes, but the exile was not solely responsible for their demise, because the southern tribes also went into exile yet managed to return, at least in part. What other factors led to the decline of the northern tribes, did they vanish completely and, if not, what was their part in the return? Although the Bible does not record a detailed history of each tribe, it does include a number of incidents for several of them that may suggest an answer to these questions.
I. Causes of the northern tribes' decline
The Assyrian exile was certainly a contributing factor in the disappearance of the northern tribes, but the exile was not solely responsible for their demise, because the southern tribes also went into exile yet managed to return, at least in part. What other factors led to the decline of the northern tribes, did they vanish completely and, if not, what was their part in the return? Although the Bible does not record a detailed history of each tribe, it does include a number of incidents for several of them that may suggest an answer to these questions.
I. Causes of the northern tribes' decline
A. Poor decisionsThe first possible reason for the loss of the northern tribes is that they made poor decisions, resulting in a reduction of their number. Although not necessarily true of all tribes, Simeon, Dan, and the transjordanian tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh made choices early in their history that weakened them and that exacerbated the effect of the exile.
The tribe of Simeon may have led a pro-assimilation faction at Peor and, consequently, suffered more in the ensuing plague than did the other tribes.1. Simeon
Num 25:14 The name of the Israelite who was killed with the Midianite woman was Zimri son of Salu, the leader of a Simeonite family.A comparison of the census figures before and after that incident shows a decline in their number of over fifty percent (from 59,300 in Num 1:23 to 22,100 in 26:14), far more than any other tribe. (Ephraim, the next largest tribe so affected, was down twenty percent, from 40,500 to 32,500.)
