DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11448#0435
CHAP XIII.J
THE TEN TRIBES.
125
their temple twice, their city six times, destroyed, yet they are as
confident in their restoration as that the morrow's sun will rise.
Prophecy seems to speak boldly and unambiguously upon this
theme: " the Lord will yet have mercy upon Jacob, and yet will
choose Israel, and set them in their own land." In the tenth
chapter of Ezekiel, God declares plainly that he will take the Ten
tribes, and the Two tribes, and unite them in his hand : that he
will gather together the children of Israel from among the heathen
on every side, and bring them into their land, and will make
them a nation on the mountains of Israel.
The place where the ten tribes have lain concealed for 2,500
years is still a mere matter of conjecture. Now we hear of
them along the shores of the Caspian Sea; then imong the
American Indians ; now among the warriors of Cochin,* and the
fierce tribes of Afghanistan. It has been affirmed that numbers
of these lost tribes appeared in Jerusalem in the days of Augustus
Caesar, and thus incurred the responsibility of hearing the Mes
siah's voice, and of rejecting him as their Saviour and their
King.f
Wherever the lost tribes may dwell, or whenever they may re-
turn to Jerusalem, they are to be preceded by the tribes of Judah.^:
And surely when their summons is heard and answered by this
widely scattered people, it will resemble that great and varied
picture of the resurrection: with turbaned brow and floating
* There are two races of Jews settled along the coast of Malabar: the hlaclc,
and the white, as they are called. The former is the oldest, and is supposed
to have wandered thus far East long before the destruction of Jerusalem : the
latter, according to their own tradition, settled there soon after that catastrophe,
and obtained various privileges from the native princes. They never were an
independent nation: like the Christians of the neighbouring mountains, (said
to be converts of St. Thomas) they had their own rulers, although they were
tributary to the protecting states. Benjamin, of Tudela, speaks of a powerful
tribe of Jews in the twelfth century, as living in the " Mountains of Nisbor,
whence flows the river Gozen. They make warre upon the children of Chus,
and travell in warfare through the desarts ;" Lord Lindsay, Buchanan's
Christian Researches and Travels in Hindostan : Purchas's Pilgrims, ii., 2,
1457.
t .Tahn.
t Zechariah,, xii 7.
THE TEN TRIBES.
125
their temple twice, their city six times, destroyed, yet they are as
confident in their restoration as that the morrow's sun will rise.
Prophecy seems to speak boldly and unambiguously upon this
theme: " the Lord will yet have mercy upon Jacob, and yet will
choose Israel, and set them in their own land." In the tenth
chapter of Ezekiel, God declares plainly that he will take the Ten
tribes, and the Two tribes, and unite them in his hand : that he
will gather together the children of Israel from among the heathen
on every side, and bring them into their land, and will make
them a nation on the mountains of Israel.
The place where the ten tribes have lain concealed for 2,500
years is still a mere matter of conjecture. Now we hear of
them along the shores of the Caspian Sea; then imong the
American Indians ; now among the warriors of Cochin,* and the
fierce tribes of Afghanistan. It has been affirmed that numbers
of these lost tribes appeared in Jerusalem in the days of Augustus
Caesar, and thus incurred the responsibility of hearing the Mes
siah's voice, and of rejecting him as their Saviour and their
King.f
Wherever the lost tribes may dwell, or whenever they may re-
turn to Jerusalem, they are to be preceded by the tribes of Judah.^:
And surely when their summons is heard and answered by this
widely scattered people, it will resemble that great and varied
picture of the resurrection: with turbaned brow and floating
* There are two races of Jews settled along the coast of Malabar: the hlaclc,
and the white, as they are called. The former is the oldest, and is supposed
to have wandered thus far East long before the destruction of Jerusalem : the
latter, according to their own tradition, settled there soon after that catastrophe,
and obtained various privileges from the native princes. They never were an
independent nation: like the Christians of the neighbouring mountains, (said
to be converts of St. Thomas) they had their own rulers, although they were
tributary to the protecting states. Benjamin, of Tudela, speaks of a powerful
tribe of Jews in the twelfth century, as living in the " Mountains of Nisbor,
whence flows the river Gozen. They make warre upon the children of Chus,
and travell in warfare through the desarts ;" Lord Lindsay, Buchanan's
Christian Researches and Travels in Hindostan : Purchas's Pilgrims, ii., 2,
1457.
t .Tahn.
t Zechariah,, xii 7.