2 Kings 17:41

Unto this day] i.e. as late as the time of the writer of the passage, though whether the statement proceeds from the compiler of the book, or from one of his authorities, is not certain.

The Israelite exiles, whose native land was thus occupied by strangers, lost their nationality in the country of their captivity, and never again formed a distinct community. When, however, the people of Judah were deported some 150 years later into Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, individual members of the northern tribes joined themselves to them in the course of the Exile, and accompanied them back to Palestine when Cyrus the Persian permitted them to return to their homes. In 1 Chronicles 9:3; 'children of Ephraim and Manasseh,' as well as of Judah and Benjamin, are mentioned as dwelling in Jerusalem after the Return; and Anna the prophetess was of the tribe of Asher (Luke 2:36): cp. also Tob 1:1; Jdt 6:15. But in 2Es 13:39-47 it is related that the Ten Tribes, after being carried into Assyria by Shalmaneser, decided to leave the heathen and go forth 'into a further country where never mankind dwelt, that they might there keep their statutes which they never kept in their own land'; and from thence their restoration is predicted. These Lost Tribes have been fancifully identified with various nations, including our own.