They are the ten tribes that were taken off into exile in the days of King
Hoshea, whom King Shalmanesser of Assyria took prisoner. He
deported them beyond the River, and they were taken away into a
strange country [another land]. But then they resolved to leave the
country populated by the Gentiles and go to a distant land never yet
inhabited by man, and there at last be obedient to their laws, which in
their own country they had failed to keep. As they passed through
the narrow passages of the Euphrates, the Most High performed
miracles for them, stopping up the channels of the river until they
had crossed over. Their long journey through that region, which is
called Arzareth, was long, and took a year and a half. They have lived
there ever since until this final age. Now they are on their way
back and once more the Most High will stop the channels of the
river to let them cross. ( 2 Esdras 13 : 40 – 47 )Even a cursory reading uncovers that Esdras is referencing the core story in
2 Kings, the exile by Shalmaneser.^18 He also clearly alludes to the Deuteronomic
verse foretelling the exile of the tribes to “another land.” The first usage merely
echoes the verse in Deuteronomy ( 29 : 28 ) and speaks of an unnamed land, an
“other” land—in Hebrew,Erez Ahereth.It is simply a land other than the land of
Israel. As opposed to known locations of exile (“the rivers of Babylon,” “Egypt”),
it is unknown. Recall that Deuteronomy had addressed the lostness of the tribes
by emphasizing the total anonymity of their new place of dwelling. Esdras,
however, names the place by converting the Hebrew wordsEretz Aherethinto
one designator: Arzareth (the replacing of the “e” with “a” is because when not
in construct state, the Hebrew wordEretzreadsAretz). That “other land” of
Deuteronomy, previously defined only by what it was not, becomes a real and
concrete entity with a proper name: “a regionwhich is calledArzareth.”
Here is an instance of the dialogical relationship between Jewish exile and
degeneracy: the Jews of the remaining two tribes have sinned (again) and lost
their temple (again); the ten tribes are faithful. The Jews are occupied, sub-
jugated, and dispersed across the known world; the ten tribes migrate beyond
imperial reach, beyond the known world, under the protection of God. The
exile of the Jews is the exile of sin and punishment; the exile of the ten tribes is
a voluntary exile that protects their purity and strength.
But while named, this Arzareth is beyond our reach. Explaining how the
tribes “became lost” in Assyria, Esdras reveals more about what happened in
the crucial days following their deportation from the land of Israel. After their
deportation, the tribes resolved to repent and rejected their wicked ways.