The Messiah Prophecy: The Ingathering of the Exiles
Tiglath-Pileser III was the king of Assyria from 745 B.C.E. until 727 B.C.E. when he died. During his reign, he was a cruel and successful military commander. He conquered most of the world then known to ancient Assyria. He executed a policy of mass deportation of the people he conquered.
In 740 B.C.E. his annals records:
As for Menahem [King of the Northern Kingdom of Israel] terror overwhelmed him. He fled and submitted to me... silver coloured woollen garments, linen garments ... I received as his tribute.
Tiglath continued his conquering. By 734 B.C.E. many of the rich merchants, craftsmen, and soldiers of the Northern Kingdom were deported to Assyria and in their place he put Chaldean and Aramaean tribesmen from Babylonia. In 733-734 B.C.E. Tiglath conquered Galilee and Transjorden. His sucessor Shalmaneser V conquered Samaria in 722-721 B.C.E. and a year later his successor Sargon II destroyed whatever remained of the Northern Kingdom. By 721 B.C.E. the ten tribes in the Northern Kingdom had been all exiled.
Nebuchadnezzer was king of Babylon and in 597 B.C.E. he conquered Jerusalem, the capital of the Southern Kingdom. The Babylon Chronicle records:
In the seventh year, in the month of Kislev, [Nebuchadnezzar] mustered his troops and having marched to the land of Hatti, besieged the city of Judah, and on the second day of the month of Adar took the city and captured the king. He appointed therein a king of his own choice, received its heavy tribute and exiled them to Babylon.
By 597 B.C.E the two tribes of the Southern Kingdom of Israel were exiled and nothing was left of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms of Israel.
There is a Divine promise that all the children of Israel, the twelve tribes, from wherever they have been scattered, for however many generations, will be returned to the Land of Israel. This will happen after all the children of Israel will return to God during the time of the Messiah. Both those who do not know that they are a son or daughter of Israel and those who do, all will return to Israel.
It will be that when all these things come upon you -- the blessing and the curse that I have presented before you -- then you will take it to your heart among all the nations where Hashem, your God, has dispersed you; and you will return unto Hashem, your God, and listen to His voice, according to everything that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and all your soul. Then Hashem, your God will bring back your captivity and have mercy upon you, and He will return and gather you in from all the peoples to which Hashem, your God, has scattered you. If your dispersed will be at the ends of heaven, from there Hashem, your God, will gather you in and from there He will take you. Hashem, your God, will bring you to the Land that your forefathers possessed and you shall possess it; He will do good to you and make you more numerous than your forefathers. Hashem, your God, will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, to love Hashem, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. (Deuteronomy 30:1-6)
When will Hashem bring about this return? When will Hashem bring back your captivity, שבותך? The Torah tells us at the end of days.
When you are in distress and all these things have befallen you, at the end of days, you will return unto Hashem your God, and hearken to His voice. (Deuteronomy 4:30)
The Hebrew expression used in the above verse (Deuteronomy 4:30) for at the end of days is באחרית הימים and this is the expression we will use in our next table. This verse uses the conversive verb form ושבת for you will return. The conversive form ושב יהוה, Hashem will return, occurs in the verse
and this is the form will we use.
Hashem, your God, will return your captivity and have mercy upon you. (Deuteronomy 30:3)
Our four key words are: at the end of days, Hashem, will return, and your captivity. With the expected number of ELSs set to 20, the probability that a text from the ELS random placement text population would produce a table as small as that observed from the Torah text is 3/10,000.
The Divine promise of the ingathering of the exiles and the reconstitution of the United Kingdom of Israel is unconditional. Listen to the prophet Ezekiel.
I am taking the Children of Israel from among the nations to which they have gone; I will gather them from all around and I will bring them to their soil. I will make them into one nation in the land, upon the mountains of Israel, and one king will be a king for them all; they will no longer be two nations, and they will no longer be divided into two kingdoms, ever again. They will no longer be contaminated with their idols and with their abhorrent things and with all their sins. I will save them [taking them] from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and I will purify them; they will be a nation to Me and I will be a God to them. (Ezekiel 37: 21-23)
I shall take you from the nations, and I shall gather you from all the lands, and I shall bring you to your soil. Then I will sprinkle pure waters upon you and you may become cleansed from all your contamination and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My spirit within you and I will make it so that you will follow My decrees and guard My ordinances and fulfill them. You will dwell in the land that I gave to your forefathers; you will be a people to Me and I will be a God to you. (Ezekiel 36: 24-28)
The root of the verb used for gathering in these passages and in many others is קבץ. We combine together the key words at the end, (of) the days, Israel, the nation, will be gathered together, יקובץ. With the expected number of ELSs set to 10, the probability that a text from the ELS random placement text population would produce as small an area table as that produced by the Torah text is 9.5/1,000. Interestingly, the table has a skip 1 ELS of My people, making the total sentence At the end of days, My people, Israel, the nation, will be gathered together.
There is a verse running through this table that is relevant to the notion of God setting borders of the different peoples giving each nation its inheritance. In the third row of the table where the ELS Israel appears and running through the ELS of will be gathered together is the following verse.
When the Supreme One gave the nations their inheritance, when He separated the children of man, He set the borders of the peoples according to the number of the Children of Israel. (Deuteronomy 32:8)
There is a related extension to this table involving the concept of gathering. The extended table includes the key words of the above table with the addition of the key words 5708, and (The) gathering of my people. The key words common to both tables have the same ELSs. However, the tables are on different cylinder sizes. The Hebrew year 5708 corresponds to 1948, the year of the establishment of Israel. With the expected number of ELSs set to 10, the probability that a text from the ELS random placement text population would produce as small an area table as the one produced by the Torah text is 4.5/10,000.
The two key words Hashem and will return can be put together as one ELS phrase Hashem will return and this can be combined with the key words at the end of days and your captivity. With the expected number of ELSs set to 30, the resulting table is shown below. The probability that a text from the ELS random placement text population would have as small an area table as that produce by the Torah text is 18.5/1,000. (Note that on this table, the Hebrew for the ELS phrase Hashem will return must be read as ושב first and then יהוה in order for it to be proper Hebrew.)
Even if some of the children of Israel might think that they do not want to return and they want to continue to live in a culture that values idols of money and power and material things, -- that values wood and stone -- nevertheless God will act with a strong hand and they will be made to return.
As for what enters your mind -- it shall not be! As for what you say,
We will be like the nations, like the families of the lands, to worship wood and stone.
As I live -- the word of the Lord Hashem, I will rule over you with a strong hand and an outstretched arm and with outpoured wrath. I will take you out from the nations and gather you from the lands to which you were scattered, with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm and with outpoured wrath. (Ezekiel, 20:32-34)