'Restoration of the Ten Tribes'

[Edward]

Yes, which would include restoring the tribe of Simeon to its original land of inheritance. I don't see how the dispersion of its people could amount to, essentially, the entire eradication of the tribe. If the literal restoration of the ten tribes is indeed literal (= it is by the way), then Simeon must therefore be restored as one of them.

[Ian]

of course, there's no need to restore something that was not lost. if the tribe of simeon was not one of the lost ten tribes, then it's not one of the ten tribes that will be restored (as in the tenth article of faith). also, simeon's original land of inheritance was not in the northern kingdom. if we understand the lost ten tribes to mean those tribes populating the northern kingdom that was conquered by the assyrians, then it doesn't make much historical sense to include the tribe of simeon. alternatively, we might theorize that the ten tribes simply refers to those tribes other than judah and benjamin (splitting joseph into manasseh and ephraim, excluding levi, and including simeon). however, if we understand the assyrian conquest to be the event that caused the ten tribes to become lost, and given that according to prophesy this particular group of people will someday come out from their hiding place, and thus become restored, then it seems to me that the ten tribes spoken of in the tenth article of faith refers to the land tribes of the northern kingdom. we're talking about an actual group of people that were captured, but will someday return. it does not appear that the tribe of simeon was one of the ten tribes that were captured by the assyrians.

[Ian]

i searched a little at lds.org but couldn't find anything conclusive about the tribe of simeon. i'm surprised that more hasn't been written about this topic. maybe it just doesn't matter very much. according to this article from the january 1982 ensign, simeon is not one of the lost ten tribes and the two half-tribes of manasseh are included. but according to this old testament student manual, simeon is one of the ten tribes that was carried into captivity. so, for now my best guess is that simeon was not one of the lost ten tribes, but i don't know for sure. maybe jezebel can tell us something, she was there.

[Ian]

i finally got the new 2013 edition of the scriptures for christmas, which includes much better bible maps than my old scriptures. this map depicts the early tribal boundaries, as well as the boundary between the two kingdoms after 950 b.c., which demonstrate that the northern kingdom may have included reuben, dan, naphtali, gad, asher, issachar, zebulun, two tribes of manasseh, and ephraim (10 tribes), at the time they were taken into captivity by the assyrians (722 or 721 b.c.).

[Jezebel]

...maybe jezebel can tell us something, she was there.

I BEG YOUR PARDON JUST HOW OLD DO YOU .... ahem. I mean, surely my sweet, you don't think I would remember all those things from SO VERY LONG AGO, do you? That was long before my time, and after all, I am only ..... in my late twenties! Ha, I would have been just a child, isn't that funny! Hahaha! My but you are a cad, aren't you?

I'm just going to sign a few death orders hereDoes anybody really care about those Israelites anyway? I mean, they were so, ugh, stuffy and henotheistic, and by Baal if they weren't the worst dressed people this side of Damascus - those awful beards and those old sacks they called robes! Honestly, better to leave them lost, am I right or am I right?