Land of Each Tribe of Our 12 Tribes of Israel

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                                                                              

The Promised Land was 17,500 sq miles of which 45% was Transjordan reaching from the arm of the Nile Delta , the Gulf of Elath, and the Euphrates River opposite Aleppo in the East.  It included most of Syria, covering 58,000 sq. miles.  This entire area was occupied by the Israelites under kings David and his son, Solomon.  There were generally gentile enclaves within Jewish territory.  By 1949 in today's world, the armistice agreements left Israel with 8,000 sq miles with complicated borders.  

    1967 War of Egypt attacking Israel led to Israel's win (a repeat) By beating the odds and winning, they won land that was eluded to be theirs in the first place.  

          1973 and Yom Kippur War with Sadat trying again

The 12 tribes of (Jacob/Israel) left Egypt after living there for 400 years. That's 16 generations of families that had lived in Egypt.  Mostly, they were Egyptians after living there for all these years but a special group that had been isolated in slave quarters.  They were a people breaking away from their "mother" country who had used them, such as Ukraine has done with Russia. 

Parting of the sea for Israelites being chased by Egyptian soldiers

 They left a life of slavery and had to learn to adjust to depending on themselves. They were a people deprived of education; only Moses, raised as a prince of Egypt, was educated and could read and write. They followed the teachings of Moses, which have remained with the Jewish people for the past 4,000 years.   They must have been bilingual, speaking Egyptian and Hebrew.   

Moses leading the way, over 80 years old and walking.  That's why he's so capable.  Sandals are horrible for walking. However did they manage without hiking boots?   Sand can be so hot!  

 Moses, son of Amram and Jochebed of the tribe of Levi,  led the way with Hoshea/Joshua of the tribe of Ephraim.  Joshua was the commander and successor of Moses.  

Joshua and Caleb were the only ones out of the 12 that brought back an encouraging report when on a scouting mission in Canaan. 

    Joshua and Caleb saw huge grapes, luscious fruit being carried 

They tried to convince the Israelites that they could conquer the land: Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it." Caleb was a member of the Kenizzite family (possibly a  central Syrian people mentioned in Egyptian and Hittite inscriptions.  ;  one of the leaders of the tribe of Judah. He must have married into the Kenizzites, an ancient nation in Canaan. Caleb would have been a slave in Egypt as well.   

Joshua was the leader in the war against the Amaleks, nomads who attacked the Israelites in the desert near Rephidim, preying on the weak and weary of the 603,550.  Amaleks became their eternal foe, perhaps a sign that there would always be someone who resents their presence. Haman was an Amalek.  Hitler was an Amalek.  

 Joshua's father was Nun of the tribe of Ephraim.  Nun /ˈnʊn/ (Hebrew: נוּן Nūn, 'Perpetuity'), in the Hebrew Bible, was a man from the Tribe of Ephraim, grandson of Ammihud, son of Elishama, and father of Joshua (1 Chronicles 7:26–27). 

We know very little about Joshua’s early life, except that he was born in Goshen, in the land of Egypt; he was the son of Nun, an Ephraimite; he was in the twelfth generation from Joseph; and he was about forty years old at the time of the Exodus. He is styled as the ‘servant of Moses’, and following Moses’ death is appointed by God to lead the children of Israel into the Promised Land. In the call and commission of Joshua, God gives him two promises: (1) that he would possess the land of Canaan, and (2) that God would be with him and would never forsake him. The Lord directs him (Josh. 1:8) to the secret of success—meditation in the Word of God. It was this more than any other single thing that made Joshua the great leader he proved to be.

It was Joshua who divided the land for the 12 tribes by lot, not by the size of the tribe.    Moses had asked Joshua, laying his hands on him,  to lead the Israelites in the Conquest of Canaan.  He was successful, capturing most of the land except for the valley areas and the coast.  Joshua had all the responsibility of leading, winning in battles to get there, and in selecting land for them to live in.  

                       Egyptian army on the march after Israelites

 7.Gad        8.Asher,     9.Issachar, Zebulun, 11.Joseph   12.Benjamin   

Judah , (4th son of Jacob and Leah), was the largest most populous tribe to enter Canaan with Joshua.  This tribe started in Egypt with 74,600.  By the time they arrived, they had 76,500, a gain of 1,900.  In 933BCE after the death of King Solomon, they were left alone except for most of Benjamin and  it presumably absorbed the tribe of Simeon as well.  They are the remaining tribe to this day, now called the Jewish people.  

The tribe of Dan* (5th son of Jacob, and Bilhah, handmaid of Rachel), was 2nd largest starting with 62,700.  They ended with 64,400, a gain of 1,700.  They were allotted a portion south of Jaffa. The Amorites forced them into hill country so only part of the tribe remained along the coast.  Most were forced north  and took land from the Phoenicians around Laish.  Then the Philistines arrived, causing them to lose land.  Their northern land was the site of a Temple, a chief cult center for tribe of Ephraim.  By 900 BCE, Syria had taken their land.  The great hero of the Danites was Samson, who, until his betrayal by Delilah, used his mighty strength against the Philistine invaders.

The 3rd largest tribe was Simeon, (2nd son of Jacob and Leah),  with 59,300 members.  By the time they arrived, they were almost wiped out having lost 37,100.  They were left with 22,200.  Their lot was 2 areas within Judah in the Negev Desert.  During Hezekiah's reign, they took land from Arabs of Seir.  Some settled in the mountains of Ephraim.  It had been Simeon and Levi attacked Shechem for sister Dinah's name, overly zealous young men.  

The 4th largest tribe was Zebulun,(6th son of Jacob and Leah)    with 57,400. They had 60, 500 when they arrived, having gained 3,100.   They had a central but  small northern piece from the lot, the Valley of Jezreel.  Their descendants were into trade.  The tribe supported the scholars of Issachar.  

The 5th largest tribe was Issachar, (5th son of Jacob and Leah)  with 54,400.   By the time they arrived, they had 64,309 and were the 3rd largest tribe.  Their lot was land between Mt. Tabor and the Jordan River including much of the fertile Valley of Jezreel.  Evidently some of the tribe was saved from the Assyrian exile in 721 BCE and the men answered Hezekiah's summons to celebrate Passover in Jerusalem.  

The 6th largest tribe was Naphtali*, (6th son of Jacob with Bilhah) with 53,400.  When they arrived, they had lost 8,000 leaving them with 45,400.  Their lot was in the northern section of Canaan including the entire East Coast of the Sea of Galilee.  The tribe fought in the war with Sisera and Gideon's campaign against the Midianites.  The land was overrun by the Arameans during the time of Baasha.  Many were exiled by Tiglath-Pileser in 721 BCE.  The survivors lived in the Galilee during 2nd Temple Times 597-538 BCE.  

The 7th largest tribe was Reuben (1st son of Jacob and Leah)  with 46,500 .  They had lost 2,770 by the time they arrived with 43,730.  Reuben had opposed all his brothers in the plot against Joseph.  Another sign of leadership was that he volunteered as surety for Benjamin during the latter's visit to Egypt.  Reuben's tribe had requested and received  land in Moab (Transjordan) which was fertile but came with political problems, eventually in Moabite and Ammoniate hands.  They were one of 10 tribes exiled to Assyria in 721 BCE.  Because of their isolate position, Reuben played little part in the history of the Israelite tribes after the settlement in Canaan.  

The 8th largest tribe was Gad* (son of Jacob and Zilpah) with 45,650 who lost 5,150 and arrived with 40,500.  Their lot was to settle in Gilead and Central Transjordan where they gained a warlike reputation.  They flourished during the rule of Saul , and their position was consolidated under David.  Gad then belonged to Samaria, the northern kingdom and suffered severely from Syrian attacks.  In 732 BCE, the region was devastated by the Assyrians and most of its inhabitants were exiled, later was occupied by the Ammonites.  

The 9th largest tribe was Asher* (8th son of Jacob and Zilpah's 2nd) with 41,500 and  gained 11,900 in the 40 year trek, arriving with a whopping 53,400.  Their lot was fertile territory extending from Western Galilee to the Southern part of Carmel.                                       

       Joseph and Asenath, daughter of Poti-phera, priest of On. 

Jacob couldn't marry Rachel until 14 years had passed after marrying Leah as he had to wait for 7 years to gain Leah when he thought he was marrying Rachel, then had to work another 7 years for Rachel.  By the time Joseph's older brothers sold him to the passing camel caravan, the brothers were older teenagers, jealous teenagers to have done such a horrible thing to Joseph, their father's pride and joy.     

The 3rd smallest tribe was Ephraim (2nd son of Joseph and Asenath) with 40,500 but they lost 8,000 and arrived with only 32,500, and their lot was for  the more northern of the 2 Israelite kingdoms of Ephraim and Israel.  Ephraim included the hill-country in central Eretz and was noted for its fertility.  In the period of the Judges, Ephraim claimed priority among the Israelite tribes, partly because their religious center was situated at Shiloh in its territory. 

The prophets later spoke of the House of Judah and the House of Ephraim, as representing the two branches of the Hebrew people.  What happened to such an important historical group?  The Samaritans claim that some of their adherents are descended from this tribe, and many Persian Jews claim to be descendants of Ephraim.Further afield, in India the Telugu Jews claim descent from Ephraim, and call themselves Bene Ephraim, relating similar traditions to those of the Mizo Jews, whom the modern state of Israel regards as descendants of Manasseh.

The Pashtuns have a proud oral history that talks of descending from the Israelites. Their tribal groupings have similar names, including Yusufzai, which means sons of Joseph; and Afridi, thought by some to come from Ephraim. Some customs and practices are said to be similar to Jewish traditions: lighting candles on the sabbath, refraining from eating certain foods, using a canopy during a wedding ceremony and some similarities in garments.

In 930 BCE,  the tribe of Ephraim led the 10 northern tribes in a successful revolt against the south and established the Kingdom of Israel in (933-912), with Jeroboam I, an Ephraimite, as king. He was Solomon's superintendent, no relation to Solomon.  He had led the revolt, so became their king.   Actually, Solomon died 10 years later.  At the same time,  Rehoboam (son of Solomon of the tribe of Judah  and his Ammonite wife, Naamah) was crowned king of Judah (933-917) which was now on its own in this split from Israel. Judah and Israel even fought against each other at times.  The split was all over high taxes and being forced to labor on the Temple without pay. These reasons were real, but Solomon  was frantic to finish the Temple before he died and this was his only way.  Rehoboam had kept these unreasonable demands on the people.  

The 2nd smallest tribe was Benjamin (the 12th son of Jacob and Rachel's 2nd and last) with 35,400 and arrived with 45,600, a gain of 10,200.  There was a strong connection between Jacob and Benjamin which ended with Jacob's migration to Egypt.  The tribe of Benjamin occupied territory between Ephraim and Judah which included Jerusalem.  On one occasion, it was almost exterminated in a war with the other tribes.  Saul, 1st king of Israel was  Benjamite.  The territory was a bone of contention between the kingdoms of Israel and Judah after the division of the kingdom and eventually, was partitioned between the two.  The land was so small.                                       

                       Joseph, Viceroy of Egypt, son of Jacob all due to understanding others' dreams 

The very smallest tribe was Manasseh (1st son of Joseph and Asenath) with 32,200 and arrived with 52,700, a gain of a whopping 20,500.  The trek agreed with them!  The tribe was divided into 7 families.  One was Machir and the other 6 claimed kinship with Gilead.  Half the tribe with Reuben and Gad asked for territory in Transjordania, which was granted by Moses on condition that they go with the remaining tribes in the conquest of the land as scouts preceding the main body.  This half-tribe received Gilead, Gashan, and Argob.  After the conquest of Canaan, the other half received land in the west of the country around the Valley of Jezreel.  Both these areas were highly fertile.  The Assyrians exiled much of the population from both sections but part remained.  A Jewish population (partly descended from the tribe of Simeon) still existed in the West Manasseh region in the earlier 2nd Temple Period.  

Resource:

Tanakh, Stone Edition

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Israel_(Samaria)

The Samaritans Living in Israel, Neither Jew Nor Arab Nor Christian

 Nadene Goldfoot                                      

In the 12th century, the Jewish traveler,  Benjamin of Tudela,  estimated that only around 1,900 Samaritans remained in the regions of Palestine and Syria.  About 700 are alive today.  These Shomeronim or Kutim as they are also called, originally called themselves Bene Yisrael (the keepers of the law).  They said they were descended from the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh and maybe Levi with an admixture of non-Israelite colonists.  They've lived an isolated life since then, especially compared to Ashkenazi Jews.  They should be compared with the Mizrachim Jews.  

Kiryat Luza

As of 2021, the community stood at around 840 individuals, divided between Kiryat Luza on Mount Gerizim and the Samaritan compound in Holon.  Samaritans possessing only Israeli citizenship in Holon are drafted into the Israel Defense Forces, while those holding dual Israeli and Palestinian citizenship in Kiryat Luza are exempted from mandatory military service.

                     Walking through Kiryat Luza

Kiryat Luza (Samaritan:  Arabic: قرية لوزة, Hebrew: קרית לוזה) is a Samaritan village situated on Mount Gerizim near the city of Nablus in Samaria (the West Bank). It is under the joint control of Israel and the Palestinian National Authority, and is the only remaining site populated wholly by Samaritans. Kiryat Luza is home to roughly half of the world's total Samaritan population, with the other half located in the Israeli city of Holon.The village is adjacent to the Jewish Israeli settlement of Har Brakha. Until the 1980s, most Samaritans in the West Bank resided in Nablus proper, below Mount Gerizim, and began to relocate to Kiryat Luza due to a spike in violence throughout Israel and the Palestinian Territories during the First Intifada.  The Israeli military maintains an active presence in the area.

 They are not considered ethnically Jewish or Arab, despite the fact that Samaritans have lived in close proximity to both groups for thousands of years. Though they used to be numerous, there are now only about 700 Samaritans left, divided between two towns near Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. They rarely marry non-Samaritans, and their religious practices are distinct from all Jewish sects. Their ability to remain both (seemingly) genetically and culturally isolated in one of the most diverse regions on Earth has piqued the interest of both geneticists and historians, who have spent years trying to understand this unique group of people tucked away in the Levantine desert who were identified in the Christian bible as Levites, so should have the Y haplogroup of J1 like the Jewish Cohens.

Christians know of them in the "Good Samaritan," as they are mentioned in the New Testament.  Samaria or Samaritans are mentioned in the New Testament books of Matthew, Luke, John and Acts. The Gospel of Mark contains no mention of Samaritans or Samaria. The best known reference to the Samaritans is the Parable of the Good Samaritan, found in the Gospel of Luke,  where a Samaritan helped a man who was beaten, stripped of his clothes and left by the roadside to die.  

How he helped would also be how a Jew should react-being it's of the Golden Rule created by Hillel in the 1st century BCE from our many rules of behavior.  Luke would have known about that.  The Gospel According to Luke, written in roughly 85 C.E. (± five to ten years), most likely during the reign of the Roman Emperor Domitian, is known in its earliest form from extensive papyri fragments dating to the early or middle of the third century. That was about 100 years after Hillel and his Golden Rule.  

Samaritans marking Passover on Mount Gerizim near Nablus

The Israelite Samaritans are a tiny ancient religious sect which follows the Torah (the Five Books of Moses), but does not hold any other part of the Hebrew Bible to be sacred. The do not believe Jerusalem to be holy either. For them, the Holy Mountain of God is Mt. Gerizim above Shechem (Nablus), where the Israelites were commanded to sacrifice upon entering the Land of Canaan.

They consider Samaritanism to be the true religion of the ancient Israelites and regard Judaism as a closely related but altered religion. Samaritans also regard Mount Gerizim (near both Nablus and biblical Shechem), and not the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, to be the holiest place on Earth. They attribute the schism between Samaritanism and Judaism to have been caused by Eli, the high priest and one of the last judges of the 11th century BCE and died when he heard that the Philistines had captured the Ark,  creating an alternate shrine at Shiloh, in opposition to Mount Gerizim.

       Shechem, now called Nablus in Israel, was in the territory of Ephraim, a levitical city and a city of refuge and center of the House of Joseph.  It was overshadowed by Samaria and remained the cult center of the Samaritans. By 1967 it had 44,000 people of mostly Moslems with a tiny Samaritan community becoming a center for fanatical Arab nationalism. A small Jewish community formerly existed in Shechem.  The town of Samaria is just north of Shechem.     

The traditional view is that, when the Jews were captured by the Assyrians in 721 BCE as part of the infamous Babylonian Captivity of 597 BCE and 586 BCE, the Assyrians then repopulated Israel with people from the land of Samaria to the east. Shalmanesesr V's siege of Samaria and its capture in 721 BCE  by his successor, Sargon, was the bitter end of this northern part of Israel.  The Assyrians annexed the country and deported 27,290 Israelites to Assyria and Media, and replaced them with Syrian and Babylonian prisoners.  

It fell in 721 BCE to Sargon II of Assyria who had resettled it with Cutheans who of course intermingled with the remaining population.  They were then the ancestors of the Samaritans.  According to Chabad,  these Cuthean people were idol-worshipers, and G‑d sent lions to decimate them. Out of fear of the lions, the Cutheans converted to Judaism, but the rabbis of the Talmud debated whether their conversion was valid or not. The Cutheans’ Torah observance was spotty — extremely strong in some areas, but very weak or nonexistent in others.

"Then, when the Jews finally returned from exile 200 years later in 597 and 586 BCE, they found these Samaritans already living in their ancestral homeland. As can be expected, tensions between the Samaritans and the Jews quickly escalated and would persist for the next several hundred years."  This northern population became the Samaritans of Samaria.  

The schism between the two groups was great. Samaria was made up of different peoples now compared to the Jews who were in Babylon and returned with Jerusalem at the helm. Those Jews who were not taken away were from older or weaker lines of Jews; not the powerhouse young and vibrant Jews.  They had produced the Jews who had stayed in Samaria and had to take on these new "immigrants.".   It was a power struggle regarding Judaism.  Samaria didn't care about Jerusalem anymore, if they ever did in the 1st place.   

Many scholars cite 597 BCE as the date of the first deportation, for in that year King Jehoiachin of Judah (598-597 BCE) was deposed and apparently sent into exile with his family, his court, and thousands of workers.   He had taken the throne at age 18 during the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem and reigned for 3 months and 10 days before capitulating to Nebuchadnezzar.  He was kept in detention in Babylonia  until the accession of Evil-Merodach in 561 BCE when he was finally released.  

Others say the first deportation followed the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadrezzar in 586 BCE; if so, the Jews were held in Babylonian captivity for 48 years. Among those who accept a tradition (Jeremiah 29:10) that the exile lasted 70 years, some choose the dates 608 to 538, others 586 to about 516 (the year when the rebuilt Temple was dedicated in Jerusalem). Numbers of people exiled were not given.  It was time for 2 or even 3 more generations of Jews to be living in Babylonia.  They came out of it with the Babylonian Talmud- said to be the best with the most words-very long with 2 and a half million words and detailed;  while those in Palestine had created the Palestinian Talmud.  

"However, recent archaeological findings, coupled with a deeper examination of religious texts, have led researchers to propose that the Samaritans were Jews themselves."

Specifically, researchers argue that during the Babylonian Captivity, not all Jews were rounded up by the Assyrians. Some stayed behind, possibly marrying other Assyrian exiles who themselves had been relocated. This would make sense given that, even though Samaritans are not considered Jews, they share many of the same ancient Hebrew rituals. While these rituals have evolved for hundreds of years among most Jewish sects, they remain unchanged among the isolated Samaritans, even to this day. This also fits well with the historical animosity of Jews toward Samaritans because of their association with non-Jews.

The similarity between the Y chromosomes of Samaritans and Jews illustrates that groups considered quite distinct today can actually have relatively recent genetic connections. Indeed, we are all connected to each other in some way through our shared genes, shared ancestry, and shared history. The research into the origin of the Samaritans is just one example of this connection.  The Y haplogroup found today is so different from today's Jews, that I wonder if it isn't the ancient originals being they've been so isolated since then. All the variants start with J.....

Update: Four Samaritan families clustered to four distinct Y-chromosome haplogroups according to their patrilineal identity. Of the 16 Samaritan mtDNA samples, 14 carry either of two mitochondrial haplotypes that are rare or absent among other worldwide ethnic groups. Principal component analysis suggests a common ancestry of Samaritan and Jewish patrilineages. Most of the former may be traced back to a common ancestor in the paternally-inherited Jewish high priesthood (Cohanim) at the time of the Assyrian conquest of the kingdom of Israel. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15300852/

Palestinian journalist, Badawiya Samiri, a journalist with the official Palestinian WAFA news agency  She is the daughter of Samaritan priest Yeffet Cohen, and she was living in Nablus with her four siblings.  She was 7 years old during the 1st Intifada. That's when they were frightened, moved and settled on the mountain.   

The only surviving Samaritan mtDNA (female) lineages are in haplogroups T2a1 and U7a1. A common Jewish line is K. No one has ever gotten a full mitochondrial sequence on these two haplotypes.

The Samaritans claim to be descended from the Israelite Tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and now added Levi. All Samaritans today have only four surviving Y lineages. (A fifth, from the Tribe of Benjamin, died out in 1912).

Any Y matches between Jews and Samaritans within about 3200 years are very likely to date to Ancient Israel. At least two of the four Samaritan Y lineages (L210/L227 and V22) must have originated west of the Euphrates, the ancient Levant, and so are extremely likely to have been present among the Ancient Israelites. We have yet to determine the closest matches of the other two (L147* and J2a4*).

Of the Jews of today, only this J2a4 resembles anyone that I have found because of the J. On FTDNA are the J2a-L24 listed from ancient Persia through the Levant, Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas. J1s of Cohens (Jews) and Arabs are different haplotypes. All the ones listed start with J. Samaritans are not listed as such. They need Samaritans to test. The Jewish Cohen line most common is J1-M267. In 1997, Journal Nature published a study that showed that a high percentage of Jewish males who shared an oral tradition of being Cohanim also shared the same Y-chromosome signature. The authors named the highest frequency Y-chromosome signature (haplotype) the Cohen Modal Haplotype.

J2. M172.The J2 subclade is similar in distribution to J1, but it is typically present at a higher frequency.  J2 is distinguished from J1 by a lower frequency in Arab populations and the near absence in Africa.  The J2 subclade is highest in Anatolia and prominent in Mesopotamia and the Levant – all areas that served as centers of agricultural revolution.  J2 is common among Turkish, Kurdish and Jewish populations and significant frequencies are found in the Caucasus, Iran, and Southcentral Asia.  TMRCA estimates for this haplogroup range from 4-15kya.   Kya= a thousand years ago.  4,000 to 15,000 years ago.  

J2 may be an important Y-chromosome lineage that was part of the demic diffusion and introduction of new agricultural practices into Europe from the Middle East and Anatolia during the Neolithic period.  Anatolia (Asia Minor-Jews also lived here before 2nd century BCE  but population dwindled after Byzantine Period; again important  after 1492 under Turks and had refugees from Spain,  could represent a Mesolithic pocket of the J2 subclade, which spread later to Europe in the Neolithic-Holocene periods (10kya) 10,000 years ago  and subsequently featured in the emergence and progress of the Bronze Age (5kya).   

The new geneticists, Shen (Dr. Joseph Shen-  a clinical geneticist in Sacramento, California who received his medical degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and has been in practice for more than 20 years,  and colleagues,  argue that the traditional hypothesis, the Samaritans were transported into the Levant by the Assyrians and have no Jewish heritage, is largely incorrect. 

Rather, these Samaritan lineages are remnants of those few Jews who did not go into exile when the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom of Israel in 721 BC. Those who remained in the Levant may have taken non-Jewish wives, which would account for the genetic admixture on the female side. But according to the authors the Y-chromosome clearly shows that the Samaritans and the Jews share common ancestry dating to at least 2,500 years ago. Maybe they had left Samaria and tried to return to the homeland they were taken from as prisoners???

Ancient history was that Israel's southern state was Judah, and after Solomon died in 920 BCE, his son, Rehoboam, was able to retain Judah with Jerusalem.  At the same time, Solomon's superintendent of laborers who were not paid, Jeroboam, led a revolt against the taxes that Rehoboam continued from Solomon.  He took over the other 10 northern states since the Assyrians had taken the best of the population.  The capital was Samaria, so that and the land around it fell into his hands. It had been founded in 880 BCE by the king of Israel, Omri, on a hill bought from Shomer and it occupied 25 acres.  

Resource;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiryat_Luza

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samaritans#:~:text=In%20the%2012th%20century%2C%20the,the%20Samaritan%20compound%20in%20Holon.

https://blog.23andme.com/articles/samaritans-genetic-history/

https://www.timesofisrael.com/clinging-to-ancient-traditions-the-last-samaritans-keep-the-faith/

https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/samaritan/about

https://blog.23andme.com/articles/samaritans-genetic-history/---Shen

• Reconstruction of patrilineages and matrilineages of Samaritans and other Israeli populations from Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA sequence variation.

  Shen P, Lavi T, Kivisild T, Chou V, Sengun D, Gefel D, Shpirer I, Woolf E, Hillel J, Feldman MW, Oefner PJ.Hum Mutat. 2004 Sep;24(3):248-60. doi: 10.1002/humu.20077.PMID: 15300852

https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/2836152/jewish/The-Samaritans-Cutheans.htm

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-85883-2  on J1-M267

https://learn.familytreedna.com/jewish-dna-testing/cohen-match-badge/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15300852/

Tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim Are To Be Leaders Back To Israel

 Nadene Goldfoot                                       

                 Jacob blessing Joseph's 2 sons, Manasseh and Ephraim 

The two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim were from the sons of Joseph, and Joseph was the son of Jacob and Rachel, his first love.  Simcha Jacobovici, producer and archaeologist,  just mentioned that it is these 2 tribes who will start of the return of the Lost Tribes to Israel as prophecised on Youtube.  They are one of the 1st claiming to be from the Lost Tribes and have already entered Israel.  

Manasseh was the son of Joseph and Asenath (Gen.41:50-1).  His grandfather, Jacob, conferred on both he and his brother, Ephraim, equal portions of inheritance with his own sons-with their uncles, in the division of Canaan.  The tribe was divide into 7 families, one called Machir and the other 6 claiming kindship with Gilead.  half the tribe, together with those of Reuben and Gad, requested territory in Transjordania, which was granted by Moses on condition that they accompany the remaining tribes in the conquest of the land as scouts preceding the main body.  

This half-tribe received Gilead, Bashan and Argob.  After the conquest of Canaan, the other half received territory in the west of the country around the Valley of Jezreel.  Both these areas were highly fertile.  

Tiglath-Pileser III and King Sargon (reigned from 721 to712 BCE) exiled much of the population from both sections but part remained.  A Jewish population , partly descended from the tribe of Simeon, still existed in the West Manasseh region in the earlier 2nd Temple Period in the 530 BCE days.                                

The tribe of Manasseh has been found to be in NE India.  The Bnei Menashe (Hebrew: בני מנשה‎, "Children of Menasseh") are an ethnolinguistic group in India's Northeastern border states of Manipur and Mizoram. The Chin, Kuki, and Mizo peoples of this particular group claim descent from one of the Lost Tribes of Israel and have adopted the practice of Judaism.   Members of the group include ethnic Chins, Lushais, Kukis, and Mizos. Collectively they are often referred to as Shinlung.        Nagaland also has Konyak tribes who have been headhunters.  70,000 Indian Jews live now in Israel which is over 1% of Israel's total population. (Updated 9/14/2021)

I might add that Afghanistan, Pakistan and India also is the home of the Pashtuns, now believed to be from the 10 Lost Tribes taken away by the Assyrians in 721 BCE.  So it is possible that some made their way to NE India.                                     

 The Chin, Kuki, and Mizo peoples of this particular group claim descent from one of the Lost Tribes of Israel and have adopted the practice of Judaism.  The Chin, Kuki, and Mizo peoples were primarily animists; among their practices was headhunting.  In other words, they were headhunters.  Then they had been converted to Christianity in the 1800's.  My question is how did they evolve into headhunting?  It had to be that an Israelite woman was captured by headhunters and the branch grew from her.  The Konyaks are of Mongoloid in origin. Before the advent of Christianity into Nagaland, the Konyaks were the believers of “Animism” worshipping different objects of nature. About 95% of the population follows the Christian faith now.

One of their tribal leaders reported having a dream that his people's ancient homeland was Israel, and some of the Bnei Menashe began to re-embrace the idea that they were Jews. The Bnei Menashe started studying and practicing Judaism since the 1970s in a desire to return to the religion of their ancestors. The total population of Manipur and Mizoram is more than 3.7 million. The Bnei Menashe are estimated by Shavei Israel to number around 10,000; close to 4,000 have emigrated to Israel. 

When Christian missionaries had encountered the tribe in the late 19th century, they had found similarities between some of their own biblical stories and the Bnei Menashe's mythology. They have no written history but their legends refer to a beloved homeland that they had to leave, called Sinlung/Chinlung. The various tribes speak languages that are branches of indigenous Tibeto-Burman.

Dr. Shalva Weil, a senior researcher and noted anthropologist at Hebrew University, wrote in her paper, Dual Conversion Among the Shinlung of North-East (1965):In a 2004 study Weil says, "although there is no documentary evidence linking the tribal peoples in northeast India with the myth of the lost Israelites, it appears likely that, as with revivalism, the concept was introduced by the missionaries as part of their general millenarian leanings." In the 19th and 20th centuries, Christian missionaries "discovered" lost tribes in far-flung places; their enthusiasm for identifying such peoples as part of the Israelite tribes was related to the desire to speed up the messianic era and bring on the Redemption. Based on his experience in China, for example, Scottish missionary Rev. T.F. Torrance wrote China’s Ancient Israelites (1937), expounding a theory that the Qiang people were Lost Israelites. This theory has not been supported by any more rigorous studies.                                                

In 2003–2004 DNA testing of several hundred men of this group did not provide conclusive evidence of Middle Eastern ancestry. A Kolkata study in 2005 suggested that a small number of women sampled may have some Middle Eastern ancestry, but this may also have resulted from intermarriage during the thousands of years of migration of Jewish peoples. In the early 21st century, Israel halted immigration by the Bnei Menashe; after a change in government, the immigration was allowed again. The chief rabbi of Israel ruled in 2005 that the Bnei Menashe were recognized as part of a lost tribe. After undergoing the process for formal conversion, they will be allowed aliyah (immigration).

By 2005, some 800 converts had settled in Israel, helped by an organization called Shavei Israel, a Jerusalem-based group that attempts to give help and succor to “lost Jews” seeking to return to the Jewish people. For the most part the Shinlung do not see themselves as converts in the usual sense of the term: like other such groups – one might cite the Bene Ephraim Telugu-speaking Jews of Andhra Pradesh who believe themselves to be descended from the Tribe of Ephraim – they believe that they are historically of Jewish descent. This controversial claim has found little support among scholars, although a gifted Israeli essayist and translator – Hillel Halkin – took up their cause in a colorful account published in 2002. He was joined in 2005 by the Sephardi chief rabbi of Israel, Shlomo Amar, who decided to formally recognize the Bene Menashe as “descendants of Israel” and agreed to dispatch a beit din from Israel to northeast India to convert them.     

The Afridis, Yusufzais and other Pashtuns of Afghanistan and Pakistan have also been alleged to be the descendants of the lost Jewish tribes such as the Efraim. However, DNA and other research towards validating such claims has been inconclusive . 

The Bene Israel Jewish community from West India is a unique population whose history before the 18th century remains largely unknown. Bene Israel members consider themselves as descendants of Jews, yet the identity of Jewish ancestors and their arrival time to India are unknown, with speculations on arrival time varying between the 8th century BCE and the 6th century CE. 

Putting together the results from all analyses point to Bene Israel being an admixed population with both Jewish and Indian ancestry, with the genetic contribution of each of these ancestral populations being substantial. The admixture took place in the last millennium, about 19–33 generations ago. It involved Middle-Eastern Jews and was sex-biased, with more male Jewish and local female contribution. It was followed by a population bottleneck and high endogamy, which can lead to increased prevalence of recessive diseases in this population. One asserts that the community originated in one of the Jewish communities in the Middle East. According to the researchers, they arrived in India 19 to 33 generations ago — 600 to 1,000 years ago — much later than estimates of community members. Over 70,000 members of the Bene Israel community live in Israel today, making it the largest Indian Jewish group in the world.

      Below are Bnei Ephraimites of India.                               

In the southern part of India has been found the Ephraimites.  

 Bene-Ephraim of Andhra Pradesh (India), whose unique circumstances provide an interesting new perspective on theoretical discussion about legitimization of identities.

The community of Bene-Ephraim (or 'Telugu Jews') was established in the late 1980s in the Guntur District of Andhra Pradesh by a group of Christianised Madiga untouchables who declared that they belonged to one of the Lost Tribes of Israel. In 1992 the community established a synagogue and introduced a number of Jewish rites into their practice. Shortly afterwards they started seeking recognition by the State of Israel and among the Jewish communities in the West. Though they have not been 'recognised' by any of Israeli officials the community have established contacts with Amishav and Kulanu organizations in Israel and the USA respectively, which unite those interested in finding and assisting communities that are 'rediscovering' their Jewish origin. Through this connection Bene-Ephraim have had several visits from rabbis and other interested individuals who have been helping them to establish practices of more mainstream Judaism.                                             

 These people are also Bnei Ephraim in India.  Indian historian says genetic link exists between members of his clan and Lost Tribe.  Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi, an Indian historian, says he may have found a genetic link between members of his clan in northern India, the now-Muslim Afridi Pathans, and one of the Ten Lost Tribes. "There were those who looked at this research as part of a big Zionist conspiracy against Islam," said Aafreedi, who is currently conducting research at Tel Aviv University into possible Israelite descent among certain Muslim Indian groups. "They felt I was trying to deprive Islam of its bravest followers, the Pathans, by converting them to Judaism. They felt that my convincing them of their Jewish heritage was just another form of conversion." According to Aafreedi's study, which was published as an e-book, about 650 out of the 1,500 members of the Afridi Pathan clan in Malihabad, India, may possess genetic material shared by nearly 40 percent of Jews worldwide. If confirmed, the findings would support the clan's connection to the tribe of Ephraim, Aafreedi said. A related Indian Pathan group numbering some 800 people was not tested for the project

The Bene Ephraim circumcise their children; celebrate all Jewish holidays, including Purim and Chanukah, which postdate their exile from Israel; keep mezuzot in their homes; teach their children Hebrew and give them Hebrew names.  They’re landless farmers who work for others but who keep Shabbat as a day of rest. “That cuts into their incomes,” which average only $1.40 per day, she said. They live in clay-walled houses with thatched roofs and no running water, though there is intermittent electrical service.  Despite their adherence to Jewish life-cycle events, they are willing to undergo conversion to assure their link to the wider Jewish world, although that is problematic in India, which has laws against missionaries.           

      Deceased Pashto poet, Sahil Afridi, was simplicity, humbleness, personified

Yet the tribe of Afridi in Afghanistan,  are more likely to be from Ephraim.  The Afridi (Pashto: اپريدی، افریدی‎; also spelled Apridi) are a tribe of Pashtuns. Their traditional homeland is in Khyber and Darra Adam Khel in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.  That's known to be the most dangerous area. Most Afridis speak a northern variety of Pashto known as Afridi Pashto.

All Afridis follow Islam Sunni by sect. Their conversion to Islam is attributed to Sultan (Emperor) Mahmud of Ghazni by Ibbetson and Haroon Rashid.  The Muslim conquests of Afghanistan began during the Muslim conquest of Persia as the Arab Muslims migrated eastwards to Khorasan, Sistan and Transoxiana.

 The tribe of Ephraim was the most northern tribe of Israel.  During the period of Judges, before King Saul, Ephraim claimed priority among the tribes, partly because their religious center was situated at Shiloh in its territory.  The secession of the northern tribes after Solomon's death centered on the tribe of Ephraim, to which Jeroboam, the 1st king of the northern kingdom of Israel, belonged.  The prophets later spoke of the House of Judah and the House of Ephraim., as representing the 2 branches of the Hebrew people. 

Resource:

https://www.jpost.com/jewish-world/jewish-features/researcher-claims-proof-of-tribe-of-ephraim-in-india

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=057TwFlGz10---making assumption, claim is not proven about tribe of Kuki in NE india in Manipur

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bnei_Menashe#:~:text=The%20Bnei%20Menashe%20(Hebrew%3A%20%D7%91%D7%A0%D7%99,adopted%20the%20practice%20of%20Judaism.

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/bene-menashe

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://www.cjnews.com/news/lost-tribe-israel-found-southern-india

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afridi_Pashto

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afridi

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0152056        DNA of India/Jews

Plos one

https://thediplomat.com/2018/04/the-last-headhunters-of-nagaland/

https://www.boredpanda.com/the-last-living-head-hunters-from-nagaland-noth-east-india/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic

https://mon.nic.in/culture-heritage/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_India#:~:text=Over%2070%2C000%20Indian%20Jews%20now,%25%20of%20Israel's%20total%20population).