A book which stands in such honor as the Bible should be known by all. And the time when one can most readily obtain a familiarity with the Bible is in early life. Those who in childhood learn the Story of the Bible are fortunate, for they will never forget it. In this unabridged and unedited edition you will find all the principal stories of the Bible, each one complete in itself, while together combining to form a continuous narrative. With 168 stories from both the Old Testament and the New Testament, there is ample material for a full year of reading. Ages 6-12

631 pages

$19.95

HOW THE TEN TRIBES WERE LOST

II Kings xv: 8, to xvii: 41.

[416]

HE power and peace that Judah enjoyed under Jeroboam
the second did not last after his death. His great
kingdom fell apart, and his son Zechariah reigned only
six months. He was slain in the sight of his people by
Shallum, who made himself king. But after only a month
of rule, Shallum himself was killed by Menahem, who
reigned ten years of wickedness and of suffering in the
land, for the Assyrians spoiled the land and took away
the riches of Israel. Then came Pekahiah, who was
slain by Pekah, and Hoshea, who in turn slew Pekah. So
nearly all the latter kings of Israel won the throne by
murder, and were themselves slain. The land was
helpless, and its enemies, the Assyrians from Nineveh,
won victories, and carried away many of the people, and
robbed those who were left. All these evils came upon
the Israelites, because they and their kings had
forsaken the Lord God of their fathers and worshipped
idols.

Hoshea was the last of the kings over the Ten Tribes;
nineteen kings in all, from Jeroboam to Hoshea. In
Hoshea's time, the king of Assyria, whose name was
Shalmanezer, came up with a great army against Samaria.
He laid siege against the city; but it was in a strong
place, and hard to take, for it stood on a high hill.
The siege lasted three years, and before it was ended,
Shalmanezer, the king of Assyria, died, and Sargon, a
great warrior and conqueror, reigned in his place.
Sargon took Samaria, and put to death Hoshea the last
king of Israel. He carried away nearly all the people
from the land, and led them into distant countries in
the east, to Mesopotamia, to Media, and the lands near
the great Caspian Sea. This Sargon did, in order to
keep the Israelites from again breaking away from his
rule.

As in their own land the children of Israel had
forsaken the
[417] Lord and had worshipped idols, so after
they were taken to these distant lands they sought the
gods of the people among whom they were living. They
married the people of those lands, and ceased to be
Israelites; and after a time they lost all knowledge of
their own God, who had given them his words and sent
them his prophets. So there came an end to the Ten
Tribes of Israel, for they never again came back to
their own land, and were lost among the people of the
far east.

But a small part of the people of Israel were left in
their own land. The king of Assyria brought to the
land of Israel people from other countries, and placed
them in the land. But they were too few to fill the
land, and to care for it; so that the wild beasts began
to increase in Israel, and many of these strange people
were killed by lions who lived among the mountains and
in the valleys. They thought that the lions came upon
them because they did not worship the God who ruled in
that land, and they sent to the king of Assyria,
saying, "Send us a priest who can teach us how to
worship the God to whom this land belongs; for he has
sent lions among us, and they are destroying us."

They supposed that each land must have its own God, as
the Philistines worshipped Dagon, and the Moabites
Chemosh, and the Tyrians and Zidonians, Baal and
Asherah. They did not know that there is only one God,
who rules all the world, and who is to be worshipped by
all men.

Then the king of Assyria sent to these people a priest
from among the Israelites in his land; and this priest
tried to teach them how to worship the Lord. But with
the Lord's worship, they mingled the worship of idols;
and did not serve the Lord only, as God would have them
serve him. In after time these people were called
Samaritans, from Samaria, which had been their chief
city. They had their temple to the Lord on Mount
Gerizim, near the city of Shechem, and in that city a
few of them are found even in our time.

Hundreds of additional titles available for
online reading when you join Gateway to the Classics