In 1 Nephi 22, Nephi interprets the prophecies of Isaiah (chapters 20-21 [Isaiah 48-49]) concerning the scattering and gathering of Israel which he has just finished quoting to his brothers. He notes that “there are many who are already lost from the knowledge of those who are at Jerusalem. Yea, the more part of all the tribes have been led away; and they are scattered to and fro upon the isles of the sea; and whither they are none of us knoweth, save that we know that they have been led away” (1 Nephi 22:4).
While the words of Isaiah certainly apply to the family of Lehi, Nephi applies them more toward “the lost tribes of Israel.” Concerning these lost tribes, Bruce R. McConkie writes that when Shalmanezer overran the Kingdom of Israel (about 721 B.C.), he carried the Ten Tribes comprising that kingdom captive into Assyria. From thence they were led into the lands of the north and have been called the Lost Tribes because they are lost to the knowledge of other people. (1 Nephi 22:4) Esdras, an apocryphal writer, records this version of their escape from Assyria:
Those are the ten tribes, which were carried away prisoners out of their own land in the time of Osea the king, whom Salmanassar the king of Assyria led away captive, and he carried them over the waters, and so came they into another land. But they took this counsel among themselves, that they would leave the multitude of the heathen, and go forth into a further country, where never mankind dwelt, That they might there keep their statutes, which they never kept in their own land. And they entered into Euphrates by the narrow passage of the river, For the most High then shewed signs for them, and held still the flood, till they were passed over. For through that country there was a great way to go, namely, of a year and a half; and the same region is called Arsareth. Then dwelt they there until the latter times; and now when they shall begin to come, The Highest shall stay the stream again, that they may go through.“ (Apocrypha, 2 Esdras 13:40-47) [See the illustrative map below: ”The Possible Route of the Ten Tribes of Israel: Covering Their Journey From Palestine to Arsareth"]
Commenting on this, Elder George Reynolds has written:
They determined to go to a country where never men dwelt, that they might be free from all contaminating influences. That country could only be found in the north. Southern Asia was already the seat of a comparatively ancient civilization. Egypt flourished in northern Africa, and southern Europe was rapidly filling with the future rulers of the world. They had, therefore, no choice but to turn their faces northward. The first portion of their journey was not however north; according to the account of Esdras, they appear to have at first moved in the direction of their old homes, and it is possible that they originally started with the intention of returning thereto, or probably in order to deceive the Assyrians they started as if to return to Canaan, and when they had crossed the Euphrates, and were out of danger from the hosts of the Medes and Persians, then they turned their journeying feet toward the polar star. Esdras states that they entered in at the narrow passages of the River Euphrates, the Lord staying the springs of the flood until they were passed over. The point on the River Euphrates at which they crossed would necessarily be in its upper portion, as lower down would be too far south for their purpose.
The upper course of the Euphrates lies among lofty mountains and near the village of Patash, it plunges through a gorge formed by precipices more than a thousand feet in height and so narrow that it is bridged at the top; it shortly afterward enters the plains of Mesopotamia. How accurately this portion of the river answers the description of Esdras of the narrows, where the Israelites crossed.
From the Euphrates the wandering host could take but one course in their journey northward, and that was along the back or eastern shore of the Black Sea. All other roads were impassable to them, as the Caucasian range of the mountains with only two or three passes throughout its whole extent, ran as a lofty barrier from the Black to the Caspian Sea. To go east would take them back to Media, and a westward journey would carry them through Asia Minor to the coasts of the Mediterranean. Skirting along the Black Sea, they would pass the Caucasian range, cross the Kuban River, be prevented by the Sea of Azof from turning westward and would soon reach the present home of the Don Cossaks. (George Reynolds, Are We of Israel?, pp. 27-28)
[Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, pp. 455-457]
Commenting on this, Clayton Brough writes:
Whether this “region” of “Arsareth” is or is not identical to, part of, or encompassed in the geographical area referred to by the Prophets Jeremiah, Zechariah, and Joseph Smith, as “the land of the north” and/or “the north country(ies)” (which the scriptures indicate is the location that the Ten Tribes “shall come” from in the Last Days), has not yet been revealed… .
The Prophet Jeremiah calls the location “the north country” (Jeremiah 23:7-8; 31:8-9), Zechariah calls it “the land of the north” (Zechariah 2:6), and Joseph Smith calls it both “the land of the north” and/or “the north countries” (D&C 110:11; 133:26). It is interesting to note that Jeremiah uses both the terms: “country” and “countries” in prophesying of the return of the house of Israel in the last days: “But the Lord liveth which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land” (Jeremiah 23:8).
[R. Clayton Brough, The Lost Tribes: History, Doctrine, Prophecies, and Theories About Israel’s Lost Ten Tribes, p. 30]
Note* It is significant that in trying to preserve their culture, some of the ten tribes chose to retreat towards “the north countries.” They went into country “where never men dwelt.” And someday they will return to claim their inheritance. Doesn’t this ring of what we find in the Book of Mormon? The Jaredites initially traveled “northward” (Ether 2:1) and also into “that quarter where there never had man been” (Ether 2:5). The Jaredites also lived in the “north country” of the new world. In their final battles, the Nephites retreated “towards the north countries” (Mormon 2:3). Although destroyed as a civilization embracing Christ, the promise was made that one day remnants of Joseph would return to claim their inheritance among the house of Israel and dwell in their own lands. It was from “this north country” (Ether 1;1) that Mormon and Moroni made their record of these people.
Could there have been some deliberate symbolism written into the Book of Mormon to link their story with that of the lost tribes of Israel? And if that is the case, could other parallels be drawn between the return of the house of Joseph and the return of the lost ten tribes? [Alan C. Miner, Personal Notes] [See the commentary on 2 Nephi 29:13; 3 Nephi 16:1-4] [See also 2 Nephi 10:21-22]
1 Nephi 22:4 And behold, there are many who are already lost from the knowledge of those who are at Jerusalem (Illustration): The Possible Route of the Ten Tribes of Israel: Covering Their Journey From Palestine to Arsareth. [R. Clayton Brough, The Lost Tribes: History, Doctrine, Prophecies, and Theories About Israel’s Lost Ten Tribes, p. 38]