When Was Zechariah 10:10 Fulfilled?

Question

I would love for someone to help me answer this question. The prophet Zechariah prophesied after the exile from Babylon and when the Jews were rebuilding the temple. Zechariah mentions that Jews from Egypt and Assyria will come back from those lands and into Assyria.

Zechariah 10

¹⁰ I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon; and place shall not be found for them.

¹¹ And he shall pass through the sea with affliction, and shall smite the waves in the sea, and all the deeps of the river shall dry up: and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart away.

¹² And I will strengthen them in the Lord; and they shall walk up and down in his name, saith the Lord.

Some historians say the fulfillment of Jews coming out of Egypt to Israel happened when Ptolemy Philadelphus, one of the kings of Egypt, redeemed no fewer than 100,000 of the Jews and sent them home. However, I can't find any evidence of Jews coming out of Assyria and moving back into the land of Israel? Does anyone have any historical evidence of this occurring?

Answer 1

When Was Zechariah 10:10 Fulfilled?

Sources, Wikipedia, Brittanica, google. The Bible.

The Ten Tribes

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

The ten lost tribes were the ten of the Twelve Tribes of Israel that were said to have been exiled from the Kingdom of Israel after its conquest by the Neo-Assyrian Empire circa 722 BCE.[1][2] These are the tribes of Reuben, Simeon, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Manasseh, and Ephraim; all but Judah and Benjamin

The Assyrian Empire

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyria#Neo-Assyrian_Empire

The Neo-Assyrian Empire is usually considered to have begun with the ascension of Adad-nirari II, in 911 BC, lasting until the fall of Nineveh at the hands of the Medes/Persians and Babylonians, Chaldeans in 609 BC.[82]

Babylon

https://www.britannica.com/place/Babylon-ancient-city-Mesopotamia-Asia

After a Hittite raid in 1595 BCE, the city passed to the control of the Kassites (c. 1570), who established a dynasty lasting more than four centuries. Later in this period, Babylon became a literary and religious centre, the prestige of which was reflected in the elevation of Marduk, its chief god, to supremacy in Mesopotamia. In 1234 Tukulti-Ninurta I of Assyria subjugated Babylon, though subsequently the Kassite dynasty reasserted itself until 1158, when the city was sacked by the Elamites. Babylon’s acknowledged political supremacy is shown by the fact that the dynasty of Nebuchadrezzar I (1124–03), which endured for more than a century, made the city its capital, though the dynasty did not originate there.

Persia

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

The Achaemenid Empire (/əˈkiːmənɪd/; Old Persian: 𐎧𐏁𐏂, romanized: Xšāça, lit. 'The Empire'), also called the First Persian Empire,[15] was an ancient Iranian empire that was based in Western Asia and founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. It reached its greatest extent under Xerxes I, who conquered most of northern and central ancient Greece, including the city of Athens, in 480 BC. At its greatest territorial extent, the Achaemenid Empire stretched from the Balkans and Eastern Europe in the west to the Indus Valley in the east. The empire was larger than any previous empire in history, spanning a total of 5.5 million square kilometers (2.1 million square miles).[11][12]

How was Babylon destroyed?

https://www.google.com/search?q=when+babylon+was+destroyed&oq=Babylon+when&aqs=chrome.1.0i512j0i22i30l9.8802j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

In 539 BC, the Neo-Babylonian Empire fell to Cyrus the Great, king of Persia, with a military engagement known as the Battle of Opis. Babylon's walls were considered impenetrable. The only way into the city was through one of its many gates or through the Euphrates River.

As you will read from above Assyria was destroyed by the Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar and in turn, Babylon was brought down by Cyrus the Great of Persia.

Cyrus’ Proclamation:

Cyrus' proclamation was made in 538 BC, in the first year as King of Babylon, this ended the Jewish exiles, and allowed them, mainly from Babylon, but also Egypt, Assyria, and other regions of the Persian Empire to return to Jerusalem. This is the Fulfilment of the prophecy at Zechariah 10:10 This also marked the end of the prophesied 70 years of Judah’s desolation. 2Chronicles 36:20- 21.

The Degree.

Ezra 1:1-4 ASV

1 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of Jehovah by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, Jehovah stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, 2 Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath Jehovah, the God of heaven, given me; and he hath charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.3 Whosoever there is among you of all his people, his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of Jehovah, the God of Israel [b](he is God), which is in Jerusalem. 4 And whosoever is left, in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, besides the freewill-offering for the house of God which is in Jerusalem.

Answer 2

Hosea 11:

11 They will come from Egypt,
trembling like sparrows,
from Assyria, fluttering like doves.
I will settle them in their homes,”
declares the Lord.

The Jews were dispersed everywhere. Egypt and Assyria were just two examples.

Pulpit:

Egypt and Assyria are here used as types of the countries to which Jews had been banished

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown agrees:

Egypt … Assyria—the former the first, the latter among the last of Israel's oppressors (or representing the four great world kingdoms, of which it was the first): types of the present universal dispersion, Egypt being south, Assyria north, opposite ends of the compass.

Answer 3

I believe that his passage was fulfilled in the years following Israel’s rebirth as a nation, when there was a massive influx of Jews from many nations. The Bible is very Mideast-centric which explains why the emigration from other parts of the world is not specifically mentioned but only alluded to here.

The Jewish population in Egypt in 1948 was about 80,000 and only a handful remain today. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, 200,000 Jews emigrated from what was once the Assyrian empire mostly from the north and east of Israel. About 150,000 emigrated from the south and east of Israel.

“And he shall pass through the sea with affliction”.

Both the LXX and the Vulgate translated this as “And he shall pass through the straits of the sea” which makes more sense in the context since it describes God opening the way for his people to return to their land even from afar. All barriers, whether sea or rivers would be removed, just as he parted the Red Sea to bring his people out of Egypt and then dried up the Jordan for them.

“and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart away.”

God humiliated Egypt and the other Arab armies (descendants of the Assyrians) when they tried to block God’s plan to restore and repopulate Israel. The following chapters in Zechariah predict what will ultimately happen in Israel’s history which is that all the nations of the earth will gather against Jerusalem and only a third of Israel will survive as God miraculously intervenes to save a remnant and then establish his reign on earth.

Answer 4

There is no debate that the entire chapter of Zech is one of the many that predicts the re-establishment of the Jews in their homeland following their disbursement.

There were a several disbursements of Jews from Palestine including:

• 6th Cent BC under Nebuchadnezzar
• 1st century AD under Rome
• (Possibly??) under the Samaritan revolts of the 6th century AD

Zech 10 is a prophecy primarily focused in the short term on the return of the Jews in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. However, it need not be confined to that time - Jews have been returning to their ancient homeland for many centuries after the roman disbursement - see appendix below.

APPENDIX - Return of the Jews After Roman Disbursement

Even after the Roman invasions (precipitated by Jewish revolts) in 70 AD and 132 AD, there were always Jews in Palestine. Indeed, the famous Mishnah and (some of) the Talmud were composed in Palestine during the 2nd to 4th centuries. This Jewish population continued to increase until the Samaritan revolts in the 6th century.

• In 634-641 Palestine was captured by the Arabs and was successively controlled by Rashidun Caliphs, and later, Umayyads, Abbasids, Fatimids, Seljuks, and Ayyubids until it was conquered by the Crusaders in 1099. During all this time there were always significant Jewish communities all over Palestine, and living in peace with the other Muslims, including the city of Jerusalem. Indeed, during the siege of Jerusalem, the Jews fought alongside the Muslims (Fatimids) to defend Jerusalem but 60,000 people were massacred by crusaders.
• In 1165 Maimonides visited the temple mount and in 1141 Yehuda Halevi (Jewish poet and writer) visited Jerusalem; both called for more Jews to migrate to Palestine and many did.
• In 1187, after Sultan Saladin captured most of Palestine from the crusaders, he issued a call for more Jews to migrate to Palestine and Jerusalem. According to Judah al-Harizi, “From the days the Arabs took Jerusalem, the Israelites inhabited it”. He also compared Salidan’s decree to that of King Cyrus’ decree following the Persian release of the Jews.
• In 1211 the Jewish community received over 300 rabbis from England and France. Spanish rabbi Nachmanides stated “If the gentiles wish to make peace, we shall make peace and leave them on clear terms; but as for the land, we shall not leave it in their hands, nor in the hands of any nation, not in any generation.”
• In 1470, Isaac ben Meir Latif arrived from Italy and counted 150 Jewish families in Jerusalem alone! According to Joseph Saragossi who arrived at the end of the 15th century Safed had developed the largest Jewish population in Palestine.
• In the early 16th century, there were more Sephardic Jews from Spain who swelled the population to 10,000 following their expulsion in 1492.
• Even after Ottoman rule began in 1516, the Jewish population continued to swell.
• In 1697 Rabbi Yehuda Hachasid led 1500 Jews to Palestine.
• In the last half of the 18th century a large group of Perushim settled in Palestine.
• In 1881 Jews fled pogroms in Eastern Europe and created the wave of immigrants to Palestine known as the First Aliyah. This lead directly to Theodore Herzl founding the modern Zionist movement.
• In 1904-14 saw the second Aliyah when some 40,000 Jews migrated to Palestine after the Kishinev pogrom. Up until this time, with the exception of the Crusader times, Jews lived at peace with their Arab neighbors. However, in 1917 and 1918, the Jewish legion helped the British and Australians free Palestine from the Ottoman Turks.
• 1919-23 the Third Aliyah saw further migration
• 1924-29 the Fourth Aliyah further migration brought in over 100,000 Jews.
• In the 1930’s the rise of Nazism precipitated the Fifth Aliyah with over 250,000 Jews moved to Palestine.
• Further massive migration occurred during the Second World War, some of it clandestine.
• Further large migrations occurred in 1949 and 1990.