{"id":28321,"date":"2020-12-07T10:57:59","date_gmt":"2020-12-07T16:57:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=28321"},"modified":"2020-12-08T14:52:20","modified_gmt":"2020-12-08T20:52:20","slug":"what-happened-to-the-tribe-of-levi-during-the-captivity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-happened-to-the-tribe-of-levi-during-the-captivity\/","title":{"rendered":"What happened to the tribe of Levi during the captivity?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>When the northern kingdom went into Assyrian captivity, that left the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. What happened to the tribe of Levi? Did they go into captivity as well?<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>The tribe of Levi&#8217;s inheritance was scattered among the other tribes. Thus, you would expect the Levites to be taken into captivity along with the members of the other tribes who were captured. After Assyria had taken all the Israelites away from the northern tribes, he replaced the people with people from other areas of his empire (II Kings 17:24). However, God sent lions to harass these foreigners (II Kings 17:25). The king of Assyria thought that the lions were due to local gods not being appeased, so had a priest, who had been captured, to return to the area and teach the people how to worship the God there (II Kings 17:26-28). Priests come from the tribe of Levi, so we know some of Levi had been carried off into captivity.<\/p>\n<p>By the way, this is how the Samaritans came about.<\/p>\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>Thank you for your response. Would it be the case then that although there was a tribe of Levi, those who were priests of that tribe were scattered throughout the other tribes in order to perform the ceremonial tasks which only they could perform (such as offering the yearly sacrifice for sins)?<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>While the priests were members of the tribe of Levi, all Levites were not priests. While some sacrifices could be offered locally, the sacrifices for the major events, such as the Day of Atonement, could only be offered at the site of the tabernacle and later at the temple. One of the primary duties that fell to the tribe of Levi was that they served as the nation&#8217;s judges. It was for easy access why the cities of refuge were scattered on each side of the Jordan River. I suspect that some of the other duties also needed ready access to the Levites. See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-were-the-priest-and-the-levites-duties\/\">What were the priest and Levite&#8217;s duties?<\/a> for more details.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: When the northern kingdom went into Assyrian captivity, that left the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. What happened to the tribe of Levi? Did they go into captivity as well? Answer: The tribe of Levi&#8217;s inheritance was scattered among the other tribes. Thus, you would expect the Levites to be taken into captivity along&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[279],"class_list":["post-28321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-history"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":56300,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-found-tribes-of-israel\/","url_meta":{"origin":28321,"position":0},"title":"The Found Tribes of Israel","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Edwin L. Crozier, via Gospel Power, Vol. 15, No. 4, Jan. 27, 2008. One of the most common mistakes made about Biblical history is the supposedly lost tribes of Israel. We know God divided the descendants of Jacob into 13 different tribes: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16153,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-are-the-10-tribes-of-the-northern-kingdom-and-the-2-tribes-of-the-southern-kingdom\/","url_meta":{"origin":28321,"position":1},"title":"Who are the 10 tribes of the Northern Kingdom and the 2 tribes of the Southern Kingdom?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I Kings 11:35-36 - 10 tribes would be given to Jeroboam and one tribe (Judah) to Rehoboam. But doesn't that include Benjamin as well (I Kings 12:21)? Who are the 10 tribes of the Northern Kingdom and the 2 tribes of the Southern Kingdom? Answer: \"Now it happened at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7339,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/were-the-ten-tribes-of-israel-really-lost\/","url_meta":{"origin":28321,"position":2},"title":"Were the Ten Tribes of Israel Really Lost?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 12, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Ezekiel 37:15-28 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Hurlbut\u2019s Story of the Bible: \u201cAs in their own land, the children of Israel had forsaken the Lord and had worshiped idols, so after they were taken to these distant lands, they sought the gods of the people of those lands and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Audio&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":53861,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-didnt-you-list-the-ten-tribes\/","url_meta":{"origin":28321,"position":3},"title":"Why didn&#8217;t you list the ten tribes?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 19, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Questions: You fail to answer your own question, \"Who are the 10 tribes of the Northern Kingdom?\" I was looking to see if Levi was among them but no list is given. If Judah and Benjamin remained in the south then that would mean Levi was in the north. But\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28643,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-difference-between-hebrew-israel-jew-canaan-etc\/","url_meta":{"origin":28321,"position":4},"title":"What is the difference between Hebrew, Israel, Jew, Canaan, etc.?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 29, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: God promised to bring the people of Israel to the promised land, and the Jews went to the promised land, but wasn't there more people in Israel than just the Jews? Answer: I'm having trouble with your question because I think there are some problems with definitions. Hebrew This\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14130,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-god-divorce-all-of-israel-or-only-the-northern-tribes\/","url_meta":{"origin":28321,"position":5},"title":"Did God divorce all of Israel or only the northern tribes?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 25, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In Jeremiah 3:8, who did God divorce? Was it the House of Israel (ten northern tribes) only or all twelve tribes? Thank you. Answer: \"Then the LORD said to me in the days of Josiah the king, \"Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28321\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}