[Cronos]

Up to the time the northern kingdom was captured, the estrangement between Judah and Israel was in force. Then Israel was captured and never heard of again. There hasn't been a opportunity to reconcile

Well, there are references to the northern tribes in the south AFTER the exile. The Assyrian monarch, Sennacherib also claims on his own that he shipped out only aroudn 27,000 "nobles" and that would make sense (as Obelix woudl say: "people who've lost their heads don't know what to do").

The ones that remained were ravaged or merged with the neighbouring nations -- all similar in language and culture and given the northerners lack of faith, similar in beliefs. Those that went to Assyria -Babylonia would have been absorbed in the related Amorite people there. Some did return with the Judeans but the northerners never had the cohesion -- political or religious that the south had -- note that Gad, Reuben and East Manasseh seem to have been absorbed during Kings by the neighbouring tribes of Moab and Ammon

Note also that the south was dominated by the Judeans who absorbed the Simeonites who were placed amongst them and the small tribe of Benjamin.

When the Jews returned they were still under Persian and then Greek dominance. THey were only united under the Maccabbees. THis, IMO is the fulfilment of those prophecies you quote

[William Terrell]

I believe it is recorded that some northern kingdom residents migrated to Judah because they didn't condone the behavior there before the Assyrians and before Babylon. Also there were remnants of the northern kingdom that weren't rounded up and escaped the Assyrians.

And we have a "sands of the sea" problem, if the northern kingdom was just simply assimilated into the surrounding people at the time.

There is one possible fulfillment of the prophecy.

Matthew 10;5 These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into [any] city of the Samaritans enter ye not:

10:6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel

That seems pretty clear. I can't see it referring to the remnants of Judah there at the time. They had already been preached to, and the disciples were themselves Judah, or Benjamin, or Levite. Where, then, did the disciples go?

Any other reasoning that the prophecy was fulfilled demands that the House of Israel returned to the homeland in vast (sands of the sea) numbers, which there is no evidence of.

If the Jews of today are sole surviving remnants of all of Israel and Judah, there are only 4 or 5 million, and not a foretold blessing to all nations, except for some scientific inventions here and there.

Prophecy fulfilled doesn't ring true, or fit all of the necessary specs in the Hosea prophecy or the sticks prophecy. To interpret them in the way you do, one must labor numerous assumptions and discount population numbers.

In the absence of direct, agreed upon and compelling evidence to the contrary, the plain wording of the prophecy has to be assumed.