[Diego1618]

Just the combined population of Judea alone should discard the meeting of the two houses, I would think. Not to mention that Hosea 1:10-11 predicts the the two houses will reunite at some future time and get right with God.

You are correct....plus the fact that it is no where mentioned in scripture that they returned.....while two entire books (Ezra & Nehemiah) are devoted to the return from Babylon of the Jews about 525 B.C. This would have been about 200 years after the Assyrian exile of Israel.

It is after the Babylonian captivity that the Books of the Kings and the Chronicles are written and the Southern Kingdom is hereafter referred to as Jewish. The Northern Kingdom continues to just be called Israel.

Remember.....during the first century Josephus records that the people of the Ten Tribes, beyond the Euphrates, are so numerous....they cannot be counted!

[William Terrell]

It is after the Babylonian captivity that the Books of the Kings and the Chronicles are written and the Southern Kingdom is hereafter referred to as Jewish.

The first occurance of the name "Jew" is in 2 Kings.