Now let us study the term "tribes of Israel."

These are the twelve sons of Israel. The names of the twelve sons are; Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulon, Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Joseph, and Benjamin. The children of these twelve sons make up the nation of Israel.

At first all the tribes were one nation and it was called the kingdom of Israel. But because the king went against God; the Kingdom of Israel was split into two kingdoms, as it is written. Each Kingdom had a king. The Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah.

The Kingdom of Israel did all kinds of bad things against God. God kept warning the Kings and the people. Finally God destroyed their kingdom and all the tribes of the kingdom of Israel were taken captive and scattered among the nations of the world. Where they are today.

They think they are "gentiles". Lev 26:38 And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.

The Lord is still watching over them and will not allow them to be destroyed, because of his covenant.

Lev 26:44 44 And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God.

The ten tribes will be scattered all over the earth and they will not know who God is and they will worship other gods.

Deut 28: 64 And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.

The Lord will scatter Israel because of what they did when they had it all.

I King 14:15 For the LORD shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their groves, provoking the LORD to anger.

The Assyrians took the ten tribes of Israel out of their own land.
II Ki 17:6 In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

The reason the Lord allowed it to happen was because the ten tribes sinned against God.

II Ki 17:7 For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods,

They don't know they are apart of the ten tribes that were scattered.

II Ki 17:8 And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made.

They won't know until the Lord gathers them back to him.

Deut 32:26 I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men: 

Isa 11:10 And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.

Isa 11:11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

Here the Lord tells us there are two kingdoms, one is Judah and the other is Israel which will be gathered together.

Isa 11:12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

 The tribe of Rueben, the tribe of Simeon, the tribe of Zebulon, the tribe of Issachar, The tribe of Gad, The tribe of Asher, The tribe of Naphtali, the tribe of Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh) and the tribe of Dan, they still exist today, but they don't know who they are.

On the other hand, the "kingdom of Judah" still exist today, because of the promise God made to David.

I King 11:31 And he said to Jeroboam, Take thee ten pieces: for thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, Behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee:

I King 11:32(But he shall have one tribe for my servant David's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel:)

The "children of Jacob" is referring to the flesh descendents of all the tribes. When "Judah" is used it is referring to the descendents of only one tribe. That is the tribe of Judah. The whole point to this is simple. Everyone knows who "Judah "is, but no one knows who or where any other tribes are for sure. Levi and Benjamin are always connected to Judah, because they are apart of the kingdom of Judah.

The kingdom of Judah only had a scattering for seventy years, then they were brought back. The kingdom of Israel are still scattered and are now apart of the "gentiles".

As it is written; II Ki 17:18 Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only.

II Ki 17:22 For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them;
23 Until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day.

This tells us that Israel is mixed with the gentiles even today and we don't know who is who. Don't listen to what man has told you, this to what the Lord tells you through his Word. Anyone could be a true descendent of the tribes of Israel.