King David’s Everlasting Dynasty! | by Raymond F. McNair

In approximately 1661 BC, the clan of Israel (or Jacob) journeyed to Egypt, where they remained for about 215 years (cf. Gen. 15:13-15; Exod. 12:1-42; Gal. 3:17). Just before his death, circa 1634 BC, the elderly Patriarch Jacob, under divine inspiration, blessed his twelve sons. To his son Judah, he said, “JUDAH is a lion’s whelp.... And as a lion, who shall rouse him? The Scepter shall not depart from JUDAH nor a lawgiver [‘ruler’s staff’] from between his feet, until SHILOH comes” (Gen. 49:10). That intriguing prophetic statement raises two important questions:

1) What is a “scepter”? A “scepter [is] a staff or baton borne by a sovereign as an emblem of authority” (Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed.).

2) WHO or what is “SHILOH”? Unger’s Bible Dictionary states, “Shiloh, the name, apparently of a person. A title of the Messiah (Gen. 49:10).... The entire Jewish synagogue and the whole Christian Church agree as to the fact that the patriarch is here proclaiming the coming of the Messiah” (3rd ed., art.). Shiloh”). The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible says, “Shiloh is traditionally understood as the name of the Messiah.... Most exegetes agree that a JUDEAN leader is referred to in this verse.... Christian interpreters since the sixteenth century have frequently identified Shiloh with the Messiah” (1962 ed., vol. 4).

Finally, The Imperial Bible Dictionary comments: “The proper fulfillment began in David’s time, and ‘the scepter and the lawgiver’ are to be sought for in his line, to which the promises were made of an UNENDING DOMINION. The old and simple interpretation is, that the sovereignty in Israel belongs to JUDAH, and that this prerogative, shall not be exhausted till the promised Saviour comes...” (Vol. II, 1966 ed.).

What does Genesis 49:10 reveal? 1) A scepter (ruler’s staff) would later be put in the hands of the people of Judah. 2) Once that scepter was put in the hands of Judah’s descendants, it would remain until the coming of Shiloh (the Messiah) to rule all nations sitting on the “Throne of David” (Isa. 9:6-7; Luke 1:32; Zech. 14:9).

But when was the scepter to appear in Judah? The Israelites were led out of Egypt in about 1446 BC, and 40 years later Joshua led them into the “Promised Land.” From then until about 1050 BC, Israel was ruled by a theocracy. God Himself ruled them, but they rejected Him (1 Sam. 8:7).

When the Israelites clamored for a human king, the Prophet Samuel reminded them that “the LORD your God was your king” (1 Sam. 12:13). Saul was anointed as Israel’s first king, but quickly rebelled against the LORD and was rejected by Him (15:22-23, 26). “...He gave them judges for about 450 years [then] God gave them Saul a son of Kish...of the tribe of Benjamin, for about 40 years. And when He had removed him, He raised up for them DAVID as king [of the tribe of Judah] and said, ‘I have found David...a man after My own heart, who will do My will’” (Acts 13:20-22). David wisely ruled Israel for 40 years and six months (2 Sam. 4:4-5), from about 1010 BC to 970 BC.

GOD’S EVERLASTING COVENANT WITH KING DAVID: God Almighty had promised that He would establish the “scepter” (kingship) in the tribe of Judah, and his descendants would continue to hold that “scepter” until the coming of “Shiloh”—the Messiah/Christ (Gen. 49:10). And the LORD first put the promised scepter in the hand of a young Jew named DAVID in about 1010 BC (1 Sam. 2:4).

The LORD solemnly promised King David that his Throne would continue forever: “I have made a covenant with My chosen, I have sworn to My servant David: ‘Your seed I will establish FOREVER, and build up YOUR THRONE to all generations’” (Psa. 89:3-4). “His seed also I will make to endure forever, and his Throne as the days of heaven” (vv. 27-29). “Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David: His seed shall endure forever, and his THRONE as the sun before Me; it shall be established forever like the moon, even like the faithful witness in the sky” (vv. 33-37; 2 Sam. 7:11-16). Some mistakenly think Psalm 89:38-51 negates God’s solemn promise to David. Not so! Verse 38 says that God abhorred His “anointed” (i.e. King Zedekiah), “cast off and abhorred” His servant’s crown (i.e. Zedekiah’s crown) “by casting it to the ground” (v. 39). That happened to King Zedekiah in about 586 BC—over four centuries after God’s irrevocable promise to King David.

When the Kingdom of Judah was destroyed by the Babylonians, Zedekiah’s crown was cast down to the ground. The authority vested in the scepter of Judah did cease to hold sway over those “Israelites” living in Palestine—that is, over the “Jews” living in the land of Judah—when Nebuchadnezzar “killed the sons of Zedekiah [and] all the nobles of Judah,” then “put out Zedekiah’s eyes” and sent him as a captive to Babylon (Jer. 39:6-7), where he later died (52:11).

But God faithfully kept His oath to David by transferring the crown from Zedekiah to one of his daughters, named Tamar Tephi (also called “Tea Tephi”). Later, we shall see how God kept His promise to King David and his descendants, by causing the “daughters of Zedekiah” to be taken from Palestine to Egypt (Jer. 43:5-7), a few years before they journeyed to the far-off British Isles, where one of them (Tamar Tephi) married a princely Israelite who then lived in Ireland.

King Solomon inherited the Throne of David about 970 BC, and in the 4th year of his reign he began to build a magnificent Temple (“House of God”) in Jerusalem. “And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished building the house of the LORD [c. 960 BC]...that the LORD appeared to Solomon.... And the LORD said to him: ‘I have heard your prayer and your supplication.... Now if you walk before Me as your father David walked...to do according to all that I have commanded you...then I will establish the THRONE of your kingdom over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘you shall not fail to have a man [Heb. ISH] on the THRONE of Israel’” (1 Kings 9:1-5; cf. 2 Chr. 7:17-18). This Hebrew word ish usually refers to males, but it is often used in a generic sense, in which case it includes females (Psa. 1:1; 112:1). Speaking of the manna which God fed the Israelites, God says, “Men [Heb. ish] ate angels’ food” (Psa. 78:25). This included both male and female Israelites.

Unlike the LORD’S unconditional promise to David, God’s promise to Solomon was given with the condition that Solomon must first obey Him. David had “many sons” (1 Sam. 28:5), so if his son Solomon disobeyed God, the LORD could then choose another of David’s sons to carry out His promise that David would never fail to have a descendant on his Throne throughout “all generations” (cf. Psa. 132:10-12). Shortly before David’s death, his “last words” included a reminder of God’s irrevocable promise to him: “Yet He [the LORD] has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and secure!” (2 Sam. 23:1, 5).

But, in spite of these many clear statements in the Scriptures, some Bible “scholars” simply refuse to believe God’s solemn promise to David of an everlasting dynasty. They carelessly assume his dynasty ceased to exist, after having held sway over the Israelites for about 424 years—from about 1010 BC to about 586 BC! These apologists refuse to accept the fact that God solemnly promised King David that his dynasty—his Royal House—would continue to rule in perpetuity over at least some of the descendants of Israel in every single generation. The critics try to “explain away” the vast gap of over 582 years between: 1) the destruction of the Kingdom of Judah and the overthrow of the House of David in Jerusalem (c. 586 BC), and 2) the coming of Jesus Christ (c. 4 BC), the ultimate heir to David’s Throne! During that time no son of David ruled over Israelites in the Promised Land!

This lengthy 582-year gap between Zedekiah’s downfall in 586 BC and the First Coming of Jesus Christ is impossible to explain away—if you really believe the LORD’S solemn promise to David, and if you know that “it is impossible for God to lie!” (Heb. 6:18). One of King David’s descendants was to sit upon his Throne in “all generations” (Psa. 89:4)! But how long is a generation? A Bible generation is certainly not less than a few decades in length (Exod. 1:6; Matt. 1:17; Lev. 23:14-41). How would God keep His solemn promise to David that one of his descendants would sit on his Throne in every single generation—ruling over some of his fellow Israelites?

History reveals that there have only been three brief interruptions in David’s royal line of succession to his Throne. Since God gave His promise to David before his death (c. 970 BC), a descendant of his has sat on his Throne in every generation! However, there have been three temporary vacancies (called “interregnums”) in David’s royal line of succession. An “interregnum [is] the time during which a throne is vacant between two successive reigns or regimes” (Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed.). When and how did the three temporary interregnums to the Davidic royal line of succession occur?

1) The first short vacancy in David’s royal line occurred when wicked Queen Athaliah (having no royal Davidic blood) usurped the Throne and ruled over the Kingdom of Judah for six years (c. 841-835 BC). She was the daughter of wicked Queen Jezebel and King Ahab of Israel: “Jezebel [was] the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians” (1 Ki. 16:31), who married Jehoram, king of Judah, by whom she had several sons, one of whom later became King Ahaziah of Judah. When her son Ahaziah was murdered, after reigning only “one year” (2 Chr. 22:1-9), Athaliah “arose and destroyed all the royal heirs of the house of Judah” except Joash (vv. 10-11). For “six years” her authority was unchallenged; then the priest Jehoida installed the young Joash on the Throne. Hearing the jubilation attendant to Joash’s coronation, wicked Athalia came out to confront her enemies, and was put to death outside the Temple (vv. 10-12; 23:1-15). Thus ended the six-year interregnum of “that wicked woman” (2 Chr. 24:7)!

2) The second brief vacancy (interregnum) in David’s dynasty occurred between the fall of Jerusalem (c. 586 BC), and the marriage of Zedekiah’s daughter (only a decade or so later)—to an Irish prince who then ruled over dispersed Israelites who had lived for many years in the far-off island of Ireland. An ancient Irish royal family—descendants of Judah’s son Zerah—had previously ruled over a thriving colony of the peoples of “lost Israel,” some of whom had lived in Ireland for many centuries. (More of this later.)

3) The third temporary vacancy (interruption) in the Davidic Dynasty occurred during an interregnum, which lasted nearly 11 years—when KING CHARLES I of England (a descendant of David through the ancient Scottish and Irish kings) was beheaded in 1649; but his son Charles II, was restored to the British Throne in 1660—a little less than 11 years after his father had been beheaded.

Besides these three interregnums, there are no other vacancies in the Davidic royal line from the time of King David to the present time. These three brief interregnums were well within the limits of the scope of God’s solemn promise that David would have an heir reigning on his Throne in “all generations” (Psa. 89:4).

Thus we see that it is a big mistake to casually assume that the Throne of David ceased to exist after Judah’s last king, Zedekiah, was toppled from his Throne in 586 BC, at which time all the nobles, as well as all of Zedekiah’s sons—the royal “seed” of David’s Dynasty—were killed by the Babylonians (Jer. 39:6-7). This left no male heirs of King Zedekiah to sit on David’s Throne. But many fail to recognize the fact that “Zedekiah’s daughters” were spared (Jer. 41:10; 43:6-7). Since Zedekiah had no living sons, one of his daughters could—and in fact did—continue the royal line of Davidic succession—according to the biblical law of inheritance in ancient Israel (Num. 27:1-11; Josh. 17:6).

In like manner, the British law of royal succession allows a daughter to inherit her father’s throne—if he leaves no male heirs. This occurred four times in the line of British monarchs: Mary I, Elizabeth I, Queen Victoria and the present British Queen, Elizabeth II. The French “Salic law” of royal dynastic succession “exclude[d] females from the line of succession” to the French throne (Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dict., 10th ed.).

Many are surprised to be told that the biblical Prophet Jeremiah did, according to ancient Irish history, accompany at least two of King Zedekiah’s daughters from the Holy Land to Ireland. The saga of how David’s Throne was transferred from Jerusalem, in the ancient land of Israel, to Ireland makes a most fascinating true story.

Jeremiah was one of the most remarkable of the O.T. prophets. His ministry in the “Holy Land” covered a span of about 40 years—from his call, during King Josiah’s 13th year (c. 626 BC) until the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC. He prophesied under the last five kings of Judah: 1) Josiah, 2) Jehoahaz, 3) Jehoiakim, 4) JEHOICHIN (also called CONIAH or Jeconiah) and 5) Zedekiah.

In about 597 BC, Jehoiachin (i.e. Coniah) succeeded his father Jehoiakim to the Throne (2 Chr. 36:1-10). However, because of his great wickedness, Jeremiah predicted that his descendants would never prosper on the Throne of David, ruling “in Judah.” Notice God’s curse upon Jeconiah’s house: “‘As I live,’ says the LORD, ‘though the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet on My right hand, yet I would pluck you off; and I will give you into the hand of those who seek your life’” (Jer. 22:24-25).

“‘O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD! Thus says the LORD! ‘Write this man [Coniah] down as childless, a man who shall not prosper in his days; for none of his descendants shall prosper, sitting on the THRONE OF DAVID, and ruling any more in JUDAH’” (vv. 29-30).

Although Coniah [Jehoiachin] was appointed king of Judah by the Babylonians, he only reigned three months and 10 days before Nebuchednezzar changed his mind and carried off the 18-year old king and his family to Babylon. Shealtiel, one of Coniah’s five sons, was the father of Zerubbabel, neither of whom ever became a king “in Judah.” However, Zerubbabel was appointed “governor of Judah” (Hag. 1:1)—after the Jews returned from Babylon in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. In fact, none of Coniah’s sons, or their descendants ever prospered on the Throne of David in Judah—just as God had prophesied through Jeremiah!

After King Jehoiachin was taken to Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar appointed Mattaniah (Jehoiachin’s uncle) to be the king of Judah, calling him ZEDEKIAH. (2 Ki. 24:10-18). “Then the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king in his place, and changed his name to ZEDEKIAH” (v. 17). God switched the royal line from wicked Jehoiachin’s [i.e. “Coniah’s”] family, to his nephew’s royal line of descent by appointing ZEDEKIAH as the vassal king over Judah.

Scotch-Irish Holy Land Connections Not long afterward, Almighty God commissioned Jeremiah to transplant the “king’s daughters” (i.e. Zedekiah’s daughters) from the land of Judah to the Emerald Isle (Ireland). Do ancient Irish histories, as well as present traditions, give us any clues showing that, in fact, Jeremiah did escort King Zedekiah’s “daughters” from the land of Judah to Ireland, via Egypt and Spain? To this very day, Irishmen believe the Hebrew Prophet Jeremiah brought one or more Jewish princesses to Ireland shortly after the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC.

While touring Ireland in 1959, I visited the city of Enniskillen, North Ireland. The local inhabitants informed me that the Prophet Jeremiah was buried nearby. I then hired a guide to take me to “Jeremiah’s Tomb,” which according to Irish tradition, many Irish believe is located on Devenish Isle, in Lough Erne, in Northern Ireland.

Years later, in July 1995, my wife and I were having breakfast with friends in a hotel restaurant in Belfast, N. Ireland, where we were discussing Irish history. During the discussion, I was surprised when another diner (who had obviously overheard some of our conversation) walked up to our table and informed us that present-day Irish people believe Jeremiah is buried in Northern Ireland. He told us that some of the Irish believe the venerable Prophet Jeremiah undertook an important mission to Ireland just a few years after the downfall of Judah and the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC.

For thousands of years, Northern Ireland and Scotland have been closely linked in kinship, culture, and in their cherished beliefs in liberty and free enterprise. In 1879, Scottish historian John MacLaren published an interesting history of Scotland titled, The History of Ancient Caledonia. In that history, he reveals that the early Christians of Scotland believed that—according to the Scottish Declaration of Arbroath—they had been taught by the Apostle Peter’s brother ANDREW, the “patron saint” of Scotland.

Also, according to MacLaren’s history, they had worshipped the “God of Bethel,” and knew that they were descendants of the “twelve tribes of Israel,” and say they brought “Jacob’s Pillow stone” into Britain. According to MacLaren, some of the Scots kept the “seventh day” Sabbath, observed the annual Sabbaths (mentioned in Leviticus 23) and kept the “Sabbath of the land” every seventh year, according to the laws God gave Moses to give to Israel; they also refused to eat any “unclean food” and paid “tythes” (The History of Ancient Caledonia, pp. 1-61). These comments reveal the close racial connection between the Scotch-Irish and the people of ancient Israel.

This same historian also says, “The original writings from which this history is translated are believed to have been carried away by Edward I, along with...Jacob’s Pillow [the British coronation stone, the Stone of Scone] upon which the Caledonians crowned their kings at Scone Palace” (p. 2). [Julius Caesar’s army landed in England in 54 BC, but soon returned to Gaul. In 43 AD, Rome again invaded Britain and occupied it for the next 400 years.]

What was “Jeremy’s Land”? MacLaren’s History of Ancient Caledonia repeatedly refers to Ireland as “Jeremy’s Land”—that is, “Jeremiah’s Land” (pp. 56-57). “The Lord permitted the Romans to persecute the Jews [66-73 AD] but He afflicted the Romans with famine and pestilence. As the orders were that no [Jewish] slaves were to be allowed to land there [at Rome], but were permitted either in BRITAIN or GAUL [France-Belgium], or JEREMY’S LAND [Ireland], or any other port beyond the great god GIB’S ROCK [Gibraltar] (the God of the Storm), they set sail from Rome bound for JEREMY’S LAND” (p. 56). Clearly, “Jeremy’s land” refers to Ireland!

But how did Ireland come to be called, at least by some, “JEREMY’S LAND”? In order to understand these things more fully, we need to see what God’s Word says concerning what happened to the Prophet Jeremiah and the “daughters” of King Zedekiah. Even before the Prophet Jeremiah was born, the LORD planned that he was destined to carry out a very important mission during his lifetime. God told Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; And I ordained you a prophet to the nations” (Jer. 1:4-5). Jeremiah tried to resist God’s call, “Ah, LORD God! Behold, I cannot speak [well], for I am a youth” (v. 8). God then told Jeremiah, “Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’ for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and whatever I command you, you shall speak...” (v. 7).

But, exactly what did the Great God have in mind for Jeremiah to do? “‘See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, [then] to BUILD and to PLANT’” (v. 10). Most Bible scholars understand that Jeremiah spent many years prophesying the destruction of the Kingdom of Judah. During that time he warned their leaders (including their kings) that the Babylonians would destroy both the Kingdom of Judah and the city of Jerusalem (21:1-14; 32:26-34). For prophesying calamity, “he was...shut up in the court of the prison” in Jerusalem for many days (33:1). Nonetheless, he continued prophesying against the Kingdom of Judah, saying it would be pulled down (chapters 34-37; 38:1-4).

Later, Jeremiah was accused of high treason: “So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the dungeon.... And there was no water, but mire. So Jeremiah sank in the mire” (v. 6). Finally, one of the king’s servants, an Ethiopian, interceded on his behalf: “so they pulled Jeremiah up with ropes and lifted him out of the dungeon...” (v. 13). “Now Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison until the day that Jerusalem was taken [by the Babylonians]” (v. 28), who captured King Zedekiah and passed judgment upon him (39:1-5). “Then the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes [and] also killed all of the nobles of Judah” (v. 6).

None of the male heirs to the Throne were left alive! But the Babylonian “captain of the guard” told Jeremiah, ‘“And now look, I free you this day from the chains that were on your hand”’ (40:4), and said to him, “‘Go wherever it seems convenient for you to go.’ So the captian of the guard gave him rations and a gift [expense money] and let him go” (v. 5). At first, Jeremiah remained with the few Jews whom the Babylonians left in the land of Judah. But did Jeremiah remain there? No. Then, where did he go? Did Jeremiah then accompany “Zedekiah’s daughters” to join “lost Israelites” in Ireland?

When the leaders of the Jewish remnant decided to flee to Egypt, they asked Jeremiah to seek God’s will in the matter. Jeremiah took it to God, then told them God’s directive: “Do not go to Egypt!” (42:1-19). However, their self-willed leaders flatly refused to obey God’s Word by Jeremiah: “But Johanan the son of Kareah and all of the captains of the forces took all the remnant of Judah who had returned to dwell in the land of Judah, from all nations where they had been driven—men, women, children, the KING’S DAUGHTERS...and JEREMIAH the prophet and BARUCH [Jeremiah’s scribe].... So they went as far as TAHPANHES [Gk. Daphne]” in N. E. Egypt (43:5-7).

Ancient Irish histories indicate there were two prominent eastern ladies—both of whom appear to have been daughters of Zedekiah—who were later connected with the people of Ireland: SCOTA and TAMAR TEPHI.

1) SCOTA was apparently the older of the two celebrated women, and some biblical scholars believe Scota was one of Zedekiah’s daughters. Scotch-Irish records explain that this eastern lady, Scota, had previously married Niul—one of Pharaoh Hophra’s mercenary soldiers—while she was living as a royal refugee (a “daughter”) under the adoptive protection of the Pharaoh Hophra, who had a royal “house” or palace at Tahpanhes, Egypt (see Jer. 33:9; 44:30). It was this Scota whose name the people of Ireland later adopted—as Ireland was subsequently called “Scotia” until the 10th century AD (Moore’s History of Ireland, vol. 1). Later that name, Scota, was applied to North Britain (i.e. Scotland) and still later Scota was applied to a province in Southeastern Canada called NOVA SCOTIA.

Notice the following account of what happened to “JACOB’S PILLOW STONE” in connection with King Zedekiah’s daughters: TEA TEPHI and SCOTA— “It [this “Pillow Stone” or “Stone of Destiny”] was saved from destruction with the Temple, was cherished as a palladium by the Jews; and, after the death of Zedekiah, was carried by a migrating colony, with ‘SCOTA the King’s daughter’ under the leadership of the Prophet Jeremiah.... It was taken to ‘The Isles of the Sea,’ and preserved as a Stone of Destiny, by the ‘People of Scota’.... Finally, it was ‘stolen’ by Edward, King of England, and placed in the Coronation Chair at Westminster Abbey where it still is” (THE STONE OF DESTINY, by F. Wallace Connon, p. 15).

Note In December 1996, this Stone of Destiny was returned to the Scots. This “chunk of sandstone [called the “Stone of Scone”] was returned to Edinburgh, Scotland from London, England—amidst the playing of bagpipes, and the jubilation of the Scots”: “Friday [Nov. 15, 1996—700 years after 1296] the pale yellow stone—on which every great king of Scotland was crowned until 1296—was returned home to the skirl of pipes, toasts of whiskey and a school holiday.... The STONE came home because the British government of Prime Minister John Major decided it should, and it will go to Edinburgh Castle for display...” (The Los Angeles Times, Nov. 16, 1996).

2) TAMAR TEPHI was apparently the second of King Zedekiah’s “daughters.”
Tamar means Palm. When Tamar is combined with Tephi (Heb. “beautiful”) it means palm beautiful—that is, “Beautiful Palm.” In Irish history, Tamar Tephi was also known by the name Tea Tephi. When “Tea” (Heb. wanderer) is combined with “Tephi” (Heb. “beautiful”), we get Tea Tephi (Beautiful Wanderer). We shall soon see why this beautiful princess was called a “Beautiful Wanderer.”

At the fall of Jerusalem in about 586 BC, these two princesses were quite young, as proven by the fact that their father, King Zedekiah, who was only 32 years old when he was taken to Babylon at the time when Jerusalem was captured by the Babylonians: “Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years [until taken to Babylon in 586 BC]” (2 Chr. 36:22).

Since the two royal Jewish princesses, Tamar and Scota, spent several years in Tahpanhes (Daphne), Egypt—during the reign of Pharaoh Hophra—they, in a sense, became Pharaoh’s “adoptive daughters” by being under his protective custody. Irish annals reveal that, while yet in Egypt, Princess Scota married a man named Niul, a Milesian mercenary (i.e. a Gael of Israelite ancestry) in the employ of Pharaoh Hophra. Later, after going to Ireland, Princess Tea Tephi married an Irish prince of the Zerah branch of Judah bearing the princely title of Eochaidh (“Erimionn,” or “Heremon”).

After Jerusalem’s fall, the leaders of a Jewish remnant stubbornly insisted on going to Egypt—regardless of God’s instruction to the contrary. The LORD then told them that if they disobeyed, most of them would be “consumed by the sword and by famine.... Yet a small number who escaped the sword would return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah...” (Jer. 44:27-28).

God also told Jeremiah and the Jews, “Behold, I will give PHARAOH HOPHRA king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies...as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, his enemy who sought his life” (v. 30). Ancient Irish history mentions that—not long after the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC—a gray-haired sage (or prophet) came to Ireland, bringing an Eastern Princess (Tea-Tephi). He was accompanied by his scribe, “Simon Brach” (sometimes spelled Breck or Berech), whom the Bible reveals to be Jeremiah’s secretary, BARUCH (Jer. 31:32). “The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch...when he had written these words in a book at the instruction of Jeremiah.... Thus says the LORD...to you, O Baruch.... ‘Behold, I have built, I will break down, and what I have planted I will pluck up, that is, this whole land.... And do you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them; for behold, I will bring adversity on all flesh.... But I will give your life to you as a prize, wherever you go’” (45:1-5).

But Jeremiah and his secretary, Baruch, were to be under God’s protection “in all places” wherever they went (Jer. 1:5). But where were Jeremiah and Baruch to go? Remember, Jeremiah had been commissioned “to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down” the Kingdom of Judah, and the “THRONE of DAVID.” He was also told that, afterward, he was to “BUILD and to PLANT” in another place (v. 10).

What was Jeremiah to build and plant? Obviously, the same Throne, which he had helped to pull down in Judah! Another scripture which is sometimes used to show that a daughter of Zedekiah would continue to rule on David’s Throne is found in Isaiah 37:31-32: “And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upwards. For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and those who escape from Mount Zion. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.”

The Bible reveals that after the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC, a “remnant”—including the “king’s daughters,” Jeremiah, his scribe, Baruch (Jer. 43:6-7), did escape Babylonian captivity and fled to Tahpanhes, Egypt for refuge. It was out of this “remnant” from Mount Zion (the ROYAL RESIDENCE of the kings of JUDAH) that King Zedekiah’s daughters came. And according to Jeremiah’s divine commission (Jer. 1:9-10), one of those “daughters” was to be “planted” and “built” into a viable dynasty in the “height of Israel”—among the Israelite peoples of the “Lost Ten Tribes” of Israel, many of whom then lived in Ireland and other N.W European countries (Ezek. 17:2-24).

How did Zedekiah’s daughters get from Israel to Ireland? At the time when Jeremiah, Baruch and the “king’s daughters” went to Tahpanhes, Egypt [Jer. 43:6-7], “Pharaoh-HOPHRA [was then] king of Egypt” (44:30). Hophra, like the Jews, was at odds with the Babylonians. Furthermore, “Pharaoh’s house” (his Royal Palace) was in Tahpanhes (v. 9) which was a very important Egyptian fortress city during his reign.

The Encyclopedia Britannica says, “Daphne (Tahpanhes, modern Defneh), an ancient fortress near the Syrian frontier of Egypt, on the Pelusian arm of the Nile. Here King Psammetichus established a garrison of foreign mercenaries, mostly Carians and Ionian Greeks. After the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in 588 BC [more accurately, in 586 BC] the Jewish fugitives, of whom Jeremiah was one, came to Tahpanhes.... The site was discovered by Sir Flinders Petrie in 1886; the name ‘Castle of the JEW’S DAUGHTER’ seems to preserve the tradition of the Jewish refugees’” (14th ed., vol. vii, p. 48).

Furthermore, we are told that “Pharaoh Apries (HOPHRA; 588-569 BC)...fomented rebellion against the Babylonian suzerainty in Judah, but accomplished little there. Colonies of Jewish refugees [including Jeremiah and the “king’s daughters”] were given shelter in Egypt. Herodotus describes Apris’ reign as exceedingly prosperous” (Encyc. Brit., 15th ed., vol. 8).

Note Famous British archaeologist and Egyptologist, Sir Flinders Petrie (1853-1942), says this of the Egyptian city of “Tahpanhes”: “TAHPANHES was an important garrison, and as the Jews fled there it must have been close to the frontier. It is thus clear that it was the Greek Daphanae, the modern Tell Defneh, which is on the road to Palestine.... Of this an echo comes across the long ages; the fortress mound is known as QASR BINT el YEHUDI, the palace of the Jew’s daughter. It is named Qasr, as a palace, not Qala, a fortress. It is not named Tell Bint El Yehudi as it would be if it were called so after it were a ruinous heap. Qasr is a name, which shows its descent from the time of...HABITATION FOR NOBILITY and not merely for troops. So through the long ages of Greek and Roman and Arab there has come down the memory of the royal residence for the king’s daughters from the wreck of Jerusalem” (Egypt and Israel, pp. 85-86).

We are told that during this 26th Dynasty, the Egyptians regularly imported foreign mercenaries to guard their N. E. frontier, including the fortress city of Tahpanhes (Daphne). As an example, “[PHARAOH] PSAMTIK guarded the frontiers of Egypt with three strong garrisons, placing the Ionian and Carian mercenaries especially at the Pelusian Daphnae...in the northeast, from which quarter the most formidable enemies were likely to appear” (p. 40).

Ancient Irish history reveals that shortly before the mid-500s BC, two prominent Eastern women (one called “SCOTA” and the other called “TEA TEPHI”) came from Egypt into Ireland. Jeremiah and the “king’s daughters” had dwelt in Daphne a number of years before they left Egypt and journeyed westward through the Mediterranean and the Straits of Gibraltar, then northward to Portugal/Spain (Iberian Peninsula) where they sojourned for a short time, before settling permanently in N. Ireland not long afterward.

Flavius Josephus’ Antiquities (12:226-7) and the apocryphal book of 1 Maccabees (12:20-23) mention that a colony of Israelites—who had anciently gone to Southern Greece—corresponded with the Jewish High Priest, ONIAS, assuring the Jews of their kinship. Apparently, this event occurred either in the 4th or 5th centuries BC (Encyclopaedia Judaica, corrected ed., vol. 12, art. “Onias”).

Some of the “Greek” mercenaries whom Pharaoh-hophra employed in his service were undoubtedly Israelites who had earlier settled in Greece. “The Greeks continued to play a prominent role during the reigns of Psammetichus II and Apries (the Pharaoh Hophra of Jeremiah). Under the latter, however, a national movement among the Egyptians led to a REVOLT against the [Egyptian] king and the Greek element, with the result that the throne passed to the general Amasis (Ahmosis II), who withdrew [i.e. expelled] the Greeks from Daphnai...” (Chamber’s Ency., 1959 ed., Vol. 5).

When this new Pharaoh, Ahmosis II, gained the throne, he drove out the Greek mercenaries at Tahpanhes (c. 569 BC), where Jeremiah and the “king’s daughters” were living at that time. But where did they go when they left Egypt? Many old Irish histories speak of an Eastern princess arriving in Ireland from the land of Egypt at that time in history. Undoubtedly, some of those “Greek” mercenaries (of Israelite descent)—who were expelled from Egypt after the reign of Pharaoh Hophra—accompanied Jeremiah and his royal party from Egypt to Ireland via Spain.

Note this interesting comment by Geoffrey Keating: “Pharaoh Intur [Ahmosis II] and the Egyptians, in time, remembered their old grudge to the descendants of Niul and his family of Gaedal [Gaels], namely, their resentment for the friendship the latter had formed with the children of Israel [their blood relatives]. They, then, made war upon the GAELS, who were thereby compelled to exile themselves from Egypt” (History of Ireland from the Earliest Period to the English Invasion, pp. 153-156). Pharaoh Ahmosis II drove out these Jews (including Jeremiah and the Jewish daughters of Zedekiah) and their Israelite cousins, the Milesian Gaels, who were later called “Scots,” by using the name of Pharaoh’s “adopted” Jewish “daughter” Scota.

This “Scota” was apparently one of the two Jewish princesses who had sought refuge in Pharaoh’s fortress city of Tahpanhes, Egypt. As we have previously noted, these “GAELS”—and their kinsmen who journeyed with Jeremiah’s royal party from Egypt to Ireland via Spain—were later called “Scots,” both in Ireland and Scotland!

The Encyclopedia Britannica states, “The name of SCOTLAND for this geographical area of northern Britain (Caledonia of the ancients)...originated in the 11th century, when (from the tribe of Scots) part of it was called SCOTIA (a name previously applied to what is now IRELAND) and the name of Scotland became established in the 12th and 13th centuries” (Ency. Brit., 11th ed., Vol. XXIX). And, as previously noted, some Scots later went to Eastern Canada and founded NOVA SCOTIA, meaning New Scota. Thus we see that all of these names refer back to the famous Princess “Scota” who, along with Princess Tamar Tephi (Tea Tephi), came into Ireland from the land of Israel!

Jeremiah, the royal princesses and Baruch (accompanied by Gaels, serving as their armed escort) went from Egypt to Spain, remaining there a comparatively short time, before migrating to Northern Ireland, where the Gaelic peoples had previously gained supremacy over Ireland’s first permanent inhabitants, the Tuatha-de-Danaan: “In process of time, the Tuatha-de-Danaan [of Ireland] were themselves dispossessed of their sway; a successful invasion from the coast of Spain having put an end to the Danaanian dynasty, and transferred the SCEPTRE [of Ireland] into the hands of that Milesian or SCOTIC race, which through so long a series of succeeding ages, supplied Ireland with her kings. This celebrated colony [came] directly from Spain...” (Thomas Moore, The History of Ireland, 1837 ed., Vol. I, p. 61). This author also mentions that Ireland had been called “SCOTIA” until “the tenth century of our era” (p. 69). Clearly, some of these “Ulster Scots” were descendants of King David’s royal line of kings.

Moore says these “Scots” who came from Egypt to Ireland via Spain possessed a highly treasured “STONE OF DESTINY” (p. 60). Speaking of these Scots (called “Milesians”), Moore also states, “From thence tracing this CHOSEN RACE in their migrations to different countries, and connecting them, by marriage or friendship, during their long sojourn in EGYPT, with most of the heroes of Scripture, our Bards conduct them at length...to Spain” before they finally went to Northern Ireland (p. 61).

Scottish historian, Hector Boece, says that the ancestor of the Scots was a “‘Greyke [Greek] callit [called] Gathelus, son of Cecrops of Athens, utherwayis [otherwise] of argus, King of Argives,’ who came to Egypt when ‘in this tyme rang [reigned] in Egypt Pharo ye scourage of ye pepill of Israel.’ Gathelus gained a gret victory for Pharo [Pharaoh Hophra] against the Moris [Moors of N. Africa]...and ‘King Pharo gaif him his dochter [daughter], callit SCOTA, in marraige” (Boece, The Chronicles of Scotland, vol. 1, pp.21-17, transl. into Scots by John Bellenden, 1551 AD).

Note It has been a common practice for a king of one nation to take under his wing (i.e. a quasi adoption of) royal refugees from other countries that, because of persecution, were forced to leave their native homeland. God’s servant David fled from the land of Israel during King Saul’s time of severe persecution, and took refuge with the Philistine King of Gath, as his guest (1 Sam. 27 & 29). David was treated as a royal guest. It appears that this “daughter” (Scota) was Pharaoh’s adopted daughter, who was in fact, a royal princess of Judah (an actual daughter of King Zedekiah)—who along with her sister, Tamar Tephi, Jeremiah, and Baruch (and their escort), had previously sought refuge at Tahpanhes, Egypt, under the protective custody of Pharaoh Hophra’s wing!

According to Collier’s Encyclopedia, during this same general time frame, “Egypt traded not only with the Near East but also with the rising Greek states of Asia Minor, the Aegean Islands, and European Greece. Many professional ‘Greek’ soldiers found employment in the Egyptian armies of this period” (1959 ed., Vol. 7). However, these “Greeks” were, in fact, Milesian mercenaries, employed by Pharaoh to defend Egypt’s northeastern frontier.

The last biblical mention of the Prophet Jeremiah is found in his own account of “the KING’S DAUGHTERS,” Baruch, and himself being taken to Tahpanhes not long after the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC (Jer. 43:5-7). There is not one more word in the O.T. concerning what happened to Jeremiah; but ancient Irish history picks up where the Bible breaks off, and shows that Jeremiah and the Jewish princesses did, in fact, leave Egypt under pressure of a new Pharaoh and went to Spain (Portugal was not then a separate country) and from there they went directly to Northern Ireland in about 570 BC.

The Milesian Scots (i.e. Gaels) who conquered the earlier inhabitants of Ireland (known as “Tuatha-de-Danaan”) were also known as the people of the “Red Hand.” From time immemorial the people of Northern Ireland (Ulster) have used the “Red Hand” as an emblem of their heraldry. Even today, the official flag of Northern Ireland features a “Red Hand”: “The St. George’s Cross with the ancient regional emblem, the blood-red Right Hand of Ulster, at its center surmounted by the Royal Crown, forms the flag of Northern Ireland. A shield bearing the similar emblem...forms the flag of the Governor of Ireland” (Evans, The Observer’s Book of Flags, p. 28).

Numerous clans of Ireland, as well as 10 or 12 Scottish clans, also include the RED HAND on their family coat of arms (The Scottish Tartans, illustr. by William Semple). The Matheson clan has on its coat of arms three blood-red Right Hands.

Furthermore, we are told that “The RED HAND of Ulster is thus claimed in some circles to be symbolic of this event [the scarlet thread tied around Zerah’s hand, Gen. 38:24-30], and also considered symbolic is the fact that the ancient Knights of Ulster were the most distinguished in the history of this island [Ireland]. They were known as the KNIGHTS OF THE RED BRANCH [of Zerah]” (The “Larne Times” of N. Ireland, Dec. 24, 1986). Irish historian, Thomas Moore, also mentions “the celebrated Knights of the Red Branch, so triumphantly sung by the bards...” (The History of Ireland, Vol. I, p. 89-90). What, if anything, does the RED HAND have to do with the ancient people of Israel?

In actual fact, this “Red Hand” goes back to the time of the birth of one of Judah’s twin sons, ZERAH. At his birth, he put forth his hand, and the midwife tied a RED or SCARLET thread around his HAND, signifying his right to a regal position promised to Judah! Here is the biblical account of that important event: “And so it was, when she was giving birth, that the one [twin] put out his hand; and the midwife took a SCARLET THREAD and bound it on his HAND, saying, ‘This one came out first.’ Then it happened, as he drew back his hand that his brother came out unexpectedly; and she said, ‘How did you break through? This BREACH [in the birth of these twins] be upon you!’ Therefore his name was called PEREZ [Heb. ‘breach,’ or ‘breakthrough’]. Afterward his brother [Zerah] came out who had the SCARLET [red] thread on his HAND. And his name was called ZERAH [Heb. ‘dawning, rising, shining’]” (Gen. 38:28-29 NKJV).

When his twin brother Perez (Heb. “breach”) became the firstborn, this breach meant that Perez, not Zerah, would inherit Judah’s firstborn son’s regal position, thereby fulfilling the divine prophecy of Genesis 49:10. Many centuries later, when a royal Jewish princess—of the PHEREZ BRANCH of Judah—married an Irish prince of the ZERAH BRANCH of Judah, her marriage repaired the ancient breach made by Zerah’s brother Perez. The KJV spells the twins names differently: Pharez and Zareh.

How did this “right RED HAND” originate? Ancient Irish tradition says that the “Red Hand” in Northern Ireland’s heraldry arose in the following manner: Anciently, two Irish brothers were on a boat, and as they approached the shore of Ireland, they agreed that the one who first touched Irish soil would inherit the land. As they came near the shore, one brother supposedly cut off his right hand and threw it onto the land, thereby claiming that land as his. This “tradition” is a garbled, fictitious account of how the “right Red Hand” came to figure so prominently in Northern Ireland’s history.

As previously noted, a “right Red Hand” is on the official flag of Northern Ireland! There is considerable evidence proving that the people of the “Red Hand” also left traces of the “Red Hand” tradition as they traveled across North Africa and into Spain on their journey from the Orient (Palestine) to Ireland. Ancient history often has a “kernel” of truth, mixed in with those “oral traditions.” Some people, however, believe that the Bible alone holds the real “key” to the mystery of the origin of the “Red Hand”!

How did the people of the “RED HAND” get to Ireland? To find out, we must first ask: Who were the descendants of Judah’s son, ZERAH? “The sons of ZERAH were Zimri, Ethan, Heman, Calcol, and DARA—five of them in all” (1 Chr. 2:6). However, in 1 Kings 4:3, this same grandson of Judah is also called DARDA. We are told that King Solomon, a descendant of Perez, “was wiser than all men—than Ethan...and Heman, Chalcol, and DARDA” (I Kings 4:31). Speaking of “Dara” and “Darda,”
Unger’s Bible Dictionary says “they are doubtless the same.”

Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible says that Flavius Josephus equates Darda with the Greek Dardanos: “DARDA...Joseph[us] DARDANOS; Darda” (vol. 1, p. 397). “Dardanus...mythical founder of Dardanus on the Hellespont [i.e. the Dardanelles] and ancestor of the DARDANS of the Troad [area ruled by the Trojans]...became the founder of the royal house of TROY” (Ency. Brit., 11th ed., Vol. V11, p. 829).

The “Hebrews” built “ancient Troy”! According to Scottish historian John MacLaren, certain Israelites had settled in Asia Minor in ancient times. [Note At that time Western Asia Minor was then inhabited primarily by Greek colonists, but some of those “Greeks” were in fact Israelites who lived among the Greeks]. “The HEBREWS then built an altar to the Lord thanking Him for their deliverance from the Egyptians. The king of Greece visited their camps with his Hebrew servant, telling them to build a city and fortify themselves against their enemies...[they then] commenced to build the city of TROY” (The History of Ancient Caledonia, 1879 ed., p. 4). Furthermore, Josephus and the first book of Maccabees both mention that some Israelites had lived in Southern Greece many years before Christ. He quotes the Spartan King Areus as saying, “We have discovered that both the Jews and the Lacedemonians [of S. Greece] are of one stock, and are derived from the kindred of Abraham” (bk. 12, chap. 4, sec. 10, pp. 296-297).

A book entitled Hellosemitica says, “And already Hecataeus of Abdera [c. 4th century B.C.] represented both the Jewish Exodus and the Greek migration of Danaos and Cadmus as episodes of one and the same event.... Thence the assertion...that the SPARTANS (whose kings...claimed descent from Danaos) are brothers of the JEWS and descend from Abraham’s kindred” (Hellosemitica, 1965, p. 98).

And the Apostle Peter speaks of the “dispersed” (“scattered” KJV) Israelites, who in the 1st century A.D., were then living in “Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia” (2 Peter 1:1). At that time the “TWELVE TRIBES [were] scattered abroad,” according to the Apostle James (James 1:1).

Some Israelites had anciently migrated into Southern Greece, while others had settled among the Greeks in Western Asia Minor [modern Turkey] in the vicinity of Troy. In fact, some very old maps illustrate an area called “DARDANIA,” in the vicinity of Troy. And it is very interesting that the southern portion of the waterway which leads from the Aegean Sea into the Black Sea is still known as the DARDANELLES. Since descendants of Darda lived among the Hellenes (i.e. Grecian colonies) in Southern Greece and Western Asia Minor, those “DARDANS” gave their name to that famous channel—DARDANELLES.

Also, the first king of London, England was called Brutus, the Trojan. A very old British history, published in 1661, has this to say regarding BRUTUS: “In the time of King Edward 1 (king of England 1272-1307). At Lincolne, where held a Parliament, after much diligent search of antiquities...letters were sent to the Pope of Rome, sealed with an hundred seals and witnesses...wherein is declared and justified that in the time of Holy [Eli] and Samuel the Prophet, Brutus a TROJAN landed here, and by his own name called the Country Britannia, before named ALBION [referring to the “White Cliffs” of Dover].... And having three Sons, Locrinus, Albanactus, and Camber, at his death devided [sic] the island into three parts or provinces, Loegria, now ENGLAND...was given to Locrinus the eldest Son; Albania, (SCOTLAND), to Albanact the second son, Cambria, now mis-called WALES, to Camber his third son” (Percy Enderbie, Gent., Cambria Triumphans, or Britain in its Perfect Lustre, 1661).

According to ancient Welsh records, Brutus came to Britain when Eli was God’s priest in Israel: “And when Brutus had finished the city [of London] and had strengthened it with walls and castles, he consecrated them and made inflexible laws for the governance of such as should dwell there peacefully, and he put protection on the city and granted privilege to it. At this time Eli the priest ruled in Judea, and the Ark of the Covenant was in captivity to the Philistines” (‘The Welsh Bruts’).

Furthermore, all the royal families of Northwest Europe trace their lineage back through the ancient kings of Troy (p. 4), and at least some of them, as we have already noted, were descendants of the ancient Jewish clan DARDA, grandson of Judah! MacLaren’s Ancient History of Caledonia explains that peoples of the “Twelve Tribes of Israel” (p. 14) had founded the city of Troy (p. 4), then, when that city later fell, some of them fled by ship, passed through the Mediterranean into Spain, and eventually went to Ireland. So, when Jeremiah, his scribe Baruch, and the daughters of King Zedekiah voyaged from Egypt to Ireland—they were escorted by Milesian mercenaries (or Gaels). After a comparatively short sojourn in Spain, they journeyed on to Ireland—to a land where they knew their fellow Israelites had previously settled, and had established a kingdom, hundreds of years before the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC!

How did the “Throne of David” get from the land of Israel to Ireland? The Prophet Ezekiel tells us how the LORD accomplished that. God inspired Ezekiel to give His people Israel a fascinating riddle concerning two GREAT EAGLES, one representing Babylon, the other one, Egypt. The Babylonian “eagle” conquered Judah, destroyed its Kingdom, toppled its king and princes. Yet King Zedekiah—who was put on his Throne by Nebuchadnezzar—treacherously sought Egypt’s aid to help the Jews free themselves from Babylonian rule. But God had said the Egyptian “eagle” could not defend Judea.

Through this parable, the Great God made known to Ezekiel what He planned to do: “I will take also one of the highest branches [King Zedekiah] of the high cedar [JUDAH] and set it out. I will crop off from the topmost of its young twigs [Zedekiah’s children] a tender one [a daughter], and will plant it on a high and prominent mountain. On the mountain height of ISRAEL [not Judah] I will plant it; and it will bring forth boughs, and bear fruit and be a majestic cedar.... And all the trees [nations] of the field shall know that I, the LORD, have brought down the high tree [“Judah”] and exalted the low tree [Ten-tribed “Israel”], dried up the green tree and made the dry tree flourish; I, the LORD, have spoken and have done it” (Ezek. 17:22-24).

Ezekiel further explains that God would abase this high tree and exalt the lowly tree, saying that the “profane, wicked prince of Israel” (King Zedekiah) was about to lose his crown (Ezek. 17:25-26): “Thus saith the LORD God; ‘Remove the diadem, and take off the CROWN: This shall not be the same; exalt him that is low [the lowly prince in Ireland] and abase him [King Zedekiah] that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it [the “crown’—i.e. the “Throne of David”]; and it shall no more [be overturned] until HE come whose right it is; and I will give it [the CROWN—“THRONE OF DAVID” to] HIM [Christ]” (21:27 KJV). This verse cannot possibly mean that David’s Throne would “be no more”—i.e. cease to exist!—because God had repeatedly promised that David’s Throne would continue “forever” as assuredly as the sun and moon would remain (Psa. 89)!

It is a fact that God did overturn the Throne of David three times: [1] From the ancient land of Israel, David’s Throne went to Ireland, via Egypt and Spain; [2] From Ireland it was taken to Scone in Scotland; [3] From Scotland it was taken to London, England. When King James VI of Scotland became King James I of England in 1603, he took the royal Davidic bloodline with him, thus uniting the two crowns of England and Scotland. It is through King James I that historians trace the British sovereigns back to the ancient Scottish and Irish kings. We then trace their royal ancestral bloodline all the way back to Zedekiah of Judah, a descendant of King David.

Britain’s Scottish-born King James I (1603-1625), knew he was a descendant of the ancient Scottish and Irish kings. But did he realize he was also a descendant of the illustrious David, king of all Israel? James was crowned King of England and Scotland in 1603. Ten years later (April 12, 1613), King James I made this remarkable statement at Whitehall, in London, England: “There is a double reason why I should be careful of the welfare of that people, first as King of England, and also as King of Scotland, for the ancient kings of Scotland are descended from the kings of Ireland.” Some years ago, while visiting England’s historic Hatfield House (near London), I saw an ancient royal genealogy displayed in one of the rooms of that historic house, which I was told contained the genealogy of Queen Elizabeth II, all the way back to King David. And then the Bible gives David’s genealogy all the way back to Adam!

Ezekiel’s two prophecies, as found in the 17th and 21st chapters, reveal that the Kingdom of Judah was to be abased, whereas the lowly people of the ten-tribed Kingdom of Israel—some of whom then lived in Britain and other N. W. European countries—were about to be exalted by having a descendant of King David reign over them. As we have seen, that Davidic Throne was destined to be transferred from the Kingdom of Judah to Ireland, then to Scotland, and would finally be taken to ENGLAND in the person of King James I (called James VI by the Scots) in 1603. And, just as the Great God had promised—during the 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, the British Throne has become world-renowned as the most ancient and most prestigious Throne, continually occupied, in the entire world! It is so, because God Almighty solemnly promised his servant King David that He would exalt David’s Throne! At one time that Throne reigned over a quarter of the earth, and over one-fourth of its peoples.

Today, the British Throne still holds at least symbolic sway over hundreds of millions of peoples who are citizens of the COMMONWEALTH OF NATIONS, but it is no longer called the “British Commonwealth of nations,” since most of them are not “British by descent.” The British nations include: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Britain.

Luke tells us that JESUS will sit on David’s Throne: “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the THRONE OF HIS FATHER DAVID. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of HIS KINGDOM there will be NO END” (Luke 1:32-33).

The Bible describes how that prestigious Throne will once more be transferred (overturned) for the final time at Christ’s Second Coming, when Jesus Christ, a royal Son of King David, will then be placed securely on that Throne, and will rule all nations from Jerusalem: “At that time Jerusalem shall be called The Throne of the LORD, and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem. In those days the HOUSE OF JUDAH shall walk with the HOUSE OF ISRAEL...” (Jer. 3:17).

The Prophet Zechariah also says, “And in that day it shall be that living waters shall flow from Jerusalem.... And the LORD shall be King over all the earth” (14:8-9). The Prophet Isaiah describes Christ’s world-ruling Throne, which will be situated on Mount Zion in Jerusalem (Isa. 2:1-4; 11:1-9). Furthermore, Isaiah says that Jesus Christ, as the “Prince of Peace,” will then sit upon the “Throne of David”: “Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the THRONE OF DAVID and over His kingdom...from that time forward, even forever” (9:7-9). That ancient Throne will not again be “overturned” until the generation arrives which will witness the glorious coming of Shiloh (Messiah)—“until HE comes whose right it is, and I will give it to Him” (Gen. 49:10; cf. Ezek. 21:27).

In December 1996, a “chunk of sandstone [called the “Stone of Scone”] was returned to Edinburgh, Scotland from London, England—amidst the playing of bagpipes, and the jubilation of the Scots”: “Friday [Nov. 15, 1996], the pale yellow stone—on which every great king of Scotland was crowned until 1296—was returned home to the skirl of pipes, toasts of whiskey and a school holiday.... The STONE came home because the British government of Prime Minister John Major decided it should, and it will go to Edinburgh Castle for display...” (The Los Angeles Times, Nov. 16, 1996). It now sits securely guarded in Edinburgh Castle in Scotland. Why is that “stone” so important to the Scots, the peoples of Britain and the British-descended peoples of the Commonwealth: England, Scotland, N. Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand? That ancient, celebrated Stone of Scone has been called “the ancientest respected monument in the world” (The Archaeological Journal, Sept. 1856).

Some years ago, when visitors to Westminster Abbey in London viewed the Stone of Scone, they noticed that by its side a sign displayed the words “JACOB’S PILLOW STONE.” I myself well remember seeing that sign displayed by the side of that ancient stone in Westminster Abbey. Later, it was removed, though I have been unable to learn why. Did British “officials” of the Abbey object to this sign which showed a connecting link between the British peoples and ancient peoples of ancient Israel in the Holy Land?

While visiting Westminster Abbey, visitors may purchase a book titled, Westminster Abbey Official Guide (p.128): Note the following interesting assertions made in this Official Guide: “CORONATION CHAIR—the Coronation Chair was made for Edward I [of England] to enclose the famous Stone of Scone, which he seized in 1296 and brought from Scotland to the Abbey [in London].... Legends abound concerning this mysterious object and tradition [which] identifies this stone with the one upon which JACOB rested his head at BETHEL—‘And Jacob [i.e. the Patriarch Israel] rose up early in the morning, and took the STONE that he had put for his PILLOWS, and set it up for a PILLAR, and poured oil upon the top of it’ (Genesis 28:28). Jacob’s sons carried it to Egypt [where his descendants lived until the Exodus] and from thence it passed to Spain with King Gathelus, son of Cecrops, the builder of Athens.

“About 700 BC it appears in Ireland, whither it was carried by the Spanish King Simon Brech, on his invasion of that Island. There [in Ireland] it was placed upon the sacred Hill of Tara, and called ‘Lia-Fail,’ the ‘fatal’ stone, or ‘stone of destiny’.... Fergus Mor MacEirc (d. 502?), the founder of the Scottish monarchy, and one of the Blood Royal of Ireland, received it in Scotland, and Kenneth MacAlpin (d. 846) finally deposited it in the Monastery of Scone...” that same year (Westminster Abbey Official Guide, 1994 ed.).

This Official Guide also mentions that the Stone of Scone “had been for centuries an object of veneration to the Scots, who fancied that ‘while it remained in the country, the State would be unshaken.’ Upon this stone their kings down to John Balliol, were crowned, and it is said that the following distich had been engraved upon it by Kenneth: ‘If fates go right, where’er this stone is found the Scots shall monarchs of that realm be crowned’” (p. 47). [A number of Celts or Gaels of Israelite descent once lived in the Iberian Peninsula (modern Portugal/Spain). Portugal is named after those “Gaels” who established a seaport in Portugal, the “port of the Gaels.”]

Furthermore, “At coronations this chair and STONE are moved into the Sanctuary [of Westminster Abbey], and since 1308 on them have been crowned all the sovereigns of England with three exceptions...EDWARD V, EDWARD VIII, and seemingly, MARY II” (p. 47). Clearly, the British peoples have a very strong and ancient tradition that the Stone of Scone is the very same stone upon which the Patriarch Jacob laid his head, while sleeping in the vicinity of Bethel: “And Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the STONE that he had put for his PILLOWS, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil on top of it” (Gen. 28:8). Further, Jacob said, “And this STONE which I have set for a PILLAR, shall be [i.e. represent] GOD’S HOUSE...” (v. 18). What did Jacob mean when he stated that the STONE he had set up for a pillar would “be GOD’S HOUSE”?

God told the Prophet Nathan to inform King David of God’s plan to build David an "HOUSE”—an everlasting ROYAL DYNASTY: “Also the LORD tells you that He will make you a HOUSE” (2 Sam. 7:11; 12-29). Jacob’s pillow stone, which he sanctified by anointing it with oil, would become a symbol of that ROYAL HOUSE among God’s people Israel! That “pillar” was later used in the coronation of the ancient kings of Judah. About 835 BC, Joash was crowned in a manner very similar to that used by the British today: “And he [the priest] brought out the king’s son [Joash], put the crown on him, and gave him the Testimony: they made him king and anointed him, and they clapped their hands and said, ‘Long live the king!’... When she [Queen Athaliah] looked, there was the king standing by a PILLAR according to custom; and the leaders and the trumpeters were by the king” (v. 14).

In like manner around 621 BC, King Josiah “stood by a PILLAR and made a covenant before the LORD, to follow the LORD and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes...” (2 Kings 23:3). Historian John MacLaren says, “JACOB’S PILLOW was used as a footstool to all the princes that have ruled since they left Egypt” (The History of Ancient Caledonia, p. 10). What was the “pillar” by which the kings of Judah stood on important State occasions? It was JACOB’S PILLAR!

Speaking through the dying Patriarch Jacob, Almighty God promised Joseph great material blessings and divine protection (Gen. 49:22-26). In that end-time prophecy, God says, “Yet his bow [i.e. military might] remained taut, and his arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, by the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel.” The New American Standard version says, “...From there is the Shepherd, the STONE OF ISRAEL.” Ferrar Fenton’s translation says that God will mightily assist Joseph against his enemies, “By the hands of the mighty God of Jacob, from whom is ISRAEL’S GUARDIAN STONE.” Some have believed that the physical “Rock of Israel” or “Stone of Destiny” may be included in this reference.

Many scriptures make it clear that, in a spiritual sense, Jesus Christ is the “Rock” or “Stone of Israel” (see 1 Cor. 10:4; Matt. 18:16; Eph. 2:20). Nonetheless, the Patriarch Jacob did anoint a special stone, or “pillar,” stating that, in a physical sense, Jacob’s Pillar Stone would represent “GOD’S HOUSE” (Gen. 28:22). God revealed to David that He would build David a ROYAL HOUSE; and is it not most fitting that Jacob’s “Guardian Stone,” is still used by the descendants of Judah, whose Throne is now located in the “height of Israel” (Ezek. 17:23)—in the city of London, England, in Great Britain, among the peoples of Joseph’s son, Ephraim?

Jacob’s Pillow Stone is called by many names: Stone of Scone, Stone of Destiny, and is sometimes called “Lia Fail” (“Wonderful Stone”): “The story of LIA FAIL:—In its early days it was carried about by [Israel’s] priests on the march in the wilderness (hence the much-worn rings still attached to it, one at each end). Later it was borne by sea from East to West—‘to the extremity of the world of the sun’s going [down].’ Its bearers had resolved, at starting, to ‘move on the face of the waters, in search of their brethren.’ Shipwrecked on the [North] coast of Ireland, they yet came safe with Lia Fail.... Eochaidh ‘sent for a car for Lia Fail, and he himself was placed thereon.’ The story of the Stone was then repeated by his order, ‘And Erimionn (Heremon) as seated on Lia Fail, and the crown was placed upon his head, and the mantle upon his shoulders, and all clapped and shouted.’ And the name of that place, from that day forward, was called TARA” (Milner, The Chronicles of Eri, Vol. II, pp. 88-90).

Now that the Stone of Scone rests securely in Edinburgh Castle, will this in any way prevent the next British Sovereign [Prince Charles, Prince William, or whoever will be next in line] being crowned while seated in Edward’s Coronation Chair, whose base was expressly designed to hold Jacob’s Pillow Stone? No! The Scots have graciously assured the British authorities that they will allow the Stone of Scone to be taken to Westminster Abbey for Coronations of future British sovereigns!

From Egypt, Jeremiah and his royal party took the Jewish princesses (“Scota” and “Tea Tephi”) to Ireland where, according to Irish historians, Tea Tephi married a prince of the royal line of ZERAH (of the “Red Hand”). We should not, therefore, be surprised to find that those princesses also took with them various dynastic traditions of their father, King David, the harp player.

Do some of the Irish claim to be descendants of the Royal Prophet, King David? The famous Italian astronomer, Galileo Galilei, was from a musical family, being “the son [of] Vencenzo Galilei, a musician” (Ency. Brit., 15th ed., vol. 5, p. 638). Galileo’s father, Vencenzo, published a book in 1581—seven years before the Spanish Armada sailed against England—in which he says the HARP, which was then so common in Ireland, owed its popularity to the fact that their ancestor, King David, was a skilled harpist. Vencenzo Galilei states, “This most ancient instrument [the HARP] was brought to us [Italians] from Ireland where such are most excellently worked and in a great number; the inhabitants of the said island have made this their art during the many centuries they have lived there and, moreover, it is a special undertaking of the kingdom; and they paint and engrave it in their public and private buildings and on their HILL [of Tara]; stating as their reason for so doing that they [the Scotch-Irish] have descended from the Royal Prophet David.” The British call them “Ulster Scots,” whereas people in the United States speak of those same people as being Scotch-Irish!

King David was certainly a “Royal Prophet” (Acts 2:30). He was also called “the sweet psalmist of Israel” (2 Sam. 23:1), being “a skillful player on the harp” (1 Sam. 16:16-17). Irish historian, Thomas Moore, says: “Diodorus Siculus also gives an account, on authority of some ancient writers, of an island situated, as he says ‘over against Gaul [France];’ and which, from its position and size...their Round Temple, their study of the heavens, and the skill of their musicians on the HARP, might sufficiently warrant the assumption that Ireland was the island so characterised...” (The History of Ireland, 1837 ed., vol. 1, p. 11).

ED KOCH, former Jewish Mayor of New York City, once told U. S. Cardinal John O’Conner, an American of Irish descent, “The TEN LOST TRIBES OF ISRAEL we [Jews] believe ended up in Ireland” (U. S. News & World Report, March 17, 1987). Mayor Ed Koch obviously himself believed some of the Israelites did “end up in Ireland.” Ancient Irish history reveals that some of the dispersed Israelites (“Lost Ten Tribes”) had founded a thriving colony in Ireland about 600 years before the time of the Prophet Jeremiah. According to Irish historian Geoffrey Keating, the first permanent settlers in Ireland were known as the “Tuatha de Danaan” (tribe or people of “Dan”) whom we are told “after sojourning for some time in Greece...proceeded from thence to Denmark and Norway” (History of Ireland, vol. 2, p. 59). What does “Tuatha” mean? “TUATH...Irish history...a ‘TRIBE’ or ‘PEOPLE’ in Ireland” (New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, vol. 20, pt. 1, p. 441).

Keating also says, “The Danaans...left Greece after a battle with the Assyrians and went to Ireland; and also to Denmark, and called it ‘DAN-MARES,’ ‘Dan’s country’” (vol. 1, pp. 195-199). And the Encyclopedia Britannica states that “according to Danish tradition...Jutland [the mainland of Denmark] was acquired by DAN, the...ancestor of the DANES” (11th ed., Vol. 8).

From The Annals of Ireland we read the following: “The DANAANS were a highly civilized people...from their long residence in Greece, and their intercourse with the Phonecians. Their first appearance in IRELAND was 1200 BC, or 85 years after the great victory of Deborah.” This means they colonized Ireland many centuries before King Zedekiah’s daughters, accompanied by Jeremiah, arrived in that Emerald Isle, probably around 565-570 BC.

A few years ago a Northern Irish newspaper ran the following interesting article titled, “Did a lost tribe of Israel, land at Carrickfergus [in N. Ireland]?” He then says: “Many centuries ago three [famous] people arrived on the shore at what is today Carrickfergus. It was around the year 582 BC [four years after the fall of Jerusalem in 586], and the three were an aged man called OLLAM FODHLA (Lawgiver), his secretary BARUCH, and a beautiful princess called TAMAR. With them they brought a large, ROUGH STONE...which they guarded jealously. According to some religious scholars the aged man who landed at Carrick many centuries ago was the PROPHET JEREMIAH.... The ROUGH STONE also brought with them was, according to legend, JACOB’S PILLAR, or Stone of Scone.... Princess Tamar is often referred to in ancient Irish poetry, where she is called ‘TEA TEPHI’” (“Larne Times,” Dec. 24, 1986).

But Jeremiah, the “king’s daughters,” and their escort [the GALES] were not expelled from Egypt by Ahmosis II until he ascended the throne in about 569 BC, or shortly afterward; therefore, Jeremiah must have arrived in Ireland a few years later—because Irish historians tell us that this royal party from Egypt spent some time in Spain en route to the Emerald Isle.

Irish historian Thomas Moore states that during the “dim period of Irish history...the Royal Sage, OLLAMH FODHLA, is almost the only one who, from the strong light of tradition thrown around him, stands out as a being of historical substance and truth” (The History of Ireland, Vol. I, p. 86). Moore says that “few, perhaps, could claim a more virtual title to this privilege than the GREAT LEGISLATOR of the ancient Irish, OLLAMH FODHLA,” whom he calls “this celebrated personage” (pp. 86-87).

After mentioning the heralds, practitioners in physic, bards and musicians, Moore adds: “To the professors of these arts, Ollamh Fodhla assigned lands for their use; and also instituted a school of general instruction at Tara, which became afterwards celebrated under the name of the Mur-ollam-ham, or College of the Learned” (p. 88). He also mentions a “splendid palace of the princes of Ulster [which] had in its neighbourhood the mansion appropriated [by] the celebrated Knights of the Red Branch [Red Hand]” (p. 89).

“OLLAM FOLA [i.e. JEREMIAH] is celebrated in ancient history as a SAGE and legislator, eminent for learning, wisdom and excellent institutions, and his historic fame has been recognized by placing his medallion in basso relieve with those of Moses and other great legislators in the interior of the dome of the Four Courts of Dublin.... The ancient Records and Chronicles of the Kingdom were ordered to be written and carefully preserved at TARA by Ollam Fola and there formed the basis of the Ancient History of Ireland, called the Psalter of Tara” (The Annals of the Four Masters, notes by O’Connor, p. 297). Irish histories reveal a definite connection between the early inhabitants of Ireland and the Holy Land and its people. That is an undeniable fact, which anyone who has carefully studied Irish history cannot refute!

All Irish and Scottish historians agree that the present occupants of the British Throne trace their ancestry back to the kings of Scotland and Ireland. But many are unaware of this important fact: The ancient annals of Ireland and Scotland also show Ireland’s royal roots going all the way back to the ancient “HOUSE OF DAVID” in Israel.

Almighty God has kept His immutable promise found in Genesis 49:10, saying that once the scepter was placed in “Judah,” it would remain in the hands of their descendants until the coming of SHILOH (Messiah). Further, God made—and has kept—His unbreakable promise to King David that a descendant of his would never cease to sit on David’s Throne—forever (2 Sam. 7)! In the future, “all generations” would have one of David’s descendants sitting on his Throne somewhere on this earth, ruling over fellow Israelites—as long as the SUN and the MOON continue shining upon this earth (Psa. 89).

But, the ultimate fulfillment of God’s irrevocable promises to JUDAH (Gen. 49:10), and of his unbreakable oath to KING DAVID (2 Sam. 7; Psa. 89), will be fulfilled in the Person of Jesus Christ, a direct descendant of the “HOUSE OF DAVID” (Luke 3:23-33)! Bible prophecy reveals that the present Royal Family which reigns on the British Throne (whose descent is from King David through his son Solomon) will be superseded by another royal Davidic “Branch” (from David through Solomon’s older brother Nathan)—when Jesus Christ comes back to earth in great power and glory to take His seat upon the “Throne of His father David” (Luke 1:32; Rev. 3:21; 11:15). This greatest “son of David” was named “JESUS” before He was born (Matt. 1:1; Luke 1:31): “He will be GREAT, and will be the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the THRONE of His father DAVID, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:32-33; cf. Dan. 2:44-45)!

Only Christ, the true Messiah, has the “KEY OF DAVID” (Rev. 3:7). Only He—the long-prophesied “Shiloh”—can unlock the full potential of the “Throne of David,” thereby ushering in the Kingdom of God as both “the ROOT [Creator] and OFFSPRING [“son”] of David” (Rev. 22:16), He alone holds the Key to the everlasting THRONE OF DAVID! And only the Messiah holds the key to world peace, prosperity and joy!

After Christ’s Second Coming, He will forever thereafter occupy the “Throne of David”! “For unto us a Child [Jesus] is born, unto us a SON is given; And the government [of the world] will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called...PRINCE OF PEACE. Of the increase of HIS GOVERNMENT and peace there will be no end, upon the THRONE OF DAVID and over His Kingdom” (Isa. 9:6-7).

The GOOD NEWS is that Christ will share the glory and power of David’s Throne with others (Rev. 3:21)—with the then-resurrected O.T. Patriarchs, King David (Jer. 30; Ezek. 37:24; Hos. 3:5), the twelve apostles (Matt. 19:28), and with many others who will then rule with Christ over the “cities” of the entire earth (Luke 19:17-19; Dan. 7:25-27).

As the long-expected Messiah, Jesus Christ will energize and glorify DAVID’S THRONE—far beyond the power and glory attained by David’s and Solomon’s kingdoms. How will He accomplish this? By Himself sitting on David’s ancient Throne—and by administering the wonderful GOVERNMENT OF GOD over all the earth, thereby bringing peace, happiness and prosperity to all nations (Isa. 2:1-5; 14:5-7)!

The LORD promised, unconditionally, that through King David God would establish a perpetual dynasty. David’s ROYAL “HOUSE,” that is, his Throne and Kingdom would continue forever (2 Sam. 7:13-16; 23:1, 5; 1 Chr. 28:4-5)—through ‘all generations’ (Psa. 89:3-4). But did God promise that his son Solomon would have an heir to sit on the Throne of his father David in every generation? No! God never promised, unconditionally, that a descendant of Solomon would sit on King David’s Throne in perpetuity!

The present British Royal Family traces their lineage back through Scotland and Ireland to David’s son, Solomon. God had promised David: “...I will set up your seed [Solomon] after you...and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the Throne of His kingdom forever [Heb. olam]” (2 Sam. 7:12-13). But does “olam,” translated by the English word “forever,” always convey the idea of perpetuity? Or, is “OLAM” often limited to a comparatively short period of time?

Although the Hebrew word OLAM can include the English idea of “forever” or “eternal”—as when it speaks of the LORD’S “HOUSE” (Ps. 23:6), God’s Throne (45:67) or His mercy (138:8)—nevertheless, “olam” often refers to a very finite period of time: a bondservant would serve his master olam—“forever” (Exod. 21:6); smoke would ascend up forever (“olam” KJV) as Isaiah 34:10 states; and the Prophet Jonah was in the belly of the “big fish” olam (“forever” KJV), which Christ said was only “three days and three nights” (Matt. 12:40). Thus we see that this Hebrew word “olam” can mean either a finite period of time, or it can refer to perpetuity of time—all depending upon the context!

The LORD made an unconditional promise to DAVID—who had already proven his loyalty to God and His Word. But the promise which He made to Solomon—and to all of David’s descendants—was strictly conditional. God told King Solomon, “If you will walk before Me as your father David walked, and do according to all that I have commanded you...then I will establish the Throne of your kingdom, as I covenanted with David your father, saying: ‘You shall never fail to have a man [Heb. ish—can be either male or female] as ruler in ISRAEL’” (2 Chr. 7:17; cf. 1 Kings 9:4, 5).

God based His promise to Solomon on the express condition that he would obey Him. Furthermore, He imposed a conditional promise on ALL of David’s royal descendants: “The LORD has sworn in truth to David; He will not turn from it: I will set upon your Throne the fruit of your body. If your sons will keep My covenant and My testimony which I shall teach them, their sons also shall sit upon your Throne forevermore [Heb. AD= ‘PERPETUALY’]” (Psa. 132:11-12).

Since King David had “many sons” (1 Chr. 28:5), if any one of his sons forsook the LORD and His way, God could switch the royal line of descent to another of David’s descendants so He could keep His promise to David that one of his descendants would always sit on his Throne ruling over Israelites in “all generations” (Psa. 89:4). Since King Solomon did forsake the LORD and His way (1 Kings 11:1-13), God determined that His own Son, Jesus Christ, would not descend from Solomon, but would be of the lineage of Solomon’s older brother, NATHAN (Luke 3:31). The present British Royal Family has descended from David through King Solomon. At the close of this age, that British Royal Family will cease to rule on David’s Throne. But will David’s Throne then cease to exist? Or, will a Person (Jesus Christ) from another branch of the House of David then be placed on that Throne—to rule on David’s Throne forever in righteousness?

NOTE Even though Queen Elizabeth II is a descendent of Israel’s ancient King David through his son Solomon, and has set a fine example of a monarch who sits on “David’s Throne” in modern times, nonetheless great “scandals” and perverseness have been committed by some members of that Royal Family in recent years. Many British people are considering whether or not they should continue to support some of the present members of this Royal Family. How will Britons react when they see the Royal line of descent switched from Solomon to Nathan at Christ’s Second Coming?

After Jesus returns to this earth in glory, “the Lord God will give Him [Christ] the THRONE of his FATHER DAVID” (Luke 1:32). “And He will reign over the HOUSE OF JACOB [or ‘Israel’] forever, and of His Kingdom there will be no end” (v. 33). Jesus Christ—a descendant of David’s son NATHAN—will fulfill in His own Person, God’s immutable promise to King David—that one of his descendants would reign over “Israel” forever (Heb. olam), through “all generations”! Furthermore, His Throne will then rule all nations from “Jerusalem” (Jer. 3:17; Isa. 2:1-3; 9:6-7).

At the blowing of the 7th Trumpet, Christ will return to this earth. At that time, “The kingdoms of this world...become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” (Rev. 11:13). As “King of kings” He will then be given power over all kingdoms on this earth (17:17; 19:16), and He will rule them with a “ROD OF IRON” (12:5, 19:15).

An inescapable conclusion: At the end of this age, God Almighty will reject any “profane wicked prince[s] of Israel” (who may then be in the line of succession to the British Throne) in favor of the “PRINCE OF PEACE” (Isa. 9:6-7)—just as God rejected the “profane wicked Prince of Israel”—King Zedekiah (Ezek. 21:15-26)—at the time when King Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Kingdom of Judah, and took most of the Jews captive to Babylon in 586 BC.

What was the real significance of King Edward’s shocking abdication in 1936? British King Edward VIII submitted his instrument of abdication on December 10, 1936, saying: “I, Edward, do hereby declare my irrevocable determination to renounce the Throne FOR MYSELF and MY DESCENDANTS.” Why did he renounce his Throne—the very Throne of King David? It became clear that the British Government and many of the people of Britain would not accept the twice-divorced Wallis Warfield Simpson (whom he planned to marry) as their future Queen. They looked upon her as an “adventuress”!

In his radio address to the British nation and the world, Edward VIII stated: “You all know the reasons which have impelled me to renounce the Throne. Believe me when I tell you that I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as king as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love!” He also said, “I now quit altogether public affairs, and lay down my burden” (Encyc. Brit., Vol. 8, 1970 ed.).

How did Britons look upon Edward’s abdication of the British Throne? Although some Britons applauded his decision to give up the Throne of England for the “love of a woman,” most of them were dismayed and never forgave Edward for treating that wonderful honor as though it was of little worth! His abdication provoked a veritable political storm in Britain! Edward was never crowned! However, a few months later, his younger brother George (VI) was crowned! Reportedly, after his abdication, Edward became an empty, disillusioned and bitter man, living out the rest of his days in what some described as “self-imposed idleness,” with seemingly no real purpose in life.

Was King Edward VIII’s abdication an honorable and praiseworthy act of self-sacrifice for the “love of a woman”? Some Britons thought what Edward VIII did was just fine, but many Britons believed Edward selfishly put his own desires ahead of royal duty toward his country. Edward had given up the world’s most prestigious Throne because he was determined to marry the twice-divorced Wallis Simpson, rather than marry within the ancient guidelines of British royal precedent.

Later, however, “the new king, George VI, had created his older brother duke of Windsor (Dec. 12, 1936); but in 1937, on the advice of the Cabinet, refused to extend to the new duchess of Windsor the rank of ‘royal highness’ enjoyed by her husband; this decision severely wounded the duke. For the next two years the duke and duchess lived mainly in France, visiting various other European countries, including Germany (October 1937), where the duke was honoured by Nazi officials and had an interview with Adolf Hitler. The outbreak of World War II failed to close the breach between the duke and his family.... On the fall of France he traveled to Madrid, where he was subjected to a fanciful plan of the NAZIS to remake him KING and to use him against the established government in England. When he reached Lisbon, he was offered by Prime Minister Winston Churchill the GOVERNORSHIP of the BAHAMAS, a British colony in the West Indies, and he remained there for the duration of the war [WW II]...but it was not until 1967 that, for the first time, the duke and duchess were invited to attend an official public ceremony with other members of the royal family [for] the unveiling of a plaque to Queen Mary [their mother, who had died in 1953]” (Encyc. Brit. Vol. 4, 1991 ed.). After his abdication, Edward married Mrs. Wallis Simpson on June 3rd, 1937.

Was Edward VIII’s decision to give up his kingship, similar to the foolish decision of Esau, the brother of Israel, who sold his fabulous birthright for a “bowl of soup”—and later bitterly regretted his short-sighted decision (Heb. 12:15-17)?

God’s Word admonishes us to “look diligently” and carefully guard our own attitudes, “lest there be any fornicator or profane person like ESAU, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears” (Heb. 12:16-17). Likewise, Edward VIII gave up being king over Britain and her “British Commonwealth of nations.” His birthright included the honor of reigning over GREAT BRITAIN: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as well as Canada, Australia and New Zealand—and many other non-English members of the British Commonwealth of nations.

Consider the following: What did King Edward VIII really give up when he sold his birthright for his love of the twice-divorced Wallis Simpson—whom Edward’s mother, Queen Mary, called an adventuress? It is doubtful that Edward ever realized he was giving up the world’s oldest, most prestigious Throne, which then ruled over one quarter of the earth and one fourth of its inhabitants? Sadly, Edward VIII spent the remainder of his life in what some Britons called “luxurious idleness,” and by all accounts he was rather bored, having become a deeply embittered, royal castaway!

BBC TV biographical sketches of Edward VIII’s post-abdication life asserted that there is concrete evidence (as revealed in German and Allied WWII documents) that the ex-king was very sympathetic toward Hitler and the Nazis; and some Britons even believed Edward hoped that if the Germans conquered Britain, Hitler would put him back on the English Throne. Whether or not this is true, many Britons concluded that Edward VIII became bitter because British authorities would not allow him to remain King, if he persisted in marrying Mrs. Wallis Simpson, and they virtually cut him off from any meaningful role in government, while also shunning him in social matters.

King Edward VIII had, in fact, treated the British Crown—which had been placed within his reach—rather cheaply. He did not treasure the high and noble honor of sitting upon King David’s ancient Throne. Like Esau of old, he lost everything which he had been offered—because he undervalued those blessings and treated them so cheaply!

His brother, George VI, succeeded Edward to the British Throne. “He [George] became king in December [1936] after his elder brother, Edward VIII, abdicated.... He was a popular monarch because of his untiring devotion to royal duty” (The World Book Encyc., vol. 6, p. 75, art., “George VI”).

Edward had spurned his “royal duty” with sad consequences! His brother King George VI, though handicapped by a speech impediment and shyness, faithfully carried out his royal duties—and is to be highly commended for his devotion to his royal duty of upholding the British Throne, the ancient Throne of famous King David of Israel.

ADDENDA I

The BIRTHRIGHT and SCEPTER Promises

What were the two chief tribes of Israel which Almighty God ordained would inherit special blessings? Many students of the Bible living in the U.S., Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand, etc.—including many in the “Churches of God”—have seemingly not fully understood certain basic biblical truths! Consider the following: Although there were Twelve Tribes of Israel, the two main tribes were: JUDAH (given the kingly, SCEPTER PROMISE), and JOSEPH, the “BIRTHRIGHT” tribe to whom God gave the BIRTHRIGHT PROMISES of tremendous MATERIAL WEALTH and PROSPERITY, MILITARY POWER, DIVINE PROTECTION, and other blessings which far exceeded the blessings He would give to the other “ten tribes” of Israel (Gen. 49:8-12, vv. 22-26; cf. Deut. 33:7, vv. 13-17; Micah 5:8-9). The 17th chapter of the book of Acts reveals that God sets the national boundaries of all the nations upon this earth (vv. 25-26).

A careful study of the Scriptures reveals the fabulous blessings that God inspired Moses to write down in His Word, by which the Lord had promised He would give to the two chief tribes: JUDAH and JOSEPH. The following scripture explains the blessings which were to be given to JUDAH and JOSEPH and their descendants: “Now the sons of Reuben the firstborn; but, forasmuch as he defiled his father’s bed, his BIRTHRIGHT was given unto the sons of JOSEPH [Ephraim and Manasseh] the son of Israel: and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the BIRTHRIGHT. For JUDAH prevailed above his brethren, and of him came the CHIEF RULER [the kingly line—i.e. SCEPTER]; but the BIRTHRIGHT was JOSEPH’S” (1 Chr. 5:1-2).

ADDENDA II

The Scots Most Cherished Document

Scotland’s most famous national document is her highly prized “Declaration of Independence,” also called the “Declaration of Arbroath.” King Edward I seized the “Stone of Scone” and took it to London in 1296 AD. But the Scots would still not fully yield to English rule. Edward II, successor to Edward I, appealed to Pope John XXII to convince the Scottish King, Robert the Bruce, to acknowledge the English King’s lordship over Scotland. At that time, many Scots were anti-British, and would not consider yielding to England’s supremacy over Scotland.

When Pope John XXII appealed to the Scots to submit to Edward, Bruce’s nobles wrote the Pope a letter on April 6, 1320—24 years after King Edward I had stolen their “Stone of Scone.” Here are interesting excerpts from their letter to Pope John XXII:

“We know...from the chronicles and books of the ancients gather, that among other illustrious nations, our’s, to wit, the NATION OF THE SCOTS, has been distinguished by many honours; which, passing from the Greater Scythia [N. of the Black Sea] through the Mediterranean Sea and the Pillars of Hercules [Gibraltar] and sojourning in Spain among the most savage tribes through a long course of time, could nowhere be subjugated by any people however barbarous; and coming thence one thousand two hundred years after the OUTGOING [i.e. after the Exodus from Egypt] of the PEOPLE OF ISRAEL, they, by many victories and infinite toil, acquired for themselves the possessions in the West which they now hold.... In THEIR KINGDOM one hundred and thirteen kings of their own royal stock, no stranger intervening, have reigned...” (Scottish Declaration of Independence, signed with the seals and the signatures of King Robert the Bruce and 25 of his nobles, 1320 AD). This document reveals that the Scots remembered their Israelitish ancestors’ Exodus from Egypt under the conduct of Moses.

ADDENDA III

Irish Links to Ancient Israel

Ethnologist, Dr. R. G. Latham, in his book on European ethnology, states: “Neither do I think that the eponymus [ancestral name] of the Argive DANAI was other than that of the ISRAELITE TRIBE OF DAN; only we are so used to confine ourselves to the soil of Palestine in our consideration of the history of the Israelites, that we...ignore the share they may have taken in the ordinary history of the world” (Ethnology of Europe, 1852, p. 37).

In ancient times, these DANAI (the biblical “Danites”) planted colonies in South Greece and in Northwestern Europe. Clearly, there is considerable historical evidence showing that some adventuresome Danites, from the Israelite tribe of Dan, left Palestine in order to establish colonies in Western Europe (Ireland and Denmark, in particular) many centuries BC. This should not surprise us if we remember that God had said Abraham’s offspring would “spread abroad” through much of the world.

The Library of the Royal Irish Academy has a Ms. Translation from the Irish language of a poem entitled, The Kings of the Race of Eibhear—that is also found in Geoffrey Keating’s Forus Feasa ar Erim—which contains these interesting words concerning ancient Irish history:

“It is a long time since the GAELS began the practice of having emblems, in imitation of the CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, who employed them in Egypt, in the lifetime of Gaedheal, when the CHILDREN OF ISRAEL passed through the Red Sea, with Moses as their chief leader. Now there were TWELVE TRIBES of them and each tribe had a separate division of an army and a separate [tribal] EMBLEM” (Forus Feasa ar Erim, VOL. III, pp. 125, 126).

The Bible mentions that each of the Twelve Tribes of Israel had its “own STANDARD with the ENSIGN of their father’s house” (Numbers 2:1-34). Each tribe marched under its own “standard” during Israel’s 40-year march to the Promised Land. Also, when Israel went out to war, each tribe marched under its own particular standard.

Another translation of this same poem by Michael Kearney (1635-65), which is also in the Royal Irish Academy, states the following: “The Vse of Armes and Escouchions is anciently obseru[v]ed by the Irishry, in imitation of ye children of Israell, who began to use them in Egypt (at which time the ancestor of all the Irishry, called Goidhil, or Gathelus, there liu[v]ed), which Armes, the Israelits at their passing through ye Redd Seas, v[u]nder the conduct of Moyses, did carry in their seu[v]erall banners. They were Twelve Tribes, and each Tribe had a certaine number of men v[u]nder his own command with Distinct Banners and Armes.”

SCOTA was a daughter of Pharaoh. Notice this interesting quote regarding Princess Scota’s immigration from Egypt to Ireland: “The DAUGHTER OF PHARAOH, King of Egypt, with an armed band and a large fleet, goes to Ireland, and there being joined by a body of Irish, she sails to Scotland, taking with her the ROYAL SEAT which he, the King of England [Edward I], with other insignia of the Kingdom of Scotland, [later] carried with him by violence to England in 1296 AD. She [Scota] conquered and destroyed the Picts and took their Kingdom, and from this SCOTA the SCOTS and Scota are named” (The Coronation Stone, by W. F. Skene, 1809, p. 19).

ADDENDA IV

What conclusion do the facts compel us to make? When we carefully examine the mountain of historical evidence proving a racial connection between the ancient IRISH PEOPLES and the peoples of ancient ISRAEL, the conclusion is compelling: The peoples of Ireland and Scotland have many connecting links between their peoples and the ancient peoples of ISRAEL. If we are open-minded, we will surely conclude that many of the people (Israelite colonists) from the ancient land of Israel planted numerous colonies in Ireland and Scotland—as well as in England and other parts of N.W. Europe, N. America, Australia and New Zealand. God had long ago foretold that His people, the people of Israel, would “spread abroad around the world” and would become “many nations.”

Almighty God promised Abraham that his children would become “MANY NATIONS” (Gen. 17:4-6, 16). God later promised Abraham’s grandson, Jacob (Israel) and his descendants, the Israelites, the following: “Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall SPREAD ABROAD to the WEST and to the EAST, to the NORTH and the SOUTH; and in you and in your seed all families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 28:14). He has definitely kept His promises to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and ISRAEL (Jacob)!

Many of the end-time prophecies predict that the modern peoples of Israel (which includes the Anglo-Saxon-Celtic peoples, the Jews, etc.) are yet destined to deeply repent of their national sins, and return to God in heartfelt contrition (Jer. 30:1-22). They will then begin to obey God, His law, and His Word—which will go forth from Mount Zion in Jerusalem (Isa. 2:1-5 and Micah 4:1-7). God reveals that the people of Israel will finally become a great blessing to “all nations” by setting a wonderful example of love and obedience to their Creator (Isa. 66:10-24)! At that time there will be no more anti-Semitism in the world, nor anti-Americanism by the Gentile nations toward the peoples of the United States, Britain, and Israel [Jews] (Zech. 8:20-23).

Note Millions of the English-speaking peoples of British descent now know the Jews and Palestinians are both in error in regard to those to whom God swore to give the “Promised Land” as an eternal inheritance. Millions of Anglo-Saxon-Celtic peoples of Northwest Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand now also realize that the Promised Land (including what is now called “Palestine”) was given to all TWELVE TRIBES of Israel! Some of Israel’s descendants now live in the countries of SCANDINAVIA, the NETHERLANDS, BELGIUM, and the peoples of Northern FRANCE, and the tiny nation of SWITZERLAND in Central Europe!

The Jews are from the nation and tribe of JUDAH, whereas the afore-mentioned Anglo-Saxon-Celtic peoples are descendants of the so-called “LOST TEN TRIBES” of Israel. When rightly understood, the JEWS are “Israelites,” but there are countless millions of others from British-descended peoples of the world who now live in the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

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IMPORTANT SOURCE MATERIAL

Note There are a few widely read books which contain valuable information concerning the SCEPTER and the BIRTHRIGHT blessings which were to devolve upon the peoples of Judah and Joseph:

1) The United States and British Commonwealth in Prophecy, by Herbert W. Armstrong (posted on our website—COG21.org). During the past fifty years this book has enlightened the minds of multiple millions of people to the true modern identity of the peoples of the “Lost Ten Tribes of Israel.” About 12 to 15 million copies of Mr. Armstrong’s book were distributed worldwide during this time.

2) Those startling truths are also further explained with the addition of valuable historical information in our popular 75-page book (in full color) AMERICA AND BRITAIN IN PROPHECY! Some “Bible scholars” have tried to debunk the basic truths revealed in these books, but “FACTS ARE STUBBORN THINGS” and no one has been able to disprove the basic truths revealed in these fascinating books (COG21.org).

3) Another interesting book, titled Judah’s Sceptre and Joseph’s Birthright, was written by J. H. Allen, and was first printed in 1917 during World War II. That book can also be accessed by clicking onto our website.

4) Our readers will also find posted on our website another fascinating book titled King David’s Everlasting Dynasty! This 32-page book offers much historical evidence linking the inhabitants of the British Isles to the peoples of ancient Israel.

5) Another very informative book (A Bitter Family Quarrel...SOLVING THE ARAB-ISRAELI IMPASSE!) sheds much light on the bitter Middle East struggle between the Jews (whose ancestor was Israel) and their chief foes in the Middle East, the Palestinians—whose ancestry is traced back to Esau/Edom. The Palestinian Arabs claim “Palestine” (the “Holy Land” or “Promised Land”) as “their land”! However, the Israelis/Jews believe otherwise, and are willing to die, rather than give up “their land,” which they believe was given by Almighty God to their ancestors and their descendants (Israelites) to inherit for all time! This book (SOLVING THE ARAB-ISRAELI IMPASSE) is also posted on our website (COG21.org).