Albert Barnes Commentary 2 Kings 17:23

"until Jehovah removed Israel out of his sight, as he spake by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day." — 2 Kings 17:23 (ASV)

As he had said by all his servants the prophets—The writer refers not only to the extant prophecies of Moses (Leviticus 26:33; Deuteronomy 4:26–27; Deuteronomy 28:36, and so on), Ahijah the Shilonite (as noted in the margin), Hosea (Hosea 9:3, 17), and Amos (Amos 7:17), but also to the entire series of warnings and predictions. Prophet after prophet, in a long, unbroken succession, had addressed these warnings to the disobedient Israelites regarding their apostasy (2 Kings 17:13), thus leaving them wholly “without excuse” (see the note on 2 Kings 17:13).

Unto this day—These words, taken in combination with the rest of the chapter, distinctly show that the Israelites had not returned to their land by the time the Books of Kings were written. They show nothing, however, about their ultimate fate.

But, on the whole, it would seem probable:

1. That the ten tribes never formed a community in their exile but were scattered from the first.
2. That their descendants either blended with the pagan peoples and were absorbed, returned to Palestine with Zerubbabel and Ezra, or became inseparably united with the dispersed Jews in Mesopotamia and the adjacent countries.

Therefore, no discovery of the ten tribes is to be expected. Works written to prove their identity with any existing race or group of people can be regarded as nothing more than clever speculations.