Three Exiles of Israel and the Promised Gathering Home

You find that Sennacherib exiled Israel in three exiles. First, he exiled the Reubenite, the Gadite, and half the tribe of Manasseh. The second was the tribe of Zebulun and the tribe of Naphtali, as it is stated (Isaiah 8:23): "In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali." And the third, he exiled the rest of the tribes, as it is stated (ibid.): "and the latter time he made it grievous." Nebuchadnezzar too exiled three exiles from the tribe of Judah and Benjamin. In the first he exiled Jehoiakim; in the second, Jehoiachin. What did he do? He bound him in a carriage and honored him, as it is stated: "Behold, I send you away like a queen mother." Just as a man honors this queen mother, so did Nebuzaradan do to him; and he exiled Zedekiah — behold, three exiles. The Holy One, blessed be He, said: In this world Israel was exiled on account of iniquities, but in the time to come, "If your banishment is at the end of the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will take you" (Deuteronomy 30:4). And it says: "And he shall gather the dispersed of Judah" (Isaiah 11:12). And it says: "And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away" (Isaiah 35:10). And it says: "For the Lord has comforted Zion; He has comforted all her waste places, and He has made her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; gladness and joy shall be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song" (Isaiah 51:3).