I prefer the KJV translation, as it did not try to add... the Dispersion idea, which is mostly about the scattering ONLY of the Jews after their Babylon captivity. The scattering of the northern ten tribes happened about 120 years prior... to the Jews going into captivity to Babylon.
James 1:1
1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.
KJV
And what Frankj said about the tribes of Israel is very important, because it is history written in God's Old Testament Word, and should be studied along with The New Testament, not isolated like some denominations do.
Because of what Solomon did with allowing his many wives to bring their idols in among the children of Israel, God split the old kingdom of Israel into two separate kingdoms with two different kings. This is written starting at 1 Kings 11 and continues thru 2 Kings 17 when the fate of the ten tribes is shown having been removed from the holy land first.
And then later, after about 120 years, the Jews of the southern kingdom at Jerusalem-Judea were taken captive to Babylon, with a remnant that returned to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple, while the majority of the Jews chose to stay in Babylon, and then were scattered further through the nations (Diaspora).
The ten scattered tribes of Israel were not known as JEWS. Many make that mistake of calling all Israelites by that title of Jew. Per the Jewish historian Josephus (100 A.D.), only those of the southern "kingdom of Judah" or "house of Judah" called themselves Jews, that title originating from the tribe of Judah. That southern kingdom was made up of only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin originally at the split. Then when calf idol worship was setup among the northern ten tribes, the Levites in the northern land were prevented from fulfilling their priestly duties, so they left the ten tribes and went south, and joined with the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. A remnant out of the ten northern tribes also rejected the calf idols, and went south and joined with Judah.
Because the ten northern tribe "kingdom of Israel" was scattered first, and lost their heritage as the larger part of Israel, the remaining Jews of the southern "kingdom of Judah" were the only ones left in the holy land known as Israelites. The king of Assyria once removing the northern ten tribes had a habit of placing other peoples in his conquered lands, which was done where the ten tribes had lived. He took pagan foreigners from five provinces of Babylon, and placed them in the northern holy lands instead, and these became known as the Samaritans.
Thus the only Israelites left in the holy land once the ten tribes had been removed, were the Jews of the southern kingdom. That title of Jew applied only... to those of the southern kingdom, and not to the ten tribes. So when you hear preachers today try and apply that title of Jew to the ten tribes also, you know they have not studied that part of their Old Testament Bible history (and you should then wonder what else they have not studied in God's Word.)
In the Book of Hosea, God showed what would happen to the northern ten tribes. He showed He would scatter them to the "wilderness", and would hedge up their paths so they would not know their way back. They would be given the full strength of their Baal worship they forgot Him for, and would lose knowledge of their heritage as part of Israel, no longer keeping God's feast days, sabbaths, and new moons. They would become Lo-ami, meaning 'not My people'. But then later, He would given them a door of hope, and given them a New Covenant, and they again would become Ami, meaning 'My people', and be known as the children of the living God.
NOTE: Apostle Paul quoted this latter part from Hosea to Roman Gentile believers on Christ per Romans 9. This means... Paul was speaking to BOTH scattered Israelite believers and believing Gentiles, as one body in Europe and Asia Minor. There actually is literal archaeological proof of where the majority of the ten lost tribes migrated to. Their names known by the Assyrians has to do with some of their names of the peoples that migrated westward into Asia Minor and Europe. And remnants of the Jews that went into the Babylon captivity and scattered further, along with the later Jews of 70 A.D. scattered by the Romans, also make up remnants out of all 12 tribes scattered abroad, like James pointed to.
