[Avodah] ten tribes

[Ilana Sober]

The Tanach refers to Malchut Yisrael as aseret hashevatim. Which ten tribes?
It seems to me that there are only nine tribes north of Binyamin: Dan,
Naftali, Asher, Zevulun, Yissachar, Ephraim, Menashe, Gad, Reuven. Shimon
was in the southern part of Yehuda, not really an independent nachala. But
how could they have been part of Malchut Yisrael without any geographic
continuity?

- Ilana