Judah

VIEW:51 DATA:01-04-2020
the praise of the Lord; confession
(same as Jew, Judaea, Judas, Jude, Judea, Judith)
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary


JUDAH (‘he is to be praised’; the popular etymologies seem to regard the name as an unabbreviated Hoph. impf. of jâdâh, ‘to praise’).—Judah is represented as the fourth son of Leah by Jacob (Gen_29:35 [J [Note: Jahwist.] ] Gen_35:23 (P [Note: Priestly Narrative.] ]). Though he was of late birth, the Judæan document (J [Note: Jahwist.] ) nevertheless gives him precedence over Reuben, the firstborn, who is favoured by the later Ephraimite document E [Note: Elohist.] . According to J [Note: Jahwist.] , it was Judah who proposed to sell Joseph in order to avert the danger which threatened him at the hands of his brethren (Gen_37:26 ff.). Similarly, when they return to Joseph’s house with the silver cup, J [Note: Jahwist.] gives the pre-eminence to Judah, and makes him spokesman for all in his pathetic appeal to Joseph (Gen_44:14-34). Reuben, because of his lust towards Bilhah (Gen_49:4; cf. Gen_35:22), and Simeon and Levi, because of their barbarous conduct towards the Shechemites, fall before their enemies and into disfavour with their brethren, and Judah succeeds to the primogenitureship.
A tradition is preserved in Gen_38:1-30 which is generally supposed to be of great value as bearing upon the early development of the tribe. Judah is there said to have withdrawn himself from his brethren and to have gone down to a certain Adullamite whose name was Hirah. There he met with Bath-shua, a Canaanitess, whom he took to wife. She bore him three sons, Er, Onan, and Shelah. Er and Onan were slain by Jahweh for their wickedness. Er’s widow, Tamar, a Canaanitess also, it seems, posing by the wayside as a hierodule, enticed Judah to intercourse with her, and of her the twin sons Perez and Zerah were born to Judah. This story is usually held to be based upon facts of tribal history, though cast in the form of personal narrative, and also to prove clearly that Judah, like other tribal names, is but the eponymous head of the tribe. It points to the settlement of Judah in the region of Adullam and its union with foreign stock. Hirah is a Canaanite clan; Er and Onan stand for two other clans which became united to Judah, but early disappeared; the other three continued to exist as constituents of Judah. Besides these it would appear that in the time of David the Calebite and Jerahmeelite tribes, mentioned in 1Ch_2:1-55 as descendants of Perez, were incorporated into the tribe. In 1Sa_27:10; 1Sa_30:14 they still appear to be independent, though the Chronicler makes both Caleb and Jerahmeel descendants of Judah through Perez and Hezron, to whom also he traces David. In Num_13:1-33 (P [Note: Priestly Narrative.] ) Caleb, who is sent by Moses as one of the spies, belongs to Judah; but in Num_32:12, Jos_14:6; Jos_14:14 (R [Note: Redactor.] ), Jdg_3:1-31 etc., he is a Kenizzite, the son of Kenaz. From the last passage we see that Othniel, whose chief centre was Kiriathsepher (Debir), was another closely related tribe, and both appear from Gen_36:16; Gen_36:42 (P [Note: Priestly Narrative.] ) to have been Edomites. Kenites, commonly supposed to be of Midianite origin, we are told in Jdg_1:16, also went up from Jericho with Judah into the Wilderness.
Of all these foreign elements by which the tribe of Judah was increased, the Calebite was the most important. In fact the Chronicler makes the Judahite stock consist largely of the descendants of Hezron. It was the Calebite capital, Hebron, that under David (himself said to be Hezronite) became the capital of Judah. After this time the history of the tribe becomes the history of the Southern Kingdom.
P [Note: Priestly Narrative.] ’s Sinai census (Num_1:27) gives 74,600, and that of the Wilderness 76,500 (Num_26:22).
The territory of the tribe is described in Jos_15:1 ff. (P [Note: Priestly Narrative.] ); but this is late and an ideal apportionment. In the Song of Deborah Judah is not even mentioned, because ‘it was not yet made up by the fusion of Israelite, Canaanite, Edomite, and Arabic elements,’ as Stade (GVI [Note: VI Geschichte des Volkes Israel.] 113) puts it. The Blessing of Jacob (Gen_49:8 ff.) and that of Moses (Deu_33:7) reflect conditions during the monarchy. How the tribe entered W. Canaan and obtained its early seat around Bethlehem it is impossible to say. See also Tribes of Israel.
James A. Craig.
JUDAH.—1. See preced. article. 2. Ezr_3:9 (cf. Neh_12:8) = 1Es_5:58 Joda. 3. A Levite, Ezr_10:23 = 1Es_9:23 Jud_1:4. An overseer, Neh_11:9. 5. A priest’s son, Neh_12:36. 6. Luk_1:39; see Jutah. 7. See next article.
JUDAH ‘upon (AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ) or at (RV [Note: Revised Version.] ) Jordan’ (Jos_19:34) is a very doubtful site. It is the general opinion that the text of this passage must be corrupt, and that the name of some place near Jordan, perhaps Chinneroth, may have been lost.
E. W. G. Masterman.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909


1. The patriarch JUDAH; Jacob's fourth son, by Leah. Judah ("praise"), Leah having praised Jehovah for giving him; Jacob similarly refers to the meaning of Judah, "thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise" (Gen_29:35; Gen_49:8). He saved Joseph from death by the cruel and covetous plan of selling him to the Midianites. Conscience and natural feeling wrought on Judah, "what profit is it (like the antitype Judas, and in the keen bargaining spirit of the Jews ages afterward: Joh_12:4-5; Mat_26:15), if we slay our brother and conceal his blood? Come and let us sell him ... and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh." Conscience was stupefied, and cupidity gratified, by this scheme. Judah was the brethren's spokesman in prevailing on Jacob to let Benjamin go to Egypt, and he undertook to be surety for him (Gen_43:3-10); and when Joseph's cup was found with Benjamin, professed their guilt and liability to bondservice, though actually innocent of stealing it, in order in oriental fashion to move pity.
Then Judah touchingly appealed to the supposed Egyptian prince to detain him as a bondservant instead of his youngest brother, by describing his father's love for Benjamin after having lost Joseph, and the danger of bringing down his grey hairs with sorrow to the grave, so that Joseph could refrain no longer but made himself known (Genesis 44). Judah too is the one who prepares the way before his father in going to meet Joseph and settle in Goshen (Gen_46:28). Throughout Judah "prevailed above his brethren, and of him came the chief prince" (1Ch_5:2). Though "the birthright was Joseph's" he was not registered as firstborn, because of Judah's prevalence on the threefold ground, Jacob's blessing, Judah's historic preeminence, and David the prince (1Ch_28:4) being chosen from Judah. The tribe outnumbered all the others under Moses: 74,600 at Sinai (Num_1:26-27); :76,500 before entering Canaan (Num_26:22); outnumbering Dan at Sinai by 11,900. Again after the division of the land Judah was called by God to be the vanguard of the army warring with the Canaanites (Jdg_1:1-2).
Judah in his conduct before Joseph in Egypt manifested true nobility; if he had sold his brother yet he was willing to be sold himself for the youngest brother. So, when Reuben forfeited his birthright by incest, Simeon and Levi by manslaughter, Judah the next oldest received from Jacob the best blessing of the older sons (Gen_49:8-12). Judah's "hand was in the neck of his enemies" in his victories as leading tribe; "his father's children bowed down before him"' when Judah became the royal tribe, of whom sprang David and David's almighty Son. The "lion," the king of beasts, is Jacob's image for Judah; afterward it was his standard, with the motto "Rise up, Lord, let Thine enemies be scattered" (Targum in Pseudo Jonathan). Judah should hold the tribal "sceptre," and have "lawgivers" (Psa_60:7) among his posterity ("from between his feet") until Shiloh ("the Prince of peace") should come. So accordingly Augustus' decree (Luk_2:1, etc.) and the Roman procuratorship, superseding native rule, marked the appearance of Christ of the tribe of Judah.
In Him all Judah's regal and legislative powers merged and found their consummation. Judah as to temporal prosperity should "bind his foal unto the vine and his donkey's colt unto the choice vine, washing his garments in wine and his clothes in the blood of the grape, his eyes being red with wine and his teeth white with milk." Spiritually the targums of Jerusalem and Pseudo Jonathan refer this also to Messiah. Chrysostom interprets the "vine" the Jewish people, the wild donkey the Gentiles brought into the church's vineyard. Christ is the true vine (Joh_15:1); He trod the winepress alone, empurpling His garments with His blood (Isa_63:1 ff). The wine is the inspiring Spirit in believers as milk is the nourishing spiritual food (Son_5:1; Isa_55:1; Eph_5:18; 1Pe_2:2). In Moses' dying blessing (Deu_33:7) he prays: "Hear Lord the voice of Judah (in prayer) and bring him (marching at the head of the tribes back again victorious) unto his people."
Judah stopped with his friend Hirah, an Adullamite, and there married a Canaanitess, Shuah's daughter (Bath-Shua), by whom he had sons, Er, Onan, and Shelah. Er died childless; and oriental or Chaldee custom (afterward permitted and regulated under the Mosaic code: Mat_22:24; Deu_25:5) required Onan to marry his widow Tamar. Onan having been slain by Jehovah for unnatural sin, Shelah ought to have been given her; but Judah, from superstitious fear lest he too should die, delayed. Then she waylaid Judah as a veiled harlot (one apparently consecrated by vow to impurity in the worship of Venus Astarte, the Babylonian Mylitta) at the gate of Enaim (margin) and received his signet, bracelets, and staff in pledge for the kid he promised her. She resumed her widow's garments.
When it was known that she was with child, Judah, by his patriarchal authority, would have burned her as having disgraced his family; but she proved by the signet and bracelet that Judah himself was the father of her children, and that she had a claim on him as nearest of kin to marry her when he withheld Shelah (Ruth 3-4; Gen_38:25-26). Pharez and Zarah were the offspring, Pharezthe ancestor of David and of Messiah Himself (Gen_46:12)). God can bring purity out of impurity. The three sons born in Canaan accompanied Judah to Egypt on his removal there (Exo_1:2). Nahshon, Amminadab's son, was chief at the first census (Num_1:7; Num_2:3; Num_7:12; Num_10:14), David's ancestor (Rth_4:20). Caleb represented Judah among the spies, and in the allotment of the land (Num_13:6; Num_34:19). Judah led the van in the wilderness march on the E. of the tabernacle, with Issachar and Zebulun his kinsmen (Num_2:3-9; Num_10:14).
The boundaries of Judah are given (Jos_20:20-63). The territory was thickly studded with towns and villages. Benjamin was on the N. The northern bound ran from the embouchure of Jordan, by the valley of Hinnom under Jerusalem, to Jabneel on the western sea coast; the Dead Sea on E., and the Mediterranean on W. The southern bound ran from the extreme southern end of the Dead Sea to the Mediterranean at wady el Arish. The wilderness of Zin was its extreme southern limit. Its length averaged 45 miles, its width 50. Four main regions made up the territory.
(1) "The south" (Negeb); the southernmost district of Canaan, the pasture lands between the hills and the desert; a portion of this was ceded to Simeon (Jos_15:20-32; Jos_19:1-9).
(2) The shephelah, or rolling lower hills, the hilly lowland between the central mountains and the Mediterranean plain (Jos_15:33). The shephelah was hounded by the Negeb on the S.; on the N. it reached to Lydda, where the plain of Sharon begins, famous for its flowers; the hilly part (Ashedoth) of the shephelah is on the E., the link between mountain and plain, and is more thick with villages than the plain, grainfields alternate with meadows, gardens, and olive groves.
(3) The mountain or "hill country of Judah," the largest of the four (Jos_15:48-60). Beginning at its highest level below Hebron, 3,000 ft. above the sea level, it reaches E. to the Dead Sea and W. to the shephelah; an elevated plateau of a tolerably general level; the southern part of the mountain backbone stretching N. until interrupted by Esdraelon plain, and having on it Hebron, Jerusalem, and Shechem; this "mountain of Judah" abounds in rains of former towns; springs are numerous, as at Urtas near Solomon's pools, but no streams. It rises from the Negeb precipitously, between the hilly region on the, western part of the shephelah and the desert of Judah" extending to the Dead Sea (ver. 61): a rugged limestone range, with sides covered with grass, shrubs, and trees; the valleys intersecting it yield plentifully grain, wheat, and millet; orchards, olive yards, and vineyards rise in terraces up the sides.
(4) "The desert of Judah" (midbar), the sunken district near the Dead Sea; from the northern border of Judah (Jos_15:6-7) to wady Fikreh on the S. and to Maon, Tekoah, and Bethlehem toward the W.: a soil of chalk, marl, flint, and lime, bore of vegetation on the side toward the Dead Sea; but where springs are, luxuriant, and even in the desolate parts bearing traces of ancient works of man. The present barrenness, so far from disproving, confirms Scripture, which, though describing its former fertility, foretells its desolation for its apostasy. Its towns were six (Jos_15:62). (See ENGEDI.) The city of Salt was at the southern end of the Dead Sea in the Salt Valley. The priests' nine cities were all in Judah; the Levites had no cities in Judah (Jos_21:9-19). The allotment to Judah was first (Jos_15:1; Jos_19:51). Joshua prepared the way by destroying the chief towns and slaying their kings, penetrating even to Hebron and Debir in the hill country.
Judah and Simeon followed up the conquest (Jdg_1:9; Jdg_1:19-20), occupying the mountain and the graingrowing Philistine tract, with Gaza, Askelon, and Ekron, but unable to drive out the Canaanites from the valley (Emek) where their chariots gave the latter the advantage (Jdg_1:19), but in Jdg_1:9 "valley" is shephelah, rather the low hilly region between the mountain and the plain. The Philistine tract was wrested from Judah's hands (1 Samuel 4-5; 1Sa_7:14), then Judah recovered it. Judah took little part in the conflicts under the judges, except (Judges 20) the attack on Gibeah. The Philistine incursions were through Dan's and Benjamin's territory, not Judah's. The tribe acted throughout independently of the rest (2Sa_2:4; 2Sa_2:11; 2Sa_19:40-43). 2Sa_19:2. Ezr_3:9, = Hodaviah (Ezr_2:40), Hodevah (Neh_7:43).
3. Ezr_10:23; Neh_12:8; Neh_12:36.
4. Neh_11:9, "second over the city"; compare 1Ch_9:7.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.


Ju'dah. (praised, celebrated). The fourth son of Jacob and the fourth of Leah. (B.C. after 1753). Of Judah's personal character, more traits are preserved than of any other of the patriarchs, with the exception of Joseph, whose life he, in conjunction with Reuben, saved. Gen_37:26-28. During the second visit to Egypt for corn, it was Judah who was understood to be responsible for the safety of Benjamin, Gen_43:3-10, and when, through Joseph's artifice, the brothers were brought back to the palace, he is again the leader and spokesman of the band. So too, it is Judah who is sent before Jacob to smooth the way for him in the land of Goshen. Gen_46:28. This ascendancy over his brethren is reflected in the last words addressed to him by his father.
The families of Judah occupy a position among the tribes similar to that which their progenitor had taken among the patriarchs. The numbers of the tribe at the census at Sinai were 74,600. Num_1:26-27. On the borders of the Promised Land, they were 76,500. Gen_26:22.
The boundaries and contents of the territory allotted to Judah are narrated at great length, and with greater minuteness than the others, in Jos_15:20-63. The north boundary, for the most part coincident with the south boundary of Benjamin, began at the embouchure of the Jordan and ended, on the west, at Jabneel on the coast of the Mediterranean, four miles south of Joppa. On the east, the Dead Sea, and on the west, the Mediterranean, formed the boundaries. The southern line is hard to determine, since it is denoted by places many of which have not been identified. It left the Dead Sea at its extreme south end, and joined the Mediterranean at the Wady el-Arish. This territory is in average length about 45 miles, and in average breadth about 50.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863


the son of Jacob and Leah, who was born in Mesopotamia, Gen_29:35. It was he who advised his brethren to sell Joseph to the Ishmaelite merchants, rather than stain their hands with his blood, Gen_37:26. There is little said of his life, and the little that is recorded does not raise him high in our estimation. In the last prophetic blessing pronounced on him by his father Jacob, Gen_49:8-9, there is a promise of the regal power; and that it should not depart from his family before the coming of the Messiah. The whole southern part of Palestine fell to Judah's lot; but the tribes of Simeon and Dan possessed many cities which at first were given to Judah. This tribe was so numerous, that at the departure out of Egypt it contained seventy-four thousand six hundred men capable of bearing arms, Num_1:26-27. The crown passed from the tribe of Benjamin, of which Saul and his sons were, to that of Judah, which was David's tribe, and the tribe of the kings, his successors, until the Babylonish captivity.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.


Ju?dah, (celebrated), fourth son of Jacob and Leah (B.C. 1755). The narrative in Genesis brings this patriarch more before the reader, and makes known more of his history and character, than it does in the case of any other of the twelve sons of Jacob, with the single, exception of Joseph. It is indeed chiefly in connection with Joseph that the facts respecting Judah transpire; and as they have already been given in the articles Jacob and Joseph, it is only necessary to indicate them shortly in this place. It was Judah's advice that the brethren followed when they sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites, instead of taking his life. By the light of his subsequent actions we can see that his conduct on this occasion arose from a generous impulse, although the form of the question he put to them has been sometimes held to suggest an interested motive:?'What profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him,' etc. (Gen_37:26-27).
Not long after this Judah withdrew from the paternal tents, and went to reside at Adullam, in the country which afterwards bore his name. Here he married a woman of Canaan, called Shuah, and had by her three sons, Er, Onan, and Shelah. When the eldest of these sons became of fit age, he was married to a woman named Tamar, but soon after died. As he died childless, the patriarchal law, afterwards adopted into the Mosaic code (Deu_25:6), required him to bestow upon the widow his second son. This he did: but as Onan also soon died childless, Judah became reluctant to bestow his only surviving son upon this woman, and put her off with the excuse that he was not yet of sufficient age. Tamar accordingly remained in her father's house at Adullam. She had the usual passion of Eastern women for offspring, and could not endure the stigma of having been twice married without bearing children, while the law precluded her from contracting any alliance but that which Judah withheld her from completing.
Meanwhile Judah's wife died, and after the time of mourning had expired, he went, accompanied by his friend Hirah, to attend the shearing of his sheep at Timnath in the same neighborhood. These circumstances suggested to Tamar the strange thought of connecting herself with Judah himself, under the guise of a loose woman. Having waylaid him on the road to Timnath, she succeeded in her object, and when the consequences began to be manifest in the person of Tamar, Judah was highly enraged at her crime, and, exercising the powers which belonged to him as the head of the family she had dishonored, he commanded her to be brought forth and committed to the flames as an adulteress. But when she appeared, she produced the ring, the bracelet, and the staff, which he had left in pledge with her; and put him to confusion by declaring that they belonged to the father of her coming offspring. Judah acknowledged them to be his, and confessed that he had been wrong in withholding Shelah from her. The result of this painful affair was the birth of two sons, Zerah and Pharez, from whom, with Shelah, the tribe of Judah descended. Pharez was the ancestor of the line from which David, the kings of Judah, and Jesus came (Genesis 38; Gen_46:12; 1Ch_2:3-5; Mat_1:3; Luk_3:33).
These circumstances seem to have disgusted Judah with his residence in towns; for we find him ever afterwards at his father's tents. His experience of life, and the strength of his character, appear to have given him much influence with Jacob; and it was chiefly from confidence in him that the aged father at length consented to allow Benjamin to go down to Egypt. That this confidence was not misplaced has already been shown [JOSEPH]; and there is not in the whole range of literature a finer piece of true natural eloquence than that in which Judah offers himself to remain as a bond-slave in the place of Benjamin, for whose safe return he had made himself responsible to his father. The strong emotions which it raised in Joseph disabled him from keeping up longer the disguise he had hitherto maintained, and there are few who have read it without being, like him, moved even to tears.
We hear nothing more of Judah till he received, along with his brothers, the final blessing of his father, which was conveyed in lofty language, glancing far into futurity, and strongly indicative of the high destinies which awaited the tribe that was to descend from him.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.


Judah
(Heb. Yehudah', יְהוּדָה, celebrated; comp. Gen_29:35; Gen_49:8, Chald.
יְהוּד, Yehud', Ezr_5:1; Ezr_7:14; Dan_2:25; Dan_5:13; Dan_6:13; "Judaea," Ezr_5:8; "Jewry," Dan_5:13; Sept. and N.T. generally Ι᾿ούδας [as also Josephus]; but comp. Ι᾿ούδα, Luk_3:26; Luk_3:30; for Luk_1:39, SEE JUTTAH ), the name of several persons, etc., in Scripture. SEE JUDAS; SEE JUDE.
1. The fourth son of Jacob by Leah, born B.C. 1916 (Gen_29:35), being the last before the temporary cessation in the births of her children. His whole brothers were Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, elder than himself — Issachar and Zebulun younger (see Gen_35:23). The name is explained as having originated in Leah's exclamation of "praise" at this fresh gift of Jehovah — "She said, 'Now will I praise (אוֹדֶה, odeh) Jehovah,' and she called his name Yehudah" (Gen_29:35). The same play is preserved in the blessing of Jacob — "Judah, thou whom thy brethren shall praise!" (Gen_49:8).
The narrative in Genesis brings this patriarch more before the reader, and makes known more of his history and character than it does in the case of any other of the twelve sons of Jacob, with the single exception of Joseph. It was Judah's advice that the brethren followed when they sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites instead of taking his life. By the light of his subsequent actions we can see that his conduct on this occasion arose from a generous impulse, although the form of the question he put to them has been sometimes held to suggest an interested motive: "What profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him" (Gen_37:26-27). Though not the first born, he "prevailed above his brethren" (1Ch_5:2), and we find him subsequently taking a decided lead in all the affairs of the family. When a second visit to Egypt for corn had become inevitable, it was Judah who, as the mouthpiece of the rest, headed the remonstrance against the detention of Benjamin by Jacob, and finally undertook to be responsible for the safety of the lad (Gen_43:3-10). When, through Joseph's artifice, the brothers were brought back to the palace, he is again the leader and spokesman of the band. In that thoroughly Oriental scene it is Judah who unhesitatingly acknowledges the guilt which had never been committed, throws himself on the mercy of the supposed Egyptian prince, offers himself as a slave, and makes that wonderful appeal to the feelings of their disguised brother which renders it impossible for Joseph any longer to conceal his secret (Gen_44:14; Gen_44:16-34). So, too, it is Judah who is sent before Jacob to smooth the way for him in the land of Goshen (Gen_46:28). This ascendency over his brethren is reflected in the last words addressed to him by his father — Thou whom thy brethren shall praise! thy father's sons shall bow down before thee! unto him shall be the gathering of the people (Gen_49:8-10). In the interesting traditions of the Koran and the Midrash his figure stands out in the same prominence. Before Joseph his wrath is mightier and his recognition heartier than the rest. It is he who hastens in advance to bear to Jacob the fragrant robe of Joseph (Weil's Biblical Legends, p. 88-90).
Not long after the sale of Joseph, Judah had withdrawn from the paternal tents, and gone to reside at Adullam, in the country which afterwards bore his name. Here he married a woman of Canaan, called Shuah, and had by her three sons. Er, Onan, and Shelah. When the eldest of these sons became of fit age, he was married to a woman named Tamar, but soon after died. SEE ER. As he died childless, the patriarchal law, afterwards adopted into the Mosaic code (Deu_25:6), required Judah to bestow upon the widow his second son. This he did; but as Onan also soon died childless SEE ONAN, Judah became reluctant to bestow his only surviving son upon this woman, and put her off with the excuse that he was not yet of sufficient age. Tamar accordingly remained in her father's house at Adullam. She had the usual passion of Eastern women for offspring, and could not endure the stigma of having been twice married without bearing children, while the law precluded her from contracting any alliance but that which Judah withheld her from completing. Meanwhile Judah's wife died, and, after the time of mourning had expired, he went, accompanied by his friend Hirah, to attend the shearing of his sheep at Timnath, in the same neighborhood. These circumstances suggested to Tamar the strange thought of connecting herself with Judah himself, under the guise of a loose woman. Having waylaid him on the road to Timnath, she succeeded in her object, and when the consequences began to be manifest in the person of Tamar, Judah was highly enraged at her crime, and, exercising the powers which belonged to him as the head of the family she had dishonored, he commanded her to be brought forth, and committed to the flames as an adulteress. But when she appeared she produced the ring, the bracelet, and the staff which he had left in pledge with her, and put him to confusion by declaring that they belonged to the father of her coming offspring. SEE TAMAR.
Judah acknowledged them to be his, and confessed that he had been wrong in withholding Shelah from her. The result of this painful affair was the birth of two sons, Zerah and Pharez (B.C. cir. 1893), from whom, with Shelah, the tribe of Judah descended. Pharez was the ancestor of the line from which David, the kings of Judah, and Jesus came (Genesis 38; Gen_46:12; 1Ch_2:3-5; Mat_1:3; Luk_3:33). These circumstances seem to have disgusted Judah with his residence in towns, for we find him ever afterwards at his father's tents. His experience of life, and the strength of his character, appear to have given him much influence with Jacob; and it was chiefly from confidence in him that the aged father at length consented to allow Benjamin to go down to Egypt. That this confidence was not misplaced has already been shown, SEE JOSEPH; and there is not in the whole range of literature a finer piece of true natural eloquence than that in which Judah offers himself to remain as a bond slave in the place of Benjamin, for whose safe return he had made himself responsible to his father. The strong emotions which it raised in Joseph disabled him from keeping up longer the disguise he had hitherto maintained, and there are few who have read it without being, like him, moved even to tears (Gen_44:14-34). B.C. 1874. SEE JACOB.
We hear nothing more of Judah till he received, along with his brothers, the final blessing of his father, which was conveyed in lofty language, glancing far into futurity, and strongly indicative of the high destinies which awaited the tribe that was to descend from him (Gen_49:8-12). B.C. 1856. SEE SHILOH.

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.





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