Judah

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This article is about the son of Jacob. For other uses, see Judah (disambiguation).

Judah (Hebrew: יהוּדה, Yəhûḏāh; "to praise"), (b.2189 AM 1970 BC
1791 H
2189 AM), was the fourth son of Jacob by Leah. He is the ancestor of the Tribe of Judah. He had eleven brothers: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. He also had a sister, Dinah.

Some notable descedants of Judah are David, Solomon, and Jesus Christ.

Contents 1 The Plot to Sell Joseph 2 Judah's Sons 3 The Famine 4 Entry into Egypt 5 Related References 6 See Also

The Plot to Sell Joseph

In 2216 AM, Judah and his brothers hatched a plot against their brother Joseph. Most of the brothers wanted to kill Joseph. Judah suggested selling Joseph to a group of Ishmaelite traders. Killing Joseph, he said, would gain them nothing and require them to conceal their act.^[1]

Judah would not hear of Joseph again for about another twenty years.

Judah's Sons

Shortly after the sale of Joseph, Judah moved away to live in an Adullamite village. There he befriended a local named Hirah, and also took a local wife.^[2]

She bore him three sons in this order: Er, Onan, and Shelah.^[3] The Bible does not say how soon apart they were born, but they were probably born about one year apart, beginning in 2217 AM.

Jewish custom dictates that a boy becomes a man at the age of thirteen, so perhaps Er was thirteen years of age when Judah arranged for him to marry a young woman named Tamar.^[4] This would have happened in the year 2230 AM.

The Bible says only that Er was a wicked man in God's sight, and accordingly God took his life.^[5] So Judah instructed his next younger son Onan to marry Tamar next and to sire a son that would be Er's son, according to the levirate obligation. But Onan did not wish to honor this obligation, and so whenever he was intimate with Tamar he made sure that he would not impregnate her.^[6]

God found this act displeasing, and so Onan died as well. Judah, in fear that Shelah also would not survive, told Tamar to wait until Shelah was "grown up" and wear widow's garments until then. In fact, Judah did not summon Tamar when Shelah attained his majority.^[7]

Eventually (probably in 2232 AM) Judah's first wife died. Judah and his friend Hirah went to Timnath to supervise the annual sheep-shearing. Tamar heard about it, and also heard that by now Shelah had attained his majority—and Judah had not summoned her to marry Shelah.

Tamar then traveled to Timnath, but instead of her widow's clothes, she wore the veil of a harlot. She then sat openly on the road, so that Judah would see her—but Judah did not realize whom he was talking to. He asked her price for her services, and she asked him to make her an offer. He offerred a young goat from his flock, and she then demanded a pledge. That pledge was his signet ring, his bracelets, and his staff, or rod.^[8]

Judah agreed to give the pledge, and he was intimate with her and made her pregnant. Tamar did not stay in Timnath; instead she returned to her father's house and resumed her widow's clothes. Judah sent his friend Hirah with the goat, but by then Tamar was gone, and the villagers said that they never had a prostitute in that place. Judah decided to let the (to him) unknown prostitute keep his pledges, because he did not want the villagers to laugh at him if he came twice on the same seemingly foolish errand.^[9]

Three months later, Judah's neighbors told him that his daughter-in-law had been found pregnant out-of-wedlock. Judah ordered her brought before him to be burned at the stake. But when she appeared, she had Judah's signet ring, bracelets, and staff. Judah acknowledged them as his, and even acknowledged his own faults in the affair, including his own failure to let her marry Shelah when the time had come. He never was intimate with Tamar again.^[10]

The time for Tamar's delivery was probably the summer of 2233 AM. Judah would have been 44 years old at the time. Tamar was found to be pregnant with twins. As one boy thrust his arm out, the midwife attending Tamar tied a bright red cord around it. But the other boy still was born first, and the midwife said, "How did you break out first?" And so this boy was named Pharez, whose name means "a breach" or "breaking out." The other boy was born next, and he was given the name Zerah, which name means "bright red."^[11]

The Famine

Judah returned to his own father's house, taking Tamar and his twin sons with him. When this occurred, the Bible does not say, but it probably occurred in 2236 AM, when famine struck the Middle East. For reasons that, again, the Bible does not disclose, Judah emerged as the leader of his brothers. (Perhaps Reuben was considered disqualified because of his dalliance with Bilhah, and Simeon and Levi had disqualified themselves through their hotheaded actions at Shechem.)

Judah led two expeditions to Egypt to buy grain for the family. The first expedition nearly ended in disaster, because the viceroy of Egypt accused them all of espionage. Reuben reminded his brothers that he had warned them against their earlier plot against Joseph. (They did not know who the viceroy was, but Reuben was telling them that they were getting their just due.)^[12]

Eventually the viceroy released them, with an ample supply of food. Furthermore, when they came back to Jacob, they found their money still in their sacks.

The viceroy had told them that if they didn't bring Benjamin with them, they would not be allowed into Egypt again. So Judah prevailed upon his father to send Benjamin with them. Judah said that he would personally guarantee Benjamin's safety. Jacob advised them to take back the money that they had found still in their sacks, plus an additional double price for a second supply of grain.

The brothers arrived, and the viceroy entertained them very graciously, paying special attention to Benjamin.^[13] And again the viceroy sent them back, with as much grain as they could carry and with all their money restored. But this time, Egyptian soldiers arrested them and brought them back before the viceroy, who proceeded to accuse them of stealing a silver cup from his house. The soldiers searched the men's effects—and found the cup in Benjamin's sack.

At this disaster, Judah confessed that when they had earlier said that one of their brothers was no more, that was not completely accurate. He then described the plot to sell Joseph, and the earlier deceit of their father. He finished by saying that he could not let another son of Jacob's be lost to him.^[14]

What happened next shocked Judah and his brothers to the core. First, the viceroy ordered everyone else in the room to leave. Then the viceroy wept before them, and said,

I am Joseph; doth my father yet live? Genesis 45:3 (KJV)

Judah and the others were speechless, so the viceroy repeated himself. He was indeed Joseph, whom they had earlier sold into slavery. He then said that they should not be angry with themselves, because Joseph had to come to Egypt to be put in charge of its affairs at this critical time.^[15]

Entry into Egypt

Joseph commissioned a great wagon train and sent Judah and his brothers back with it to Canaan, with instructions to load all their goods onto the wagons and come to Egypt to live. Judah and the others returned to Jacob and told them all that had happened. Jacob needed convincing, but the wagon train was evidence enough.

Judah came to Egypt permanently on 15 Abib 2238 AM25 April 1921 BC
15 Iyar 1840 H
15 Abib 2238 AM. He was 49 years old at the time, and had twin sons who were almost five years old. The Bible mentions Judah's grandsons also—but that they had already been born by then is unlikely, considering his sons' likely ages.

How long Judah lived in Egypt after his arrival, the Bible does not say.

Related References

See Also

• Israel
• Israelites
• Arabs
• Palestine