Yehudah (Judah)

יהודה


From the root meaning "praised".

Bear in mind that there was Yehudah the man - and most of this blog will be about him - but also Yehudah the tribe, which became Yehudah the southern kingdom when Yisra-El divided after the death of Shelomoh (Solomon), and then Yehudah the country, it being all that was left after the destriction of the northern kingdom by Sennacherib around 720 BCE. When Christians speak of Judea (or Judaea), they mean Yehudah; when people speak of Jews, they mean Yehudim; and when Jews and others call the language "Hebrew", then mean Yehudit.

Genesis 29:35; 35:23 names him as the fourth son of Ya'akov (Jacob).

In Genesis 37:26 it is Yehudah who recommends selling Yoseph to the Beney Yishma-El, rather than killing him, though only after Re'u-Ven has saved Yoseph once already from the knife (37:21); it will become of interest (see notes on his status below) to note that it is also Re'u-Ven, the first-born, who offers his own sons as hostages for Bin-Yamin (42:37), when Yoseph requires them to bring his younger brother to Mitsrayim. Yehudah will make the same offer (Genesis 44), but only after Re'u-Ven has already made it.

In Genesis 43 it is Yehudah who takes the lead when their father wants them to go back to Mistrayim for more food (and to rescue Shim'on, who has been held hostage), and now it is he who offers to be Bin-Yamin's guardian. So Yehudah appears to have taken the leadership of the brothers, and at the start of the next chapter (44:14), we are not told that "the sons of Ya'akov came to Yoseph's house", but quite specifically that "Yehudah and his brothers" did so, confirming that leadership; and in 44:16 it is Yehudah who speaks to Yoseph, while the other brothers are silent. Nor are we told which are the five brothers whom Yoseph chose to accompany him to see Pharaoh (Genesis 47:2), but we can safely assume that Yehudah was one of them.

And then, in 46:28, when Ya'akov learns that Yoseph is still alive, and travels to Mitsrayim to be with him, it is Yehudah who he sends on ahead, "to show the way before him unto Goshen". Why Yehudah? Reading the text within its own context, rather than looking back with the benefit of historical insight, we can assume that Ya'akov is still angry with Re'u-Ven, the first-born, for sleeping with Bilhah; angrier still with Shim'on and Levi, the second and third-born, for what they did to Shechem in revenge for Dinah's rape (that anger is proven in the Hikavtsu - Genesis 49:5 ff); and anyway Shim'on is in jail in Mitsrayim. And yet, how convenient to what I will explain shortly, that the first three sons all have reasons to be "disinherited", enabling Yehudah to obtain the birthright!

I shall return to this in a moment; but in the meanwhile note that Genesis 38 has intermezzo'ed the tale of Yehudah and Tamar, which might also be thought to discredit Yehudah, even if not actually disinherit him; but the inverse turns out to be the case. In their exegeses all scholars wonder why it is told where it is, and we can now see that it is there to establish Yehudah as the senior brother, not really for then so much as later, when the tribe will be one of the remnant and become the leader; that leadership, as King David knew very well, was "validated" by the royal blood inherited through Yehudah's son Parets, fathered on Tamar here, and endorsed in Genesis 46:12. This is how history gets written by the survivors when they become the victors!

And one more piece of text that helps create that history later on, retroactively validated as so much of Ezraic history will be: Ya'akov's blessing of Yehudah in Genesis 49:8: 

"YEHUDAH ATA YODUCHA ACHEYCHA YADCHA BE OREPH OYVEYCHA YISHTACHAVU LECHA BENEY AVICHA

יהודה אתה יודוך אחיך ידך בערף איביך ישתחוו לך בני אביך

Yehudah, you shall your brothers praise; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father's sons shall bow down before you."

The leadership endorsed, ratified and proclaimed! And how ironic, that the language should mirror the very beginning of the tale, when Yoseph dreamed the dream that so angered his brothers, the one in which they bowed down to him (Genesis 37:5-10).

The Hikavtsu continues in Genesis 49:9:

"GUR ARYEH YEHUDAH MI TEREPH BENI ALITA KA RA RAVATS KE ARYEH U CHE LAVI MI YEKIMEYNU

גור אריה יהודה מטרף בני עלית כרע רבץ כאריה וכלביא מי יקימני

Yehudah is a lion's whelp; from the prey, my son, you are gone up; he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as a lioness; who shall rouse him up?"

49:10:

"LO YASUR SHEVET MI YEHUDAH U ME CHOKEK MI BEYN RAGLAV AD KI YAVO SHILOH VE LO YIKHAT AMIM

לא יסור שבט מיהודה ומחקק מבין רגליו עד כי יבא שילה ולו יקהת עמים

The sceptre shall not depart from Yehudah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, as long as men come to Shiloh; and to him shall the obedience of the peoples be."

49:11:

"OSRI LA GEPHEN IROH VE LA SEREYKAH BENI ATONU KI BES BA YAYIN LEVUSHO U VE DAM ANAVIM SUTOH

אסרי לגפן עירה ולשקרה בני אתנו כבס ביין לבשו ובדם ענבים סותה

Binding his foal to the vine, and his ass's colt to the choice vine; he washes his garments in wine, and his vesture in the blood of grapes."

49:12:

"CHACHLILI EYNAYIM MI YAYIN U LEVEN SHINAYIM ME CHALAV

חכלילי עינים מיין ולבן שנים מחלב

His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk."

This is by far the longest of all the tribal blessings, perhaps because Yehudah became the chief tribe. Those who take the Bible literally would deduce that Ya'akov had the powers of prophecy and could predict the future predominance of the tribe of Yehudah; what we now know is that all these blessings were written, or at most re-written, to suit the needs of the Redactor at a much later date, by which time Yehudah had become predominant and therefore required a suitable blessing. But it should not be like this. If Ya'akov were blessing his sons in the proper manner, Yehudah as fourth son would not have had such a lengthy blessing. The predominance would not have been given to him. The notion of his brothers kneeling before him, elsewhere attributed as a mad dream to Yoseph, and very much the reason behind his suffering, would likewise not have been attached.

For a more detailed exegesis, see my commentaries on Genesis 49.

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Numbers 7:1/3 informs us that:

"On the day when Mosheh had finished setting up the Tabernacle and had anointed and consecrated it with all its furnishings, and had anointed and consecrated the altar with all its utensils, the chiefs of Yisra-El, the heads of their fathers' houses, who were the chiefs of the tribes, who were over those who were listed, approached and brought their offerings before YHVH, six wagons and twelve oxen, a wagon for every two of the chiefs, and for each one an ox. They brought them before the Tabernacle."

When the list is given, Nachshon ben Ami-Nadav (נַחְשׁוֹן בֶּן-עַמִּינָדָב) of the tribe of Yehudah is the first to present - the tribe of the fourth eldest given the top spot. After him come Yisaschar, Zevulun, Re'u-Ven, Shim'on, Gad, Ephrayim, Menasheh, Bin-Yamin, Dan, Asher and Naphtali - Levi not included because the Beney Levi have been given the priestly duties. No explanation is given for this order, but it was a major religious ceremony of historical proportions, and the Beney Yisra-El at the time would have considered it as such, so it was highly unlikely to have been "first-ready", or some other arbitrary order. But it places Yehudah first.

But does so only in books that belonged to the southern kingdom of Yehudah - the Chronicle of the northern kingdom (1 Chronicles 5:1 and 2 to be precise) makes a very different case, when it gives the genealogy of Re'u-Ven:

"These were the sons of Re'u-Ven the firstborn of Yisra-El. Though he was the firstborn, his birthright was given to the sons of Yoseph ben Yisra-El, because Re-u-Ven defiled his father’s bed. So he is not reckoned according to birthright. And thoughJudah prevailed over his brothers and a ruler came from him, the birthright belonged to Joseph."

By contrast, Yehudah is one of the last tribes (Joshua 15) to receive its inheritance from Yehoshu'a, and even then the sub-clan of Kalev ben Yephuneh comes to Yehoshu'a (Joshua 14:6-15) to argue for its right to Chevron first. The tribal boundaries are defined in considerable detail (Joshua 15:1-12), though in fact Mosheh had already defined them in Numbers 34:

"Southward to the boundary of Edom, to the wilderness of Zin at the farthest south. And their south boundary ran from the end of the Salt Sea, from the bay that faces southward. It goes out southward of the ascent of Akravim (עַקְרַבִּים), passes along to Zin, and goes up south of Kadesh-Barnea, along by Chetsron, up to Adar (אֲדָר), turns about to Kark'a (קַּרְקַע), passes along to Atsmon (עַצְמוֹן), goes out by the Brook of Egypt, and comes to its end at the sea. This shall be your south boundary. And the east boundary is the Salt Sea, to the mouth of the Yarden. And the boundary on the north side runs from the bay of the sea at the mouth of the Yarden. And the boundary goes up to Beit-Hoglah (בֵּית־ חָגְלָה) and passes along north of Beit Ha Aravah (בֵ֧ית הָֽעֲרָבָ֛ה). And the boundary goes up to the stone of Bohan (בֹּהַן) the son of Re'u-Ven. And the boundary goes up to Devir (דְּבִיר) from Emek (the Valley of) Achor (עֵמֶק עָכוֹר), and so northward, turning toward Gil-Gal..."

- note that the Yehudit states Ha Gil-Gal - הַגִּלְגָּל) -

... "which is opposite the ascent of Adumim (אֲדֻמִּים), which is on the south side of the valley. And the boundary passes along to the waters of Ein-Shemesh (עֵין שֶׁמֶשׁ) and ends at Ein Rogel (עֵין רֹגֵל). Then the boundary goes up by the Valley of the Son of Hinnom at the southern shoulder of the Yevusi - that is, Yeru-Shala'im (יְרוּשָׁלִָם)..."

- an indication of the date of writing this! Yeru-Shala'im did not come into existence by that name until 200 years after Yehoshu'a distributed the tribal territories -

... "And the boundary goes up to the top of the mountain that lies over against the Valley of Hinnom, on the west, at the northern end of the Valley of Rephayim. Then the boundary extends from the top of the mountain to the spring of the Waters of Nephto'ach (מֵי נֶפְתּוֹחַ), and from there to the cities of Mount Ephron. Then the boundary bends around to Ba'alah (בַּעֲלָה)..."

- but grammatically this should properly be Ba'alatah -

..."that is, Kiryat Ye'arim (קִרְיַת יְעָרִים). And the boundary circles west of Ba'alah to Mount Se'ir, passes along to the northern shoulder of Mount Ye'arim - that is, Chesalon (כְסָלוֹן), and goes down to Beit Shemesh (בֵּית-שֶׁמֶשׁ) and passes along by Timnah. The boundary goes out to the shoulder of the hill north of Ekron ( עֶקְרוֹן), then the boundary bends around to Shikeron (שִׁכְּר֫וֹן) and passes along to Mount Ba'alah and goes out to Yavne-El (יַבְנְאֵל). Then the boundary comes to an end at the sea. And the west boundary was the Great Sea with its coastline. This is the boundary around the people of Yehudah according to their clans."

A good exercise for a Bible-study class: go back and check if the Joshua and Numbers "maps" are identical, and use a modern map to do so - a fantastic way to learn the map of Yisra-El; and then, once you've done it, work out the contemporary politics as well!

We have to ask - was this really the distribution, or is this a much later map of Yehudah being retroactively validated through Mosheh and Yehoshu'a (and are all those references above a part of a later process of establishing the future legitimacy of Yehudah as "head tribe"?) 

Why do I ask? For two reasons: first, because the area given to Yehudah is vastly bigger than any other tribe; even Menasheh, which is likewise much larger than the others, is not on the same scale; secondly, because I cannot imagine that Shim'on accepted without a quarrel being made an island within Yehudah, and thereby effectively in its power. And then, what of the Pelishtim, who were never conquered, and who occupied the entire coastal strip west of Shim'on, and forced Dan to abandon its territory and move to La'ish, north of East Menasheh and Naphtali? Methinks this is a historian of later Yehudah, possibly from the time of David, possibly later, giving his tribe a seniority and significance that it did not have historically - or else failing to explain what and how and why that superiority had actually existed.

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After the division of the kingdom, following the death of Shelomoh (Solomon) and the civil war between Yerav-Am (Jeroboam) and Rechav-Am (Rehoboam) - see 1 Kings 12 ff and 2 Chronicles 10 ff - the southern area was called Yehudah, and included the tribes of Yehudah, Bin-Yamin, whatever was left of Shim'on, and any residual part of Dan, if there was such; its capital was Yeru-Shala'im, which was actually in Bin-Yamin (Joshua 18:28). This area would become known (in English) as Judea later on, and this, alongside the fact that only Yehudah survived of all the tribes, is the source of the word Yehudim, or Jews, though the concept of Jews does not begin historically until after the fall of the Second Temple in 70 CE (I mention this because many translations incorrectly use the word Jew for Yehudah during the Biblical era).

The northern kingdom was called Yisra-El, though the Prophets generally refer to it as Ephrayim. Its capital was at Shechem (today's Nablus), though later (1 Kings 16:24) King Omri built a new city for his capital, and named it Shomron (שֹׁמְרֽוֹן - Samaria)

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In addition to the fourth son of Ya'akov, other characters bear the name Yehudah.

Nehemiah 11:9 has Yehudah ben Hasenu'a (יְהוּדָה בֶן-הַסְּנוּאָה) - "Yehudah the son of the hated one" is the logical translation, which appears to make him an early version of Judas Iscariot! More likely the root is Sana (סנא) = "thorny", and the first-letter Hey (ה) is a definite article, denoting him as coming from the town of Sana or Senu'a; or it may even be that his origins were in Bav-El (Babylon) during the captivity, and the name of his father was not of Yehudit origin at all. This Yehudah was second-in-command of the rebuilt Yeru-Shala'im.

Nehemiah 12:8 includes a Levite named Yehudah amongst those who "went up with Zeru-Bavel ben She'altiy-El (זְרֻבָּבֶל בֶּן-שְׁאַלְתִּיאֵל)", meaning those who returned from exile in Bavel (Babylon), either to Yeru-Shala'im or to one of the other towns in Yehudah.

Ezra 3:9 speaks of various people as being Beney Yehudah; the syntax here infers that they belonged to the tribe rather than being sons of a specific man named Yehudah, though many translations denote them as sons of a specific man named Yehudah.

For the feminine, Yehudit, click here.

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