Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

JUDAH

(Heb. yĕhûḏâ)

1. The fourth son of Jacob and Leah (Gen. 29:35), who was the eponymous ancestor of the tribe and nation (i.e., he was regarded as both their origin and their representative). Hence Jacob’s blessing of Judah (Gen. 49:8-12) mentions him holding the scepter and ruler’s staff because David came from Judah. The prominent role of Judah among the brothers in the Joseph story (Gen. 37:26-27; 43:1-10; 44:14-34) also reflects David’s elevation of Judah to a dominant position over the tribes of Israel. The story of Judah and Tamar in Gen. 38 is striking for its negative portrayal of the patriarch. It aligns the clans of Perez and Zerah genealogically with Judah and hints at their Canaanite roots.

2. The tribe of Judah, which like the patriarch in the Bible, is really a reflection of the nation’s importance. The tribe’s territory lay in the central hill country between, but not including, Jerusalem and Hebron. The only description of it (Josh. 14-15) actually sketches the later boundaries of the nation of Judah. Judah’s independence from the Israelite tribes is suggested by its absence from the early list in the Song of Deborah (Judg. 5) and by the fact that Benjamin, immediately to the north of Judah, was regarded as the southernmost (the basic meaning of the name “Benjamin”) tribe of Israel. Saul’s control over Judah was sporadic and tenuous at best, to judge from the location of the stories about his reign in 1 Samuel.

Steven L. McKenzie

3. A Levite, ancestor of a family that supervised work on the postexilic temple (Ezra 3:9 MT). He may be the same as Hodaviah (4; so NRSV).

4. A Levite who had married a foreign woman (Ezra 10:23).

5. The son of Hassenuah; second in command of postexilic Jerusalem (Neh. 11:9).

6. A Levite who returned from exile with Zerubbabel (Neh. 12:8).

7. A leader of Judah who participated in the dedication of Jerusalem’s rebuilt walls (Neh. 12:34).

8. A priest and musician present at the dedication of the wall (Neh. 12:36).

9. An ancestor of Jesus, the father of Simeon and son of a Joseph (Luke 3:30).

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

JUDAH

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)