There is nothing difficult to understand in the char- acter of Jehu. He was one of those decisive, terrible, and ambitious, yet prudent, calculating, and passionless men whom God from time to time raises up to change the fate of empires and execute his judgments on the earth. He boasted of his zeal — " Come and see my zeal for the Lord"— but at the bottom it was _zeal for Jehu. His zeal was great so long as it led to acts which squared with his own interests, but it cooled marvellously when required to take a direction in his judgment less favor- able to them. Even his zeal in extirpating the idolatrj' of Baal is not free from suspicion. The altar of Baal was that which Ahab had associated with his throne, and in overturning the latter he could not ]irudently let the former stand, surrounded as it was by attached id- herents of the house which he had extirpated. He must be regarded, like many others in history, as an in- strument for accomplishing great purposes rather than as great or good in himself. In the long period during which his destiny— though known to others and per- haps to himself— lay dormant ; in the suddenness of his rise to power; in the ruthlessness with which he car- ried out his puq)Oses ; in the union of profound silence and dissimulation with a stem, fanatic, wayward zeal, he has not been without his likenesses in modern times.
JEHUBBA
814
JEHUDA
The Scripture narrative, although it fixes our attention on the services which he rendered to the cause of relig- ion by the extermination of a worthless dynasty and a degrading worship, yet, on the whole, leaves the sense that it was a reign barren in great results. His dynasty, indeed, was firmly seated on the throne longer than any other royal house of Israel (2 Kings x), and under Jero- boam II it acquired a high name among the Oriental nations. But Elisha, who had raised him to power, as far as we know, never saw him. In other respects it was a failure ; the original sin of Jeroboam's worship contin- ued ; and in the prophet Hosea there seems to be a ret- ribution exacted for the bloodshed by which he had mounted the throne : " I will avenge the blood of Jez- reel upon the house of Jehu" (Hos. i, 4), as in the simi- lar condemnation of Baasha (1 Kings xvi, 2). See a striking poem to this effect on the character of Jehu in the Lyra Ajjosiolica. — Kitto; Smith. See Isuael,
KIXGDOJI OF.
5. Son of Josibiah, apparently one of the chief Sim- eonites who migrated to the valley of Gedor in quest of pasturage during the reign of Hezekiah, and expelled the aboriginal Hagarites (1 Chron. iv, 35). B.C. cir. 711.
Jehub'bah (Ileb. Yechuhhah', i^ari^, for which the margin has in3.n\ ve-Chuhbah', i. e. and Hiihhah, as if the proper form were HSn, Ckubbak', i. e.hidckn; Sept. 'Ol3u V. r. To/3«,Yulg. I/aba), one of the sons of Sha- mer, or Shomer, of the tribe of Asher (1 Chron. vii, 34). B.C. perhaps cir. 1618.
Jehu'cal (Heb. Yehul-al', hD^iTV^, able; Sept. 'loj- d\aX), son of Shelemiah, one of two persons sent by king Zedekiah to the prophet Jeremiah to request his prayers on behalf of the kingdom ; but who joined with his associates on his return in demanding the prophet's death on account of his luifavorable response (Jer. xxxvii, 3). In Jer. xxxviii, 1 his name is written in the contracted form Jucal (^3^^, Yiihil', Sept. 'Ima- X«X), and in verse 4 he is stj'led one of '• the princes." B.C. 589.
Je'hud (Heb. Yehud', If!';', apocopated from Ju- DAii, as in Dan. ii, 25, etc.; Sept. loi'J v. r. 'lov^ and 'A'Coip), a town on the border of Dan, named between Baalah and Bene-barak (Josh, xix, 45). It is perhaps the present village e\-Ye/nid{ijeh, seven and a half miles south of east from Jaffa (Robinson's Researches, iii, 45 ; new ed. iii, 140, 141, notes; Schwarz, Palest, p. 141).
Jehudah (ha-Levi) de Modena. See Modena.
Jehudah ben-Balaam. See Ibx-Bala.\m.
Jehudah ben-David. See Chajug.
Jehudah ben-Koreish. See Ihx-Koreisii.
Jehudah (ma-Levi) ben-Samuel (called in Ar- abic Abulhassnn) a distinguished Spanish Jew, great alike as linguist, philosopher, and poet, one of the great- est lights in Jewish literature, wa^born in Castile about 108G according to Griitz, or 1105 according to Rappo- port. But little is known of the early history of his life ; when a youth of fifteen he ^^•as already celebrated as a ]>romising poetical genius. In the vigor of man- hood we find Jehudah endeavoring to spread a knowl- edge of Rabbinical and Arabian literature, both by po- etical productions and l)y disciples whom he gathered about him at Toledo, where he founded a college. About 1141 he is supposed to have completed his Kozari (■^"ITIS), generally called Cusari, the best work ever written in defence of the Jewish religion, and aiming to refute the objections urged against Judaism by Chris- tians, Mohammedans, philosophical infidels, and that sect of the Jews known to be bitterly opposed to the recognition of the authority of tradition— the Karaites. Many eminent critics, among whom ranks Bartolocci, have long discredited the siqiposition that it is the pro- duction of Jehudah, but of late all seem agreed that he was really the author of the Mork, which is entitled