Hirah, to attend the shearing of his sheep at Tiranatb, in the same neighborhood. Tliese circumstances sug- gested 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 Tasiar. 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 Ju- dah, and Jesus came (Gen. xxxviii ; xlvi, 12 ; 1 Chron. ii, 3-5 ; Matt, i, 3 ; Luke iii, 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 Benja- min to go dow-n 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 fuier piece of true natural eloquence than that in which Ju- dah 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, Uke him, moved even to tears (xliv, l-l-oi). 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. xlix, 8-12). B.C. 1 856.— Kitto ; Smith. SeeSni-
LOH.
JUDAH, TRIBE and Territory of. I. Historical Memoranda.— \. Judah's sons were five. Of these, three were by his Canaanitish wife Bath-shua; they are aU insignificant; two died early, and the third, Shelah, does not come prominently forward either in his person or his family. The other two, Pharez and Zerah— twins — were illegitimate sons by the widow of Er, the eldest of the fdrnicr family. As is not unfrequently the case, the illegitimate sons suqiassed the legitimate, and from Pliarez, the elder, were descended the royal and other illustrious families of Judah. These sons were bom to Judah while he was living in the same district of Pales- tine, which, centuries after, was repossessed by his de- scendants— amongst villages which retain their names unaltered in the catalogues of the time of the conquest. The three sons went with their father into Egypt at the time of the final removal thither (Gen. xlvi, 12; Exod. i, 2). See Jacob.
2. When we again meet with the families of Judah they occupy a position among the tribes similar to that which their progenitor had taken amongst the patri- archs. At the time that the Israelites quitted Egypt, it already exhibited the elements of its future distinction in a larger population than any of the other tribes pos- sessed (Numb, i, 26, 27). It" numbered 74,000 adult males, being nearly 12.000 more than Dan. the next in point of nimibers, and 34,100 more than Ephraim, which in the end contested with it the superiority among the tribes. During the sojourn in the wilderness, Judah neither gained, like some tribes, nor lost like others.
JUDAH
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JUDAH
Its numbers had increased to 76,500, being 12,100 more than Issachar, which had become next to it m popula- tion (Numb, xxvi, 22). The chief of the tribe at the former census was Nahshon, the son of Amminadab (Numb, i, V; ii,3; vii,12; x, 14), an ancestor of David (Ruth iv, 20). Its representative amongst the spies, and also amongst those appointed to pariiiion the land, ■was the great Calcl), the son of Jephunneh (Numb, xiii, 6 ; xxxiv, 19). During the march through the desert Judah's place was in the van of the host, on the east side of the tabernacle, with his kinsmen Issachar and Zebulun (ii, 3-9; x, 14). The traditional standard of the tribe was a lion's whelp, with the words. Rise up. Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered ! (Targ. Pseu- dojon. on Numb, ii, 3.)
3. Diuring the conquest of the country the only inci- dents specially affecting the tribe of Judah are, (1) the misbehavior of Achan, who was of tbe great house of Zerah (.Josh, vii, 1, 16-18); and (2) the conquest of the moiuitain-district of Hebron by Caleb, and of the strong city Debir, in the same locality, by his nephew and son- in-law Othniel (Josh, xiv, 6-15 ; xv, 13-19). It is the only instance given of a portion of the country being expressly reserved for the person or persons who .con- quered it. In general the conquest seems to have been made by the whole community, and the territory allot- ted afterwards, without reference to the original con- querors of each locality. In this case the high charac- ter and position of Caleb, and perhaps a claim estab- lished by him at the time of the visit of the spies to '•the land whereon his feet had trodden" (Josh, xiv, 9; comp. Numb, xiv, 24), may have led to the exception.