JUDAH, Mountains of. This is appropriately the name of a range of hills to the south and west of Jeru- salem, styled in Luke i, 39, 65, the " hiU-country of Ju- dtea" (?) opiun) ti}^ 'lov^aiac). The hills are low and conical, uniform in shape even to weariness ; the vege- tation, save in early spring, is dry and parched, the val- leys are broad and featureless. Everywhere at the pres- ent day are signs that the land of corn, and wine, and oil has become desolate. The fenced cities and villages surmount the hills, but they are in ruins; the terraces where once were vineyards and cornfields can be traced along the mountain sides, but they are neglected ; wells and pools of water are to be found in everj' valley, but there is none to drink of them. See Judah, tribe of.
JUDAH
1054
JUDAH HAK-KODESH
JUDAH. Wilderness of. The desert of Judah (m'n"' ~2T: ) is mentioned in the title of Psa. Ixiii, and the desert of Judira («i tpifiai, or >'/ tpijfiog r(;e 'lov- Saiac), frequently referred to in the gospels, is consider- ed to' be the same locality. It was situated adjacent to the Dead Sea and the Kiver Jordan, and was a mountain- ous and thinly-inhabited tract of countrj-, but abound- inj; in pastures. In the time of Joshua it had six cit- ies^ with their villages (Josh, xv, Gl, (32), but it is now, and has long been, one of the most dreary and desolate regions of the whole coiuitry (Robinson's Researches, ii, 202, 310). The positions of this desert specially alluded to in the N. T. are, (1.) That in which John the Baptist grew up. probably west of the Dead Sea (Luke i,80 ; iii, 2) ; (2.) That where he baptized, i. e. the uninhabited tract along the Jordan (ilatt. iii, 1 ; Mark i, 4 ; compare 5); (3.) That where Jesus was tempted, perhaps the high desert west of Jericho (Matt, iv, 1 ; Mark i, 12, 13) ; (4.) The tract between the Mount of Olives and Jericho, probably referred to in Acts xxi,38 (see Josephus, Ant. XX. 8,0) ; (5.) The tract adjacent to the city Ephraim, probably Tayibeh, towards the Jordan (John xi, 54).
See JlJDAII, TRIBE OF.
JUDAH UPON JORDAN ('i^'^^n n-n^i^y Judah of the Jordan; Sept. and Vulg. in most editions omit " Judali" altogether), is mentioned as the extreme east- ern limit of the territory of Naphtali (but not within it), apparently on its northern boundary (Josh, xix, 34), and tliereforc probably referring to a tract immediately east of that around the sources of the Jordan, between Mount Hernion and Banias. Schwarz (Palestine, p. 185) plau- sibly explains the application of the name of Judah to a region so far distant from the territory of that tribe by assigning it as the title to the Gileaditish district em- braced in the circuit of the towns of Ilaroth-Jair, i. e. tlie villages of Jair, who was a descendant of Judah (1 Chrou. ii, 21) ; and he adduces Talmudical authorities for reckoning his possessions as a part of that tribe. See Jaik. The same explanation had been suggested by C. von liaumer (cited by Keil, Comment, on Josh, ad loc). Dr. Thomson {Land ami Book, i, 389 sq.) speaks of three interesting domes in this vicinity, called those of Seid Yehuda (i. e. " Lord Judah," the Arabs traditionally holding that they represent the tomb of the son of Ja- cob), which he beheves is a clew to the connection of this city with the trilie of the same name.
the priests in pushing the reconstruction of the Temple (Ezra iii, 9) ; ludess this latter be rather the person else- where called HoDAViAH (Ezra ii,40).
3. One of those who followed the half of the Jewish chiefs around the southern section of the newly-erected walls of Jerasalem, but whether he was a Levite or priest is not stated (Neh. xii, 34). B.C. 446.
4. One of those who accompanied with musical per- formances the procession aromid the southern quarter of the walls of Jerusalem lately reconstructed (Neh. xii, 80). B.C. 446. He was perhaps identical with the pre- ceding.
5. Son of Senuah, a descendant of Benjamin, and pre- fect of Acra or the Lower City (n?'iT2 ""i^Vt^'hv, over the second city, not " second over the city," as the Auth. Vers, following the Sept. and Vulg.) after the exile (Neh. xi, 9). B.C. cir. 440.
Judah hak-Kodesh, or the Holy, son of Simon, of the tribe of Benjamin, and a descendant of Hillel I, is one of the niost celebrated characters in Jewish his- tory'. He was born at Tiberias, according to accounts, about 135, on the same day on which Rabbi Akiba suf- fered martyrdom — an event predicted, according to his admirers, in the verse of Solomon : " One sun ariseth, and one sun goeth down." While yet a youth he was, on account of his extraordinary proficiency in Jewish law, admitted to the Sanhedrim, and on the death of his father followed him in the presidency of that learned body. The manner in which he administered the du- ties of this high office was in itself sutficient to M'in for him " the praise of his people in all their generations." Maimonides describes him as having been a man so no- bly gifted by the Almighty with the choisest endow- ments as to be the phoenix and ornament of his age. But the best evidence of the high estimation in which his contemporaries held him is afforded by the many favorable epithets which they fastened on him. Besides the title of A^^oa-j, which his position as president of the Sanhedrim secured him, he was more generally known as " Rabbi," which was applied to him kut t^oxtjv, with no further note of individual distinction. He was known as the "saint," the "holy one," the meek. Be- ing, like Hillel I, of the house of David, he sometimes was, as Bar-Cocheba had previously been, looked upon as the promised Messiah. But this opinion was, after all, confined only to a few. Certain it is, however, that he exerted an influence over the Jewish nation of his day ^^i^ far wider and more powerful