Judas (I)

I. JUDAS, or Judah, or Jehuda, the fourth son of Jacob and Leah, was born in Gen. xxix. 35.Mesopotamia, in the year of the world 2249, before J. C. 1751, before the vulgar Æra 1755. It was he who advised his brethren to sell Joseph to the Ishmaelite merchants, rather than to dip their fingers in his Gen. xxxvii. 26.blood¹. He married Shuah, the daughter of a Canaanite, whose name was Hirah, and had three sons by her, Er, Onan, and Shelah. He married Er to a young woman, Gen. xxxviii. 1, 2, &c.whose name was Tamar. Er was a wicked man, and God struck him dead for his impieties. Judah required Onan his second son, to marry his brother’s widow, Er having died without children, and to raise up seed to him: but Onan in an abominable manner prevented Tamar’s becoming a mother. Wherefore the Lord punished him also with death. Judah being afraid to give Shelah his third son to his daughter in law, amused her with promises, without performing them. Wherefore Tamar disguised herself, dressed herself like an harlot, and placed herself in the way which Judah was to pass. Judah therefore went in unto her, and she conceived and brought forth two sons, one named Pharez, the other Zarah. See Tamar, Pharez, and Zarah.

Gen. xxxviii. 27, 28, 29. Gen. xxxv. 22. Gen. xlix. 8, 9, &c.Judah was always looked upon as the first and most esteemed of Jacob’s children. His Tribe was the most powerful and numerous. The privileges of the first-born seem to have been transfered to him from Reuben, after the incest committed by Reuben with Bilhah his father’s wife. The blessing given by Jacob on his death-bed to Judah is as follows, Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise, thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies, thy father’s children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion’s whelp, from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion who shall rouse him up. The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come, and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. This place contains a promise that the regal power should not go out of his family, and that the Messiah should derive his birth from it. Jacob adds, Binding his fole unto the vine, and his asses colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine and his clothes in the blood of grapes. His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk: or, according to another version, His eyes are more beautiful than wine, and his teeth whiter than snow. All which described the fruitfulness of his land.

The whole southern part of Palestine fell to Judah’s lot; and the Tribes of Simeon and Dan possessed many cities, which at first were given to Judah. This Tribe was so numerous, that at the departure out of Egypt, it was composed of seventy four thousand six hundred men, capable Numb. i. 26, 27.of bearing arms. The Crown passed from the Tribe of Benjamin, out of which Saul issued, and Ishbosheth, into that of Judah, which was David’s Tribe, and that of the Kings his successors, until the Babylonish captivity. And after the return of the Jews from their captivity, although this Tribe did not reign, it possessed always the first place; it gave the scepter to those who did reign, and in some sort reunited in itself the whole nation of the Hebrews, who from that time were known only by the name of Judæi, Jews, descendants of Judah. The Testament of the twelve Patriarchs introduces Judah pronouncing a Prophecy concerning the Messiah; but it is very visible, that it was made after his time.

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