JU'DAH (Heb. l'ahfidah, probably praised). The fourth son of Jacob and Leah (Gen. xxix. 35), eponymous ancestor of the tribe of Judah. He is represented as originating the idea of selling Joseph into Egypt instead of killing him (Gen. xxxvii. 26-27). and taking a promi nent part in the events that followed (ib. xliii. 3 sqq.; xliv. 16 sqq.). He forms a marriage alliance with a Canaanitish woman. by whom he becomes the father of Er. Onan. and Shelah, the first two of whorn died: he was also the father of Pharez and Zarah by his daughter in-law Tamar lib. xxxviii.). The stories in Genesis about Jthiah are considered by critics in part the remnants of obscured tribal struggles and alliances, in part legends to which a lesson has been attached. Joseph (q.v.) in these stories represents the clan of Ephraim in control of the northern kingdom. and when Judah is portrayed as suggesting the idea of selling Joseph. this incident is interpreted as reflecting the culmina tion of rivalries between Hebrew clans. The favorable light in which Joseph is depicted in Genesis points to a northern writer or writers, but it is also evident that the stories have been recast with a view of removing features that reflect too seriously on .Judah, and so the latter and Reuben are depicted hoping to save Joseph from his jealous brothers. The alliance of Judah with a Canaanitish woman is held to be a bit of tribal Judah tradition, accounting for the ad mixture of Canaanitish elements in the clan, but it is hard to suppose that the unsavory family history of Judah and his sons. in Gen. xxxviii., ending with Judah's marrying his own daughtec indaw. represents anything else at bottom than
tribal slander indulged in by northern clans; thus, again. it reflects the rivalry between the north and the south. It is not until the days of David that the Judah clan comes into promi nence: and the boundaries of the clan as de scribed in .Joshua xv. apply to the post-Davidic age. According to the Book of Joshua. Judah extended eastward to the Dead Sea, and west ward to the Mediterranean. It is hardly ac curate, however, to assume that Judah ever had such control of the Philistine country that it could be reckoned as part of its possessions. In the north. Judah bordered on Benjamin's terri tory. while the southern limit is represented sim ply by a line drawn westward from the southern extremity of the Dead Sea. Till David's time, the clan of Judah appears to have been also to a great extent isolated from the other Hebrew clans, due in part to the mountainous nature of the Judean territory and in part to the mix ture of Hebrew with Canaanitie elements (e.g. Kenites and Kenizites) ; the clan of Judah thus turns out to be. despite its later religious promi nence, less pure than the other tribes of the Hebraic confederation. David (q.v.) succeeded in obtaining control of the north after the death of Saul. and Jerusalem. captured from the Jebu sites. becomes henceforth one of the great centres of Hebrew history. The north chafed under the southern yoke, and after the death of ,Solomon again became independent.