JUDAH jōō’ də (יְהוּדָ֑ה). The fourth son of Jacob by Leah (Gen 29:35), who took a leading role among his brothers early in life (Gen 37:26, 27; 43:3-10; 44:16-34; 46:28). Judah was promised leadership and tribal stability, and ultimately kingship through David and the Messiah (Gen 49:8-12). The genealogies of Judah’s offspring occur in 1 Chronicles 2-4. Other OT individuals named Judah included: the ancestor of Kadmiel (Ezra 3:9); a Levite of the Return under Zerubbabel (Neh 12:8); a Levitical contemporary of Ezra (Ezra 10:23); a Benjaminite of the same period (Neh 11:9); and a priest under Nehemiah (12:36). In the NT the name occurred in its Hellenized form of Judas or Jude.

1. The tribe of Judah. Judah belonged to the major group of Israelite tribes descended from Leah. The tribe played no special part in either the Exodus or the wilderness wanderings apart from leading the vanguard (Num 2:9). The defeat at Ai was occasioned by Achan, a member of the tribe (Josh 7:1ff.), and this may have been why Judah was required to mount an independent attack on the Canaanites (Judg 1:1, 2). The territory that Judah was given was not allocated by lot in Shiloh before being conquered (Josh 18:1-10; Judg 1:3). The tribe occupied the Palestinian uplands, being bounded on the N by parts of Dan and Benjamin, and on the E and W by the Dead and Mediterranean Seas. To the S it stretched as far as cultivation permitted. After early conflicts with the Philistines, Judah withdrew (cf. Judg 1:19; 3:1) and allowed Simeon to occupy an intervening strip of territory (Josh 19:1, 9). The possession of Jerusalem by the Jebusites made for a degree of separation between Judah and the centrally located tribes, and this may account for the lack of appeal to the other tribes when Judah became tributary to the Philistines. This isolation seems to have been recognized as a fact in the time of Saul, when the men from Judah were enumerated separately (1 Sam 11:8; 15:4, etc.). Because the confederation of tribes still remained loosely associated in the time of Saul, the economic and military dangers of Philistine aggression presented further problems for Judah, although the anointing of David as military commander (nagid, not melek, “king”) over the twelve tribes (2 Sam 5:1-5) prevented the separation from becoming more acute.

2. The kingdom of Judah. David acted astutely when he made Jerusalem the capital of the united monarchy, since it was in effect a neutral political zone that could thereafter serve as a legitimate symbol of national unity. The tribe of Judah played a normal part in the political and social life of the early monarchy, and there is no reason to suppose that it was trying to maintain its separate identity during this time, as some scholars have thought. Nor is there any ground for the view that Solomon showed any particular favoritism toward Judah as compared with the other eleven tribes (cf. 1 Kings 4:1, 7, etc.).

The division of the monarchy was precipitated in the time of Rehoboam, son and successor of Solomon, as much on economic as other grounds. Inflation had become a threat to the stability of the kingdom, and the stubborn refusal of Rehoboam to entertain remedial measures led the northern tribes to renounce their allegiance to the Davidic house. Judah and the remnants of Benjamin remained faithful to Rehoboam, forming the kingdom of Judah, the southern kingdom. Initially the latter had the advantage of the wealth accumulated by Solomon, but this was soon lost when Shishak of Egypt (c. 945-924 b.c.) invaded Judah in 925 b.c., entered Jerusalem and took its treasures as tribute (1 Kings 14:25, 26; 2 Chron 12:2-12). Depleted in military and economic resources, Judah became permanently inferior to Israel in a material sense. Unfortunately, Rehoboam was unable to prevent the Edomites from gaining some degree of control over the trading route to the Gulf of Aqabah, and under his son Jehoram, Edom gained its independence (2 Kings 8:20-22). About fifty years later, Amaziah managed to reconquer Edom (2 Kings 14:7), and Judah maintained control over the territory thereafter for about sixty years. During the troubled reign of Ahaz, Edom broke free once again (2 Kings 16:6), and was never reconquered by Judah.

Nadab, son and successor of Jeroboam I, was murdered in the reign of Asa of Judah (910-869 b.c.), the successor to Abijah (913-910 b.c.), and when the border of Judah was threatened by Baasha of Israel (908-885 b.c.), Asa appealed to Ben-hadad of Syria for help (1 Kings 15:17-20) and was rewarded by Syrian intervention. In the time of Omri of Israel (884-873 b.c.), the threats posed by both Syria and Assyria resulted in peace between Israel and Judah. Athaliah, of the house of Ahab of Israel (874-853 b.c.), married Jehoram of Judah (853-841 b.c.), and thus not merely insured peace for the southern kingdom but also furnished Judah with a buffer between herself and the Assyrians. Ben-hadad allied with Ahab against the increasing Assyrian threat, and in 853 b.c. the coalition inflicted a decisive defeat on the Assyrians at Qarqar in Syria. Judah was not mentioned in the cuneiform account of the enemies of Shalmaneser III at Qarqar. Jehoshaphat of Judah (873-848 b.c.) was evidently hoping that the coalition would exhaust itself in the conflict, and this would explain his attitude in refusing the request of Ahaziah of Israel (853-852 b.c.) for a joint expedition to Ophir (1 Kings 22:48, 49).

During the cent. between the accession of Jehu of Israel (841-813 b.c.) and the death of Uzziah of Judah (767-739 b.c.), the fortunes of both kingdoms were interrelated. Judah was prosperous when Israel flourished, particularly in the days of Jeroboam II (782-753 b.c.), when the two nations began to reflect something of the peace and plenty of the earlier Solomonic era. After Jeroboam II died, the fortunes of Israel crumbled before a resurgent Assyria, and when the northern kingdom collapsed in 722 b.c. to Sargon II, Judah was left to face the Assyrians alone.

Hezekiah of Judah (716-686 b.c.) allied with Egypt against the Assyrians, contrary to the advice of the prophet Isaiah (Isa 30:15), and in 701 b.c. Judah was threatened with invasion by Sennacherib, to whom Hezekiah became tributary. The besieging Assyrians withdrew unexpectedly (2 Kings 19:35), and the prosperity of Judah increased with the removal of the threat. Manasseh (687-641 b.c.), son and successor of Hezekiah, contributed to the moral and spiritual decline of life in Judah by rebuilding Canaanite cultic shrines, which had been previously destroyed in an attempt to eradicate idolatry from the land. During the long and depraved reign of Manasseh, the Assyrians reasserted control over Judah, which had allied with Phoenicia, Egypt, and Edom. Before he died, Manasseh prudently installed garrisons throughout Judah against a possible Assyrian attack. Judah experienced a religious revival under his grandson Josiah (640-609 b.c.), in which a law scroll found in the Temple played an initial part. The steps taken in the process of reform (2 Chron 34:3, 8) show how religion and politics had become interwoven, for in effect Assyrian religious as well as political influence was being repudiated. By 621 b.c., Josiah had become virtually independent, and he subsequently occupied the Assyrian provinces of Samaria and eastern Galilee (2 Chron 34:6), feeling that Assyrian power was crumbling. When the Babylonians and Medes under Nabopolassar (626-605 b.c.) crushed the remnants of Assyrian resistance at Nineveh in 610 b.c., Josiah attempted to stop Necho of Egypt from going to the aid of his hereditary foes, but was killed at Megiddo in 609 b.c. Necho placed Jehoiakim of Judah on the throne and made him tributary, and he himself challenged the new Babylonian regime. The prophet Jeremiah was active at this period, and foreto ld that Judah would be conquered by the Babylonians (Jer 25:9ff.). So convinced was he of this fate that he tried to have Judah become a Babylonian vassal so as to avoid the coming destruction, but to no avail. The people of Jerusalem treated the message of Jeremiah with contempt, apparently unable to see the danger surrounding them. In 605 b.c., Necho was defeated in battle with the Babylonians at Carchemish, and Judah then came within the New Babylonian empire. When Nebuchadnezzar came to power in 605 b.c., he compelled Judah to pay tribute to Babylon (2 Kings 24:1), and seems to have required hostages, including Daniel (Dan 1:1ff.) as proof of good faith. Political intrigue with Egypt resulted in the first attack on Jerusalem on 15/16 March 597 b.c., a date confirmed by extra-Biblical sources, at which time 3,023 persons were taken captive to Babylon. Further intrigue a decade later brought the destruction of Jerusalem and another deportation of exiles. The third captivity in 581 b.c. saw the end of Judah as a separate kingdom.

Bibliography R. K. Harrison, A History of Old Testament Times (1957), 147-192; J. Bright, A History of Israel (1961), 210-310.