Descendented from Judah the third son of Jacob, the tribe of Judah had a rather hapless beginning: his two sons who would have sired the descendents—Er and Onan—died at the hand of Yahweh for their wickedness (Gen 38:6-11), and the Perez and Zerah were born as a result of Jacob sleeping with his daughter-in-law Tamar who he mistook for a shrine-prostitute (vv 15-30). The tribe, however, did good along the way and, especially in the persons of Boaz (Ruth 2-4) and David, become a tribe favoured by Yahweh, first with the gift of hosting the Temple and, then, with the promise of the Israel's Messiah.
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One of the first members of the tribe to distinguish himself before the Lord was Bezalel, the son of Hur, whom He filled with "the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts—to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship" and set to work on the building of the tabernacle (Exo 31:1ff.).
If the tribe of Judah began life inauspiciously with the death of Er and Onan, neither was their start in the Promised Land particularly a happy one. As soon as the conquest, one of their members, Achan (and his entire family), was stoned to death for stealing from the loot of Jericho that had been consigned for destruction in the cherem (Jos 7:25-26). The tribe itself, however, showed themselves quite capable in their conquest of the lands allotted to them (not the richest or the most productive of them) but when confronted by the Philistines they cowardly compromised on Samson, delivering him up to them (Judg 15:9ff.). They loyally fought for Saul, making up often as much as a ten of his forces (1 Sam 11:8) but once the rift broke out between Saul and David, it was only natural that their loyalties should shift towards a son of their own. With that, Israel wandered down the path towards national schism. After the nation of Israel split in the reign of Rehoboam and the northern tribes appropriating the name Israel to themselves, Judah naturally became the name of the southern kingdom. Judah—with an assimilated Simeon—alone survived among all the tribes the Assyrian onslaught in the late 8th Cent BC, was renewed for a short time during the reign of Josiah, but fell in until 586/7 when her last king Zedekiah rebelled against the Babylonians who then sacked Jerusalem and exiled her people. Though restored back to the land, Judah never quite regained her past glory, except for a short century under the Hasmonean dynasty. In 63 BC it was attacked by the Roman general Pompey Magnus, came under Roman rule in the person of Herod the Great, before becoming decidedly Roman under direct rule through the procurators. During this time the most distinguish son of Judah—Jesus son of Joseph—was born. During this period too the greatest disaster to befall Judah (more so than the fall of Jerusalem in 586/7) occurred in 70 AD when the Temple and Jerusalem were sacked and burned. Out of its metaphorical ashes was born the baby that grew to become Rabbinic Judaism as we know it today.
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