According to theHebrew Bible, thetribe of Judah (שֵׁבֶט יְהוּדָה‎,Shevet Yehudah) was one of thetwelve Tribes of Israel, named afterJudah, the son ofJacob. Judah was one of the tribes to take its place inCanaan, occupying its southern part.Jesse and his sons, including KingDavid, belonged to this tribe.

Tribe of Judah

Map of the twelve tribes of Israel before the move of Dan to the North. (The text is partially in German.)
Geographical range	West Asia
Major sites	Hebron,Bethlehem
Preceded by	New Kingdom of Egypt
Followed by	Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy)

The Tribe of Judah played a central role in theDeuteronomistic history, which encompasses the books ofDeuteronomy throughII Kings. After the death ofKing Solomon, the Tribe of Judah, along with the Tribe ofBenjamin, theTribe of Dan, and the Levites formed the SouthernKingdom of Judah, withJerusalem andHebron as its capital. The kingdom lasted until its conquest byBabylon inc. 586 BCE.

The tribe's symbol was the lion, which was often represented in Jewish art. After theBabylonian captivity, the distinction between the Tribes was largely lost, but the term "Judah", viaYehudi (Hebrew:יהודי), gave rise to the word "Jew" (pl.יהודים,Yehudim). In later traditions, includingChristianity andEthiopian Judaism, the "Lion of the Tribe of Judah" became a messianic symbol.

The tribe of Judah, its conquests, and the centrality of its capital in Jerusalem for the worship ofYahweh featured prominently in theDeuteronomistic history, encompassing the books ofDeuteronomy throughII Kings, which most scholars agree was reduced to written form, although subject to exilic and post-exilic alterations and emendations, during the reign of the Judahite reformerJosiah from 641–609 BCE.^[1]

According to the account in theBook of Joshua, following a partial conquest ofCanaan by theIsraelite tribes (theJebusites still heldJerusalem),^[2]Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes. Judah's portion is described in Joshua 15^[3] as encompassing all the SouthernLand of Israel, specially theNegev, theWilderness of Zin and Jerusalem. However, the consensus of modern scholars is that this conquest never occurred.^[4][5][6] Other scholars point to extra-biblical references to Israel and Canaan as evidence for the potential historicity of the conquest.^[7][8]

In the opening words of theBook of Judges, following the death ofJoshua, the Israelites "asked the Lord" which tribe should be first to go to occupy its allotted territory, and the Tribe of Judah was identified as the first tribe.^[9] According to the narrative in the Book of Judges, the Tribe of Judah invited theTribe of Simeon to fight with them inalliance to secure each of their allotted territories. However, many scholars do not believe that the Book of Judges is a reliable historical account.^[10][11][12]

TheBook of Samuel describes God's repudiation of a monarchic line arising from the SouthernTribe of Benjamin due to the sinfulness ofKing Saul, which was then bestowed onto the tribe of Judah for all time in the person ofKing David. In Samuel's account, after the death of Saul, all the tribes other than Judah remained loyal to the House of Saul, while Judah choseDavid as its king. However, after the death ofIsh-bosheth, Saul's son and successor to the throne of Israel, all the other Israelite tribes made David, who was then the King of Judah, king of a single Re-United Kingdom of Israel. TheBook of Kings follows the expansion and unparalleled glory of theUnited Monarchy underKing Solomon. A majority of scholars believe that the accounts concerning David and Solomon's territory in the "united monarchy" are exaggerated, and a minority believe that the "united monarchy" never existed at all.^[13][14][15] Disagreeing with the latter view, Old Testament scholar Walter Dietrich contends that the biblical stories of circa 10th-century BCE monarchs contain a significant historical kernel and are not simply late fictions.^[16]

On the accession ofRehoboam,Solomon's son, in c. 930 BCE, the Ten Northern Tribes of Israel under the leadership ofJeroboam from theTribe of Ephraim split from theHouse of David to create theNorthern Kingdom inSamaria. The Book of Kings is uncompromising in its low opinion of its larger and richer neighbor to the north and understands its conquest byAssyria in 722 BCE as divine retribution for the Kingdom's return to idolatry.^[17]

The Tribes of Judah, Southern Dan and Benjamin remained loyal to the House of David. These tribes formed theKingdom of Judah, which existed until Judah was conquered byBabylon in c. 586 BCE and the population was deported.

When theJews returned from Babylonian exile, residual tribal affiliations were abandoned, probably because of the impossibility of reestablishing previous tribal land holdings. However, the special religious roles decreed for theLevites andKohanim were preserved, but Jerusalem became the sole place of worship and sacrifice among the returning exiles, northerners and southerners alike.

According to the biblical account, at its height, the tribe of Judah was the leading tribe of the Kingdom of Judah, and occupied most of the territory of the kingdom, except for a small region in the northeast occupied byBenjamin, and an enclave towards the south-west which was occupied bySimeon.Bethlehem andHebron were initially the main cities within the territory of the tribe.

The size of the territory of the tribe of Judah meant that in practice it had four distinct regions:^{[citation needed]}

• TheNegev (Hebrew:south) – the southern portion of the land, which was highly suitable forpasture.
• TheShephelah (Hebrew:lowland) – the coastal region, between the highlands and theMediterranean sea,^{[dubious –discuss]} which was used foragriculture, in particular forgrains.
• Thewilderness – the barren region immediately next to theDead Sea, and belowsea level; it was wild, and barely inhabitable, to the extent that animals and people which were made unwelcome elsewhere, such asbears,leopards, andoutlaws, made it their home. In biblical times, this region was further subdivided into three sections – thewilderness ofEn Gedi,^[18] thewilderness of Judah,^[19] and thewilderness ofMaon.^[20]
• Thehill country – the elevated plateau situated between the Shephelah and thewilderness,^{[dubious –discuss]} with rocky slopes but very fertile soil. This region was used for the production of grain,olives,grapes, and other fruit, and hence producedoil andwine.
• In theTanakh, Shicron was one of the landmarks at the western end of the north boundary of the Tribe of Judah (Joshua 15:1). It was probably located nearEkron.

According to theTorah, the Tribe consisted of Descendants ofJudah, the fourth son ofJacob and ofLeah. Somebiblical scholars view this as anetiological myth created in hindsight to explain the tribe's name and connect it to the other tribes in the Israelite confederation.^[21] With Leah as a matriarch, biblical scholars regard the tribe as having been believed by the text's authors to have been part of the original Israelite confederation.^[21]

Like the other tribes of the Kingdom of Judah, the Tribe of Judah is entirely absent from the ancientSong of Deborah. Traditionally, this has been explained as being due to the southern kingdom being toofar away to be involved in the battle, butIsrael Finkelstein et al. claim the alternative explanation that the southern kingdom was simply an insignificant rural backwater at the time the poem was written.^[22]

Professor Aaron Demsky argues that the genealogical record of Shelah and his sons was an allegory of the history of Shelanite clans inShephelah (i.e. Judean foothills). These clans established cities such as Lecah (orLachish) andMareshah. They also worked as potters and craftsmen for the king, particularlyHezekiah. After the Assyrians destroyed their cities, survivors fled to Jerusalem and fully assimilated with the inhabitants by 538 BC, when the Babylonian exiles returned to Jerusalem.^[23]

Many of the Jewish leaders and prophets of the Hebrew Bible claimed membership in the tribe of Judah. For example, theliterary prophetsIsaiah,Amos,Joel,Micah,Obadiah,Zechariah, andZephaniah, all belonged to the tribe.^[24]

The genealogies given in Matthew 1:1–6 and Luke 3:23–34 in theNew Testament describeJesus as a Descendant of David, Matthew throughSolomon and Luke throughNathan.^[25]

As part of the Kingdom of Judah, the tribe of Judah survived thedestruction of Israel by the Assyrians, and instead was subjected to theBabylonian captivity; when the captivity ended, the distinction between the tribes were lost in favour of a common identity. Since Simeon and Benjamin had been very much the junior partners in the Kingdom of Judah, it was Judah that gave its name to the identity—that of theJews.

After the fall of Jerusalem,Babylonia (modern-day Iraq), would become the focus of Judaism for 1,000 years. The first Jewish communities in Babylonia started with the exile of the tribe of Judah to Babylon byJehoiachin in 597 BCE as well as after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 586 BCE.^[26] Many more Jews migrated to Babylon in CE 135 after theBar Kokhba revolt and in the centuries after.^[26]

The triumph or victory of "the Lion of the Tribe of Judah", who is able to open the scroll and itsseven seals, forms part of the vision of the writer of theBook of Revelation in the New Testament.^[27]

Ethiopia's traditions, recorded and elaborated in a 14th-century treatise, the "Kebre Negest", assert descent from a retinue of Israelites who returned with theQueen of Sheba from her visit toKing Solomon inJerusalem, by whom she had conceived the Solomonic dynasty's founder,Menelik I. BothChristian andJewish Ethiopian tradition has it that these immigrants were mostly of the Tribes ofDan and Judah;^[28] hence theGe'ez mottoMo`a 'Anbessa Ze'imnegede Yihuda ("The Lion of the Tribe of Judah has conquered"), one of many names for Jesus of Nazareth.

• History of ancient Israel and Judah

• Hirsch, Emil G.; Barton, George A."Tribe of Judah".The Jewish Encyclopedia.
• Map of the Tribe of Judah^{[dead link‍]}, Adrichem, 1590. Eran Laor Cartographic Collection, The National Library of Israel.
• Map of the Tribe of Judah^{[dead link‍]}, Fuller, 1650. Eran Laor Cartographic Collection, The National Library of Israel.