{"id":1090,"date":"2014-02-05T07:36:17","date_gmt":"2014-02-05T12:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/?p=1090"},"modified":"2014-02-05T07:36:17","modified_gmt":"2014-02-05T12:36:17","slug":"how-a-sinner-became-the-ancestor-of-israels-greatest-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2014\/02\/how-a-sinner-became-the-ancestor-of-israels-greatest-king.html","title":{"rendered":"How a Sinner Became the Ancestor of Israel&#8217;s Greatest King"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The most important Israelite tribe stems from line of Judah. Judah is the fourth son of Jacob and Leah. His name comes from the Hebrew root \u201cyahdah,\u201d which means \u201cgratitude.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rabbimoffic.com\/2014\/01\/king-david.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" alt=\"King David came from the Tribe of Judah. \" src=\"https:\/\/www.rabbimoffic.com\/2014\/01\/king-david.jpg\" width=\"272\" height=\"350\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>King David came from the Tribe of Judah.<\/p>\n<p>The beginning of Judah\u2019s life is marked by treachery and emotional indifference. He convinces his brothers to sell Joseph to traveling slave traders. Then he impregnates his daughter-in-law Tamar.<\/p>\n<p>But then something happens. Judah awakens to a sense of right and wrong. He realizes he had hurt Tamar and acknowledges it saying, \u201cShe is more righteous than I.\u201d (Genesis 38:26)<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Ancestor of King David<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This act also establishes Judah\u2019s hereditary significance. One of the children born to his daughter-in-law becomes the ancestor of King David.\u00a0<em>The tribe of Judah becomes the tribe of the Kings of Israel.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Judah\u2019s character transformation becomes more evident in next several chapters of Genesis.\u00a0When he and his brothers travel to Egypt in search of food during the famine, Judah is their leader and spokesman.<\/p>\n<p>He offers himself up as a hostage to Joseph when Joseph demands the brothers bring bring their youngest brother Benjamin to Egypt.\u00a0When Joseph refuses, Judah succeeds in persuading their father Jacob to allow them to bring Benjamin to Egypt, and pledges to defend Benjamin with his own life.<\/p>\n<p><em>It is Judah\u2019s plea on behalf of Benjamin that finally leads Joseph to reveal his true identity to his shocked brothers.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Lone Survivor<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Along with the Levites, Judah\u2019s descendants become the only Israelite tribe to survive the Assyrian destruction of the Northern Kingdom in 722 BCE. Three factors account for their survival.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>First, their territorial basis in Jerusalem. Through the ingenuity of King Hezekiah, who came from the tribe of Judah, Jerusalem survived the assault of the Assyrians through the construction of a water tunnel between the Gihon Spring and the Old City.<\/li>\n<li>Second, their loyalty to King David. After the death of King Saul, the other tribes remained loyal to the Saul\u2019s clan. Only the tribe of Judah supported the ascension of David. David\u2019s success led to the success of the tribe of Judah.<\/li>\n<li>Third, the tribe of Judah integrated other Israelite and non-Israelite tribes. The tribe of Benjamin was much smaller than Judah, and it eventually assimilated into it. Scholars have also discovered evidence that several Canaanites tribes became part of Judah through conquest and intermarriage.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0A Profound Legacy<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Several of the Bible\u2019s most significant figures come from the tribe of Judah. Beside King David and Jesus, most of the Hebrew prophets are Judahites.<\/p>\n<p>The word \u201cJew,\u201d first used in the Book of Esther, is derived from Judah, indicating the disproportionate number of Israelites who came from the tribe of Judah.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Bible also teaches that the Messiah must come from the Tribe of Judah<\/em>. Scholars trace this requirement to later generations understanding of the reign of King David as Israel\u2019s golden age.<\/p>\n<p>David united the Northern and Southern Kingdoms and oversaw an era of great conquest and prosperity. The return of one of his descendants to the throne would restore that glory.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The most important Israelite tribe stems from line of Judah. Judah is the fourth son of Jacob and Leah. His name comes from the Hebrew root \u201cyahdah,\u201d which means \u201cgratitude.\u201d King David came from the Tribe of Judah. The beginning of Judah\u2019s life is marked by treachery and emotional indifference. He convinces his brothers to&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":507,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How a Sinner Became the Ancestor of Israel&#039;s Greatest King - Truths You Can Use<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How a Sinner Became the Ancestor of Israel&#039;s Greatest King - Truths You Can Use\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The most important Israelite tribe stems from line of Judah. Judah is the fourth son of Jacob and Leah. His name comes from the Hebrew root \u201cyahdah,\u201d which means \u201cgratitude.\u201d King David came from the Tribe of Judah. The beginning of Judah\u2019s life is marked by treachery and emotional indifference. He convinces his brothers to&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2014\/02\/how-a-sinner-became-the-ancestor-of-israels-greatest-king.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Truths You Can Use\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RabbiEvan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-02-05T12:36:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.rabbimoffic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/king-david.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Evan Moffic\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@chicagorabbi\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How a Sinner Became the Ancestor of Israel's Greatest King - Truths You Can Use","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How a Sinner Became the Ancestor of Israel's Greatest King - Truths You Can Use","og_description":"The most important Israelite tribe stems from line of Judah. Judah is the fourth son of Jacob and Leah. His name comes from the Hebrew root \u201cyahdah,\u201d which means \u201cgratitude.\u201d King David came from the Tribe of Judah. The beginning of Judah\u2019s life is marked by treachery and emotional indifference. He convinces his brothers to&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2014\/02\/how-a-sinner-became-the-ancestor-of-israels-greatest-king.html","og_site_name":"Truths You Can Use","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RabbiEvan\/","article_published_time":"2014-02-05T12:36:17+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.rabbimoffic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/king-david.jpg"}],"author":"Evan Moffic","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@chicagorabbi","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2014\/02\/how-a-sinner-became-the-ancestor-of-israels-greatest-king.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2014\/02\/how-a-sinner-became-the-ancestor-of-israels-greatest-king.html","name":"How a Sinner Became the Ancestor of Israel's Greatest King - Truths You Can Use","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2014\/02\/how-a-sinner-became-the-ancestor-of-israels-greatest-king.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2014\/02\/how-a-sinner-became-the-ancestor-of-israels-greatest-king.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.rabbimoffic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/king-david.jpg","datePublished":"2014-02-05T12:36:17+00:00","dateModified":"2014-02-05T12:36:17+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/#\/schema\/person\/55ddc5e03d79abbfcc6d4f944687d65d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2014\/02\/how-a-sinner-became-the-ancestor-of-israels-greatest-king.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2014\/02\/how-a-sinner-became-the-ancestor-of-israels-greatest-king.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2014\/02\/how-a-sinner-became-the-ancestor-of-israels-greatest-king.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.rabbimoffic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/king-david.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.rabbimoffic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/king-david.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2014\/02\/how-a-sinner-became-the-ancestor-of-israels-greatest-king.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How a Sinner Became the Ancestor of Israel&#8217;s Greatest King"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/","name":"Truths You Can Use","description":"Jewish Wisdom, Jewish Blogs, Daily Jewish Inspiration and Jewish News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/#\/schema\/person\/55ddc5e03d79abbfcc6d4f944687d65d","name":"Evan Moffic","description":"Rabbi Evan Moffic writes for people of all faiths. His book, What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Jewishness of Jesus was a 2015 best-seller. His upcoming book of devotions\u2014Shalom for the Heart\u2014takes short biblical passages and show they way they can help us make better choices and live with fewer regrets. With Rabbi Moffic, you will find an open, accessible guide to life\u2019s deepest truths. A husband and father, he graduated from Stanford University in 2000, and was ordained a rabbi in 2006. He leads a congregation in suburban Chicago. 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