Judah, fourth son of Jacob and Leah, gathered his sons and told them everything. His mother had named him Judah, saying, "I give thanks to the Lord, because He has given me a fourth son also" (Genesis 29:35). He was swift in his youth, obedient to his father, and his father blessed him: "You shall be a king, prospering in all things."
And Judah was a warrior of terrifying power.
He raced down a hind and caught it. He mastered roes in the chase and overtook everything in the plains. He caught a wild mare and tamed it. He slew a lion and plucked a kid from its mouth. He seized a bear by the paw and hurled it off a cliff. He outran a wild boar and tore it apart while running. A leopard leaped upon his dog in Hebron, and Judah caught it by the tail and smashed it on the rocks. He found a wild ox in the fields, grabbed it by the horns, whirled it, stunned it, and killed it.
In battle, he was worse. When two Canaanite kings came armored against their flocks, Judah rushed single-handed upon the king of Hazor, struck him on the greaves, dragged him down, and slew him. A giant warrior on horseback hurled javelins in all directions. Judah picked up a stone weighing sixty pounds, hurled it, and killed the man's horse. He fought the giant for two hours, split his shield in two, chopped off his feet, and killed him. When nine of the giant's companions attacked, Judah wrapped his garment around his hand, slung stones, killed four, and the rest fled.
City after city fell. Hazor. Aretan. Tappuah. Jobel. Makir. Gaash. Thamna. Judah scaled walls under a rain of stones, infiltrated cities disguised as an Amorite, opened gates for his brothers in the dead of night. His father Jacob saw in a vision that an angel of might followed Judah everywhere, ensuring he would never be overcome.
But the warrior had weaknesses. Two of them: wine and women.
Judah married Bathshua, a Canaanite, against his father's counsel. Her father was a king who adorned her with gold and pearls and made her pour wine at the feast. "The wine turned aside my eyes," Judah confessed, "and pleasure blinded my heart. I became enamored, and I lay with her, and transgressed the commandment of the Lord and of my fathers." She bore him Er, Onan, and Shelah. Two of them the Lord struck down for wickedness (Genesis 38:7-10).
Then came the incident with Tamar. After Bathshua refused to let Shelah marry Tamar, and after Tamar had waited two years as a widow, she disguised herself and sat at the gate of the city Enaim. Judah, drunk with wine, did not recognize her. He went in to her and gave her his staff, girdle, and royal diadem as a pledge. When he discovered she was pregnant, he wanted to kill her. But she sent back his pledges, and Judah was shamed into silence (Genesis 38:13-26). "It was from the Lord," he admitted. He never went near her again.
"Be not drunk with wine," Judah commanded his sons, "for wine turns the mind away from truth and inspires the passion of lust. The spirit of lust has wine as its minister. If a man drinks to drunkenness, it disturbs his mind with filthy thoughts, heats the body for sin, and he is not ashamed." He pointed to himself: before the eyes of the whole city, he had turned aside to Tamar, uncovered his sons' shame. Drunk, he gave away the three symbols of his kingship: the staff that was the stay of his tribe, the girdle that was his power, the diadem that was his glory.
"There are four evil spirits in wine," Judah warned. "Lust. Hot desire. Profligacy. Greed. If you would live soberly, do not touch wine at all."
He then spoke of a deeper truth. "Two spirits wait upon every person," he said, "the spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit. Between them stands the spirit of understanding, which can turn whichever way it chooses. The works of truth and deceit are written upon the hearts of men, and the Lord knows each one. There is no time at which the works of men can be hidden, for on the heart itself they have been inscribed before the Lord."
Judah commanded his sons to love Levi, for God had given the priesthood a rank above the kingship. "As the heaven is higher than the earth, so is the priesthood of God higher than the earthly kingdom," he said. The angel of the Lord had told him plainly: God chose Levi above Judah, to draw near to Him and eat of His table.
Looking to the future, Judah saw destruction: wars, divisions, captivity among the nations. But afterward, "A star shall arise from Jacob in peace (Numbers 24:17), and a righteous one shall arise, walking with the sons of men in meekness and righteousness, and no sin shall be found in him." The heavens would open. The scepter of Judah's kingdom would shine forth, and from his root a rod of righteousness would grow.
Judah died at a hundred and nineteen years old. He asked for no costly burial garments. They carried him to Hebron and buried him with his fathers.