The Significance Of Judah In The Hebrew Bible

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“Judah” is a proper noun which occurs hundreds of times referring to various entities in the Hebrew Bible. The Hebrew יְהוּדָ֗ה, or yᵉhûdâ, appears 810 times in the text. In addition to its main form yᵉhûdâ, it can be found 60 times with the gentilic suffix yᵉhûdî and in 6 more forms in the feminine yᵉhûdît. Finally, there are seven occurrences of the Aramaic translation yᵉhûd and ten of yᵉhûdây. The etymology of Judah is uncertain and unknown; however an association between יְהוּדָ֗ה and the verb ידה, “to praise,” exists. This verb, ydh, is known in Aramaic and Arabic meaning “to confess.” Hebrew encompasses “to praise” and “to confess” in both the hithpael and hiphil forms of ydh, making up its primary uses in the Hebrew Bible. A potential …show more content…

Albright claimed “Judah” was an abbreviated theophorous form of “Yahweh” using the jussive hophal of hôdâ, הוד, Qal meaning“majesty,” translating as “Yahweh let be praised.” Albrect Alt altered the landscape of the etymological method contending “Judah” is not related to the name “Yahweh” but it exists as a geographical idiom. This theory, further pursued by Waterman and Noth, is the most agreed upon. Guided by this etymological concept, there is a hypothetical correlation between the Hebrew yᵉhûdâ, in the geographical sense, and the Arabic wahda, meaning “excavated …show more content…

Within the culture it was commonplace to name children after historical figures and the first happenings of children named “Judah” appeared in the fifth century B.C. (Ezra 10:23, Nehemiah 11:9, and Nehemiah 12:34, 36). In all, the recorded numbers of occurrences of the word “Judah” in the Hebrew Bible point to the significance uses of the name. “Judah” acts as the name of an individual 40 times, represents a people 290 times, and names a land or political unit 480

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