The Tribes that Made Up Judah or Us Jews

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                 

The tribes that basically made up Judah were from the tribe of Judah.  who amounted to 76,500 at the 2nd census taken by Moses, the largest of the 12 tribes.  Some living in Judah were  of the tribe of Benjamin who amounted to 45,600 during the same census.  Simeon tribal members would have also been in Judah, and they numbered 22,200 during this 2nd census, having lost 37,100 since the 1st census.    

The tribe of Judah was not taken by Assyria like the 10 northern tribes were.  They are the Jews of today.  Note that the Levites from Levi were never granted any land.  They were the line of Moses and his brother, Aaron.  Aaron was chosen by Moses to be the high priest of this new group of Israelites that he freed from Egypt.  They had the responsibility if they were direct descendants of Aaron to be the next priests, which included being the 1st readers of the Torah in the synagogue.  Today's science has tested their DNA and they are of J1 (Y haplogroup). 

 The other Levites had the 2nd position in order of responsibilities, such as being the 2nd readers in the synagogue from the Torah. 

Leah                                      Rachel               Zilpah        Bilhah

Judah was the 4th son of Jacob and Leah.

The 12 tribes of Jacob and daughter, Dinah,  came from Jacob's wife, Leah and her sister, Rachel (his true love).  Then he took their handmaids and married them in order to produce more children, Zilpah and Bilhah, who we presume were from Egypt.  The land they were awarded to live on was called Judah;  later called Judea.   

Other Y haplogroups are showing up in Jews of today, so not all are J1s which would be expected for all 12 tribes being Jacob was the father of all 12 sons:  Reuben and his 5 sons;  Simeon and his 6 sons; Levi and his 3 sons and 1 daughter Jochebed-wife of Amram and mother of Moses, Aaron and Mirium;  Judah and his 5 sons; Issachar and his 4 sons;   Zebulun and his 3 sons;  Gad and his 7 sons;  Asher and his 5 sons;  Dan and 1 son;  Naphtali and his 4 sons, Joseph  and his 2 sons-Manasseh and Ephraim who were given land that would have gone to Joseph who remained in Egypt;  and Benjamin.                   

  They all were jealous of Joseph, who was given a beautiful robe by their father, Jacob who was showing favoritism by doing so.  Judah talked his brothers out of leaving Joseph in a pit to die and instead to just sell him to  passing Ishmaelites. (Gen.37).  Possibly for this good deed, he received his father's patriarchal blessing instead of his elder brothers, Reuben, Simeon and Levi.  (Gen 49:8).  

The land they were awarded by  Joshua was one of the largest in Canaan.  The land Simeon was awarded was absorbed into Judah's land as it was in the Negev Desert. 

 Benjamin was the 12th and youngest son of Jacob and Rachel, who died in childbirth after he was born.  Jacob, of course, was exceptionally fond of Benjamin as he was of Joseph, both sons from Rachel, who he first had fallen in love.  The land Benjaminites were awarded included land where Jerusalem was.  Their territory was land of contention between Israel and Judah  who split apart, and eventually had to be divided between the two.  

After the death of Moses, Joshua led the Israelites into the Promised Land and, dividing the territory among the 12 tribes, assigned south-central Palestine to the tribe of Benjamin. Members of the tribe were separated when two distinct kingdoms were established after the death of King Solomon (922 BC) and the territory of Benjamin was divided between them. Benjaminites in the southern kingdom of Judah were assimilated by the more powerful tribe of Judah and gradually lost their identity.

Jews belonging to the 10 tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel disappeared from history after the Assyrian conquest of 721 BC and are known in legend as the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.                                            

 Modern Jews thus consider themselves to be descendants of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin or are classed as Levites to indicate an affinity with the religious functionaries who at one time exercised the priesthood in ancient Israel. 

Saul, the first of Israel’s kings, and St. Paul the Apostle were both of the tribe of Benjamin.

After the dissolution of the United Kingdom of Israel in c. 930 BCE, the tribe of Benjamin joined the Tribe of Judah as a junior partner in the Kingdom of Judah, otherwise known as the Southern Kingdom. The Davidic dynasty, which had roots in the tribe of Judah, continued to reign in the kingdom of Judah. As part of this kingdom, Benjaminites survived the destruction of Israel by the Assyrians, but was, however, subjected to Babylonian captivity. Even though after captivity had ended, the distinction between the tribes of Benjamin and Judah was lost in favour of a common identity as Israel, subsequent instances of Jews identifying by either tribe can still be found in the Bible. 

        Queen Esther's Uncle Mordecai of Shushan, Persia

In the book of Esther, for example, Mordecai is referred to as being of the tribe of Benjamin, and as late as the time of Jesus Christ, some (notably Paul the Apostle) still identified with their claimed Benjamite ancestry.

King David was from the tribe of Judah and his becoming king caused the tribe of Judah to also be a leading tribe over the others.  David's son, King Solomon, died in 920 BCE, and the Judeans too sides with his son, Rehoboam in the struggle leading to the splitting of Israel between the 10 northern tribes and the southern tribe of Judah.  Of course, they had to remain faithful to Solomon's kin this way, even though he kept the rules made by Solomon which included overly high taxation on the people in order to finish building the Temple.  The other tribes made Solomon's superintendent of workers, Jeroboam,  their king.  Then they were taken as prisoners by the Assyrians almost 200 years later  in 721 BCE.  The northern tribes became known as the Lost Tribes of Israel. 

Simeon was the 2nd son of Jacob.  Because he wanted to protect his sister, Dinah's reputation, he talked Levi to help him con the men of Shechem, kill them all, and take the women and children captives.  It was a man of Shechem who had raped Dinah. Jacob had a fit when he was told what they did, as now they all would suffer for it.  Jacob foresaw the dispersion of Simeon and Levi's descendants later on because of it.   During the reign of Hezekiah of Judah (720-692 BCE), they took possession of the Arab areas of Seir (I Chron. 4:24-43).  Some settled in the mountains of Ephraim. (II Chron. 15:29).  

Levites were to live among all 12 tribes and teach the families, so they can be found in the northern tribes as well as the southern ones.  

Resource:

Tanakh, the Stone Edition