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Judah, Tribe of





This territory given to Judah was divided into four sections.

  1. The south (Hebrew: negeb), the undulating pasture-ground between the hills and the desert to the south (Josh. 15:21.) This extent of pasture-land became famous as the favorite camping-ground of the old patriarchs.

  2. The “valley” (15:33) or lowland (Hebrew: shephelah), a broad strip lying between the central highlands and the Mediterranean. This tract was the garden as well as the granary of the tribe.

  3. The “hill-country,” or the mountains of Judah, an elevated plateau stretching from below Hebron northward to Jerusalem.



  4. The “wilderness,” the sunken district next the Dead Sea (Josh. 15:61), “averaging 10 miles in breadth, a wild, barren, uninhabitable region, fit only to afford scanty pasturage for sheep and goats, and a secure home for leopards, bears, wild goats, and outlaws” (1 Sam. 17:34; 22:1; Mark 1:13). It was divided into the “wilderness of En-gedi” (1 Sam. 24:1), the “wilderness of Judah” (Judg. 1:16; Matt. 3:1), between the Hebron mountain range and the Dead Sea, the “wilderness of Maon” (1 Sam. 23:24). It contained only six cities.


Author: Matthew G. Easton.

Tribes of Israel

  1. Asher
  2. Benjamin
  3. Dan
  4. Ephraim
  5. Gad
  6. Issachar
  7. Judah
  8. Levi
  9. Manasseh
  10. Naphtali
  11. Reuben
  12. Simeon
  13. Zebulun


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