Judah

Judah (Heb. Yehuda, 'the Bepraised One') was the fourth son of Jacob and Leah, and founder of the greatest and most numerous of the twelve tribes, to which belonged the royal house of David. In the march through the wilderness it had the van assigned to it; and tradition narrates that its standard was a lion's whelp, with the words: 'Arise, O Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered!' After the conquest of Canaan its territories stretched from the Dead Sea on the east to the Mediterranean on the west (though the Philistines long held possession of the fertile district west of the mountains of Judah), and from Jerusalem (excluding that city) on the north to the land of the Amalekites on the south. The capital of the tribe was Hebron. For its history, see ISRAEL.