Judaea

“ After the death of Herod, Archelaus became ethnarch of Samaria, Idumea and Judaea, and when he was deposed Judaea was merged in Syria, being governed by a procurator whose headquarters were in Caesarea. ”

“ Juda means the tribe of Judah, to which, after the schism of the ten tribes, who made a king of their own, Jeroboam, the tribe of Benjamin adhered. And these two formed the kingdom of Judah. S. Matthew adds the word Judah to distinguish the town from another Bethlehem, in the tribe of Zebulon, in Galilee. (See Josh. xix. 15) So S. Jerome.
This was Herod I., the son of Antipater, surnamed the Great, and of Ascalon, and an Idumæan by race, whom the Roman Senate, on the recommendation of Antony, created the first king of Judæa, after its conquest. (See Josephus, lib. 14, Ant. c. 18.) ”

“ There had been conceived in Judaea symbols more lofty and more pure, which were to rule a great part of the world for two thousand years—afterwards, alas, to decline in their turn; and men were about to throw themselves passionately into renunciation, asceticism and fraternal pity. ”

“ One man alone owned as many as ten thousand. These slaves were for the most part sunk in wretchedness. Neither Jupiter, nor Juno, nor the Dioscuri troubled themselves about them. The Latin gods did not pity their condition. They were the gods of their masters. When came from Judaea a god who hearkened to the complaints of the humble, they worshipped him. So it is that the religion of Israel became the religion of the Roman world. This is what neither St. Paul nor Philo could explain to the proconsul of Achaia, for they themselves did not see it clearly. ”

“ They will not even call themselves Jews, they are Israelites who went forth from the land of Judaea; their Messiah is to spring from Aaron and Israel, not from Judah; when the final judgment comes in its appointed time, it will no longer be permitted to make compact with the house of Judah, but every man must stand in his own stronghold;14 when the glory of God shines out on Israel, all the wicked of Judah shall be cut off, in the day of its trial by fire. They reject the temple in Jerusalem, and will not offer on its altar. ”

“ During the hundred and eighty years and more which intervened between the Restoration of the Temple, B.C. 516, and the overthrow of Darius Codomannus, B.C. 331, Judæa was a portion of that province of the Persian empire, in which the Aramaic was the prevalent dialect. The ancient Hebrew gradually ceased to be the language of the Jews in common life, and, before the time of our Lord, had been supplanted by the language of their Eastern neighbours. ”

“ When the Judæan branch was made captive by the Babylonian, the Jews returned to Jerusalem after 70 years, according to Isaiah's prophecy; therefore, they may be regarded as only being absent from their Country. When again stationary, and in their "tents" they were subdued by the Romans in Judæa, who actually "dwelt in their tents" or habitations; and even upon the site of the Jewish Temple, in the following century, Hadrian built one to Jupiter. The Romans were descended from Japheth.
At the Revolt of the Ten Tribes under Jeroboam, that great branch of Israel retired to Samaria. ”

“ And they say they foreknow the future. [73]
21. [Title lacking] . [74]
30. (Abraham being commanded) by God, migrates from Mesopotamia and the city of Harran to the part now called Palestine and Judæa but then Canaanitis, concerning which we have in part but not without care handed down the p. 510. account in other discourses. [75] Through this occurred the beginning of [the] increase [of population] in Judæa, which got the name from Judah the fourth son of Jacob, of whom it was also called the kingdom, through the royal race being from him. ”

“ I shall soon be alone in the world."
"Nay, despair not, God is good; the child may yet live," said Judas.
"Why should I wish him to live," murmured the widow. "His father was taken from the evil to come, the boy will be taken from the evil to come. Jerusalem is defiled, the land is in bondage, Israel is given a prey to the heathen! The faithful are few in the land, and persecution will sweep these few away. There is no resting-place but under the sod, no freedom but in the grave. The name of Judah will soon be blotted out from amongst the nations!" ”

“ It remains, then, after Judah's tents are saved, to make use of them as apostles to their brethren of the other tribes, to preach to them a word from Jerusalem, (Isaiah 2:2) inviting them to come out from the nations, and to rendezvous in 'the wilderness of the people," preparatory to a return to a land flowing with milk and honey, in which Judah is dwelling safely under the sceptre of the Seed promised to their fathers. Judah's submission to the Lord Jesus, as the result of seeing him, will give them no right to eternal life, or to the glory and honour of the kingdom. ”

“ Like the Israelites, the nation of Judah was now shattered and torn asunder. By the canals in Egypt, and by the waters of Babylon, on the Chaboras in Mesopotamia, and on the mouths of the Nile, lingered the fugitives and exiles. [671] Nothing remained to them but the remembrance of David's glory, and sorrow for the fall of Israel. But the longer duration which was allowed to the kingdom of Judah had borne good fruits. It had given the Jews time to strengthen and deepen their religious and national feeling. ”

“ And Judah said unto Israel his father, "Send the lad with me, and we will arise and go; that we may live, and not die, both we, and thou, and also our little ones. I will be surety for him; of my hand shalt thou require him: if I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame for ever: for except we had lingered, surely we had now returned a second time." ”

“ He writes the history of Judah alone, touching upon the kingdom of Israel only in its relation to Judah. The desire to magnify and glorify the kingdom of Judah in its great days, especially under David and Solomon, to represent it as the most powerful, wealthy, and magnificent among the nations, not only of its time but of any time, frequently expresses itself in enormous exaggerations. ”

“ On the contrary, Judah seemed to be a paltry and accidental fragment—one tribe, dissevered from the magnificent unity of Israel. Nothing redeemed it from impotence and obliteration but the splendid possessions of Jerusalem and the Temple, which guaranteed the often threatened perpetuity of the House of David. The future seemed to be wholly with Israel when men compared the relative size and population of the disunited tribes. Judah comprised little more than the environs of Jerusalem. Except Jerusalem, Mizpeh, Gibeon, and Hebron, it had no famous shrines and centres of national traditions. ”

“ Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Behold I will set my face upon you for evil: and I will destroy all Juda.
44:12. And I will take the remnant of Juda that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt, and to dwell there; and they shall be all consumed in the land of Egypt: they shall fall by the sword, and by the famine: and they shall be consumed from the least even to the greatest, by the sword, and by the famine shall they die: and they shall be for an execration, and for a wonder, and for a curse, and for a reproach. ”

“ If it be possible to unravel any thing in these obscure, enigmatical, and symbolical oracles of the prophets of Judea, as we find them in the Bible,—if there be any means of guessing the meaning of the obscure riddles, which have been decorated with the pompous name of prophecies, we shall perceive that the inspired writers, when they are in a good humor, always promised the Jews a man that will redress their grievances, restore the kingdom of Judah, and not one that should destroy the religion of Moses. ”

“ Now all the people of Juda had brought the king over, and only half of the people of Israel were there.
41 Therefore all the men of Israel running together to the king, said to him: Why have our brethren the men of Juda stolen thee away, and have brought the king and his household over the Jordan, and all the men of David with him?
42 And all the men of Juda answered the men of Israel: Because the king is nearer to me: why art thou angry for this matter? have we eaten any thing of the king’s, or have any gifts been given us? ”

“ I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.
8 Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be on the neck of thy enemies; thy father’s children shall bow down before thee. 9 Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou hast gone up: he stooped down, he crouched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? 10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh shall come; and to him shall be the obedience of the people. ”

“ The result of this order belongs to history, which tells how the invincible men of Judas, beginning on the south, swung to east, then from east to north, then from north to west, and then from west to south again—the swing of the mighty Hammer of Israel—crushing a hostile tribe at every stroke, until Judah lay quiet within all its desolate borders.
No sword gleamed brighter in those days than that of Gershom ben Shattuck, and no foeman gave more desperate battle than Nadan, son of Yusef, Sheikh of Jericho. ”

“ Note, Those that are not humbled for their sins are likely to perish for ever in their sins. It is added, Judah also shall fall with them in her iniquity. As the ten tribes were carried captive into Assyria, for their idolatry, so the two tribes, in process of time, were carried into Babylon for following their bad example; but the former fell and were utterly cast down, the latter fell and were raised up again. Judah had the temple and priesthood, and yet these shall not secure them, but, if they sin with Israel and Ephraim, with them they shall fall. ”

“ Theologians have thrown aside all restraints, and well-defined limitations and distinctions of the Bible in their assumed liberty of expounding and spiritualising the same. No matter to them that there is a God-revealed distinction between Judah and Israel, Manasseh and Ephraim, Samaritans and Gentiles, and the throne of David and the throne of the heathen. Writers and speakers are guilty of using the words Judah and Israel in a synonymous sense, though the words stand for different people, history, and prophecies, soon after the descendants of Jacob settled in Palestine. ”

“ It is not only the ten tribes, the kingdom of Israel, that must take notice of this, but that of Judah also, for it is spoken against the whole family that God brought up out of Egypt. It is a family that God has bestowed distinguishing favours upon, has owned in a peculiar manner. You only have I known of all the families of the earth. Note, God's church in the world is a family dignified above all the families of the earth. Those that know God are known of him. In Judah is God known, and therefore Judah is more than any people known of God. ”

“ Here the prophet shows the people of Judah the transgressions, idolatry, obstinacy, and punishment of their brethren, the ten tribes, whom he calls to return to the Lord, with the most gracious promises of restoration to their own country, their reunion with their brethren of Judah, and every degree of prosperity in consequence. He takes occasion also to show the Jews how much more culpable they were than the Israelites, because they practiced the same iniquities while they had the punishment and ruin of the others before their eyes. ”

“ In conformity with ancient methods of genealogy (q.v.) , Judah is traced back to a son of Jacob or Israel by Leah and along with other “tribes” (Dan, Levi, Simeon, &c.) is included under the collective term Israel. Thus it shares the general traditions of the Israelites, although Judah appears as an individual in the story of his “brother” Joseph (on ch. xxxvii. seq., see Genesis) . Its boundaries in Joshua xv. are manifestly artificial or imaginary ”

“ Their learning goes not out into forbidden paths; those who sit at their feet arise enriched simply with knowledge of God, the law, and Israel; and the effect is love and reverence for everything that pertains to them. Attendance at the Great College, and study of what I heard there, have taught me that Judea is not as she used to be. I know the space that lies between an independent kingdom and the petty province Judea is. ”

“ These were the component elements of which the southern kingdom of "Judah" was made up, when it, too, reached the stage, when, on account of its idola- tries and apostasy from the living God, " there was no more remedy " (or "healing" 2 Chron. xxxvi. 16) . It consisted, as we have seen, of Judah, Benjamin, Levi, and many out of all the other ten tribes of Israel, " in abundance."
Jerusalem was finally taken in 588 B.C., by Nebu- chadnezzar just 133 years after the capture of Samaria by the Assyrians. Meanwhile the Babylonian Empire succeeded the Assyrian ”

“ Nobles of Judah so wicked a thing? It seems great men are not always wise, not always honest. 2. Many in Judah were in a strict but secret confederacy with him to advance the interest of his country, though it would certainly be the ruin of their own. They were sworn unto him, not as their prince, but as their friend and ally, because both he and his son had married daughters of Israel, v. 18. See the mischief of marrying with strangers; for one heathen that was converted by it ten Jews were perverted. When once they became akin to Tobiah they soon became sworn to him. ”

“ He chiefly addresses Israel; but introduces frequent mention of Judah. He not only inveighs against the vices of the people, but sharply arraigns the conduct of their kings, princes, and priests.
Like many of the Hebrew prophets, he tempers denunciations of God's vengeance against an idolatrous and vicious people, with promises of abundant mercies in store for them; and his transitions from one of these subjects to the other are rapid and unexpected. He abounds with short and lively comparisons; and, like the best Greek and Roman writers, often omits the particle of similitude. ”