Judah
Judah was one of the Levites who had married foreign women during the time of Ezra and agreed to put them away.
Judah was the fourth son of Jacob and Leah, the ancestor of the tribe of Judah and ultimately of the Davidic royal line. In the Joseph narrative he plays a pivotal role: it was Judah's suggestion to sell rather than kill Joseph (Genesis 37:26–27), and later his impassioned plea for Benjamin before the unrecognized Joseph (Genesis 44:18–34) demonstrates moral growth. Jacob's deathbed blessing singles out Judah for royal preeminence: 'The scepter shall not depart from Judah' (Genesis 49:10), a verse interpreted messianically in Jewish and Christian tradition. His union with Tamar produced Perez, an ancestor of David and of Jesus according to the genealogy in Matthew 1.