The last words addressed by Judah to his sons were the following: "I
was the fourth son begotten by my father, and my mother called me
Judah, saying, 'I thank the Lord that He hath given me a fourth son.' I
was zealous in my youth and obedient to my father in all things. When I
grew up to manhood, he blessed me, saying, 'Thou wilt be king, and wilt
prosper in all thy ways.' The Lord granted me His grace in whatever I
undertook, in the field and in the house. I could speed as swiftly as
the hind, and overtake it, and prepare a dish of it for my father. A
deer I could catch on the run, and all the animals of the valley. A
wild mare I could outstrip, hold it, and bridle it. A lion I slew, and
snatched a kid from its jaws. A bear I caught by the paw, and flung it
adown the cliff, and it lay beneath crushed. I could keep pace with the
wild boar, and overtake it, and as I ran I seized it, and tore it to
pieces. A leopard sprang at my dog in Hebron, and I grasped its tail,
and hurled it away from me, and its body burst on the coast at Gaza. A
wild steer I found grazing in the field. I took it by its horns, swung
it round and round until it was stunned, and then I cast it to the
ground and killed it."
Judah continued and told his children of his heroism in the wars that
the sons of Jacob had waged with the kings of Canaan and with Esau and
his family. In all these conflicts he bore a distinguished part, beyond
the achievements of the others. His father Jacob was free from all
anxiety when Judah was with his brethren in their combats, because he
had had a vision showing him an angel of strength standing at the side
of Judah on all his ways.
Judah did not conceal his shortcomings, either. He confessed how
drunkenness and passion had betrayed him first into marriage with a
Canaanitish woman, and then into improper relations with his
daughter-in-law Tamar. He said to his children:
"Do not walk after the desire of your hearts, and vaunt not the valiant
deeds of your youth. This, too, is evil in the eyes of the Lord. For
while I boasted that the face of a beautiful woman had never allured me
in the wars, and reviled my brother Reuben for his transgression with
Bilhah, the spirit of passion and unchastity gained possession of me,
and I took Bath-shua to wife, and trespassed with Tamar, though she was
the affianced of my son. First I said to Bath-shua's father, 'I will
take counsel with my father Jacob, to know whether I should marry thy
daughter,' but he was a king, and he showed me an untold heap of gold
accredited to his daughter, and he adorned her with the magnificence of
women, in gold and pearls, and he bade her pour the wine at the meal.
The wine turned my eyes awry, and passion darkened my heart. In mad
love for her, I violated the command of the Lord and the will of my
father, and I took her to wife. The Lord gave me a recompense according
to the counsel of my heart, for I had no joy in the sons she bore me.
"And now, my children, I pray you, do not intoxicate yourselves with
wine, for wine twists the understanding away from the truth, and
confuses the sight of the eyes. Wine led me astray, so that I felt no
shame before the throngs of people in the city, and I turned aside and
went in to Tamar in the presence of them, and committed a great sin.
And though a man be a king, if he leads an unchaste life, he loses his
kingship. I gave Tamar my staff, which is the stay of my tribe, and my
girdle-cord, which is power, and my signet- diadem, which is the glory
of my kingdom. I did penance for all this, and unto old age I drank no
wine, and ate no flesh, and knew no sort of pleasure. Wine causes the
secret things of God and man to be revealed unto the stranger. Thus did
I disclose the commands of the Lord and the mysteries of my father
Jacob to the Canaanite woman Bath-shua, though God had forbidden me to
betray them. I also enjoin you not to love gold, and not to look upon
the beauty of women, for through money and through beauty I was led
astray to Bath-shua the Canaanite. I know that my stock will fall into
misery through these two things, for even the wise men among my sons
will be changed by them, and the consequence will be that the kingdom
of Judah will be diminished, the domain that the Lord gave me as a
reward for my obedient conduct toward my father, for never did I speak
in contradiction of him, but I did all things according to his words.
And Isaac, my father's father, blessed me with the blessing that I
should be ruler in Israel, and I know that the kingdom will arise from
me. In the books of Enoch the just I read all the evil that ye will do
in the latter days. Only beware, my children, of unchastity and greed,
for love of gold leads to idolatry, causing men to call them gods that
are none, and dethroning the reason of man. On account of gold I lost
my children, and had I not mortified my flesh, and humbled my soul, and
had not my father Jacob offered up prayers for me, I had died
childless. But the God of my fathers, the merciful and gracious One,
saw that I had acted unwittingly, for the ruler of deception had
blinded me, and I was ignorant, being flesh and blood, and corrupt
through sins, and in the moment when I considered myself invincible, I
recognized my weakness."
Then Judah revealed to his sons, in clear, brief words, the whole
history of Israel until the advent of the Messiah, and his final speech
was: "My children, observe the whole law of the Lord; in it is hope for
all that keep His ways. I die this day at the age of one hundred and
nineteen years before your eyes. None shall bury me in a costly
garment, nor shall ye cut my body to embalm it, but ye shall carry me
to Hebron."