Aramaic word · H3061

יְהוּד

yehud

Judah

Aramaic name for Judah, the territory and its people. In the Persian period it became the official name of the small province around Jerusalem.

A Biblical Aramaic word, from the parts of the Old Testament written in Aramaic. Why Aramaic?

Appears 7 times in 6 verses of the Aramaic of the Old Testament. ·

What it means

A man of the tribe of Judah living at the time of the Patriarchs, first mentioned at Gen.29.35;

son of: Israel (H3478) and Leah (H3812);

brother of: Reuben (H7205), Simeon (H8095), Levi (H3878), Issachar (H3485), Zebulun (H2074) and Dinah (H1783);

half-brother of: Dan (H1835H), Naphtali (H5321), Gad (H1410), Asher (H0836), Joseph (H3130) and Benjamin (H1144); married to Bath-shua (H1323I) and Tamar (H8559);

father of: Er (H6147), Onan (H0209), Shelah (H7956), Perez (H6557) and Zerah (H2226I)

Aramaic of ye.hu.dah (יְהוּדָה "Judah" H3063)

Judah-the territory of the tribe of Judah

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Daniel 5:13

Range of meaning

Aramaic name for Judah, the territory and its people. In the Persian period it became the official name of the small province around Jerusalem.

Against the English

BSB, WEB, NIV, ESV and NASB say 'Judah'. KJV has 'Judah' in the first mention and then 'Jewry' at the end, an older English word for the land of the Jews (Judea), not a word for Jewish people as a group.

How it drifted

KJV 'Jewry' is archaic. Today 'Jewry' means the Jewish people collectively (e.g. 'world Jewry'), so a modern reader may misread KJV's place name as a people.

Used elsewhere in the period

YHD is stamped on Persian-period coins and jar handles from the province of Judah. The Aramaic Elephantine papyri (late 5th c. BCE) refer to the governor of Yehud. Ezra's Aramaic sections use the same form (Ezra 5:1, 8).

Where it appears

Ezra · 3

  1. Ezra 5:1 בִיה֖וּד [were] in Judah

    Later, the prophets Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them.

  2. Ezra 5:8 לִיה֤וּד to Judea

    Let it be known to the king that we went into the province of Judah, to the house of the great God. The people are rebuilding it with large stones and placing timbers in the walls. This work is being carried out diligently and is prospering in their hands.

    Here: 'To Yehud', the Persian administrative name for the small district around Jerusalem. The same name appears on coins and jar stamps of the period.

  3. Ezra 7:14 יְה֖וּד Judah

    You are sent by the king and his seven counselors to evaluate Judah and Jerusalem according to the Law of your God, which is in your hand.

Daniel · 4

  1. Daniel 2:25 יְה֔וּד Judah

    Arioch hastily brought Daniel before the king and said to him, “I have found a man among the exiles from Judah who will tell the king the interpretation.”

  2. Daniel 5:13 יְה֔וּד יְהֽוּד׃ Judah

    So Daniel was brought before the king, who asked him, “Are you Daniel, one of the exiles my father the king brought from Judah?

    Here: The Aramaic name for Judah, the land and the people. Here it names the exiles' homeland.

  3. Daniel 6:13 יְה֗וּד Judah

    Then they told the king, “Daniel, one of the exiles from Judah, shows no regard for you, O king, or for the decree that you have signed. He still makes his petition three times a day.”

    Here: The Aramaic name for Judah. Under the Persians it was also the official name of the province, Yehud. It marks Daniel as being from a small conquered land.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.