1Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that Yahweh’s word by Jeremiah’s mouth might be accomplished, Yahweh stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,
2“Cyrus king of Persia says, ‘Yahweh, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he has commanded me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3Whoever there is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of Yahweh, the God of Israel (he is God), which is in Jerusalem. 4Whoever is left, in any place where he lives, let the men of his place help him with silver, with gold, with goods, and with animals, in addition to the free will offering for God’s house which is in Jerusalem.’”
5Then the heads of fathers’ households of Judah and Benjamin, the priests and the Levites, all whose spirit God had stirred to go up, rose up to build Yahweh’s house which is in Jerusalem. 6All those who were around them strengthened their hands with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, with animals, and with precious things, in addition to all that was willingly offered. 7Also Cyrus the king brought out the vessels of Yahweh’s house, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought out of Jerusalem, and had put in the house of his gods; 8even those, Cyrus king of Persia brought out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah. 9This is the number of them: thirty platters of gold, one thousand platters of silver, twenty-nine knives, 10thirty bowls of gold, four hundred ten silver bowls of a second kind, and one thousand other vessels. 11All the vessels of gold and of silver were five thousand four hundred. Sheshbazzar brought all these up when the captives were brought up from Babylon to Jerusalem.
Judah was the fourth son of Jacob and Leah, and one of the twelve sons of Jacob, his name in Hebrew is Yehudah, meaning praise. Jacob is one of the more significant figures in the Bible. The important tribe of Judah is named after the patriarch Judah, since King David, and ultimately Jesus the Messiah, came from this tribe.
In the well-known study relating to the selling of Joseph into slavery because of the anger of the brothers against Joseph and their decision to kill him. Judah intercedes and convinces them to sell Joseph to some traders who were passing through, which enabled him to become a leader in Egypt.
In addition to this event regarding Joseph, Judah is also known because of his involvement regarding Tamar. According to custom, when a man died, the woman was to be married to a brother of the brother who died (later known as the levirate law). After two of Judah's sons died, it was custom for Judah to marry then the third son and bear a child for the deceased son. Tamar attempted to avoid this custom and dressed as a prostitute and tricked Judah to have sex with her, which resulted in her giving birth to two sons, Perez and Zerah, which then continued the line of Judah, from which the Messiah came.