How to read this Judah family tree
Read the Judah family tree from the top down, one generation to a row. Five portraits are details of Dutch paintings of the seventeenth century, and the others are silhouettes. Scripture gives no years, so the people table names the verse that places each person.
The double ring is Judah
The fourth son of Jacob and Leah.
A broken couple line is not a marriage
Genesis 38 tells of one meeting between Judah and Tamar and no wedding.
Rahab stands on one Gospel verse
Only Matthew 1:5 names her as the mother of Boaz.
Judah, the fourth son of Leah
Judah was the fourth son that Leah bore to Jacob. At his birth she said, “This time will I praise the LORD”, and the name Judah is drawn from that praise.1
Jacob’s blessing at the end of Genesis sets Judah above his brothers. It calls him a lion’s whelp and says that the sceptre shall not depart from Judah.4 The Jewish Encyclopedia notes that later rabbinic writers called him the king among his brothers, and that he became the ancestor of David through Perez.12
Bath-shua, Tamar and the three sons
Genesis 38 is the chapter that gives the Judah family tree its shape. Judah went down from his brothers to Adullam and married the daughter of a Canaanite named Shua.2 1 Chronicles 2:3 calls her Bath-shua, the daughter of Shua, and the chart uses that name for Bath-shua.10 She bore Er, Onan and Shelah, the last at Chezib.2
Judah took Tamar as a wife for Er, and the LORD slew Er for his wickedness. Onan was told to raise up a son for his brother with her, refused, and died as well. Judah sent Tamar back to her father’s house to wait until Shelah was grown.2
Shelah grew up and was not given to her. When Bath-shua had died and Judah went up to his sheep-shearers at Timnah, Tamar veiled her face and sat by the road at Enaim. Judah took her for a harlot and left his signet, cord and staff as a pledge. Three months later he ordered her burnt for being with child. She sent him the pledge with the words, “Discern, I pray thee, whose are these”, and he said, “She is more righteous than I”.2
The Judah family tree draws Tamar beside Judah, and her record names both earlier husbands. The Jewish Encyclopedia gathers the rabbinic stories that make her a daughter of Shem.13
The twins Perez and Zerah
Tamar bore twins. One put out a hand and the midwife tied a scarlet thread on it, but his brother came out first and was named Perez, a breach. Then came Zerah with the thread.2
Genesis 46:12 names the five sons of Judah, notes that Er and Onan died in Canaan, and adds two sons of Perez, Hezron and Hamul.3 Numbers 26 makes the same names into clans, the Shelanites, Perezites and Zerahites.5 Zerah’s five sons in 1 Chronicles 2:6 stay off the Judah family tree, which follows Perez.10
The line from Perez to David
The Book of Ruth ends with a list it calls the generations of Perez. Perez begot Hezron, Hezron begot Ram, Ram begot Amminadab, Amminadab begot Nahshon, Nahshon begot Salmon, Salmon begot Boaz, Boaz begot Obed, Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David.7 The middle column of the Judah family tree draws these ten names in order. 1 Chronicles 2 gives the same line and calls Nahshon the prince of the children of Judah.10
Exodus 6:23 says that Aaron married Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab and sister of Nahshon.6 Elisheba joins the Judah family tree to the priests of the Levi family tree.
1 Chronicles 2:13-15 names seven sons of Jesse, from Eliab, Abinadab and Shimea down to David the seventh.10 1 Samuel 17:12 says Jesse had eight sons, and makes David the youngest.89 The Judah family tree draws the three eldest, whom both books name, and David.
| Point | One text | Another text |
|---|---|---|
| Judah’s wife | The daughter of Shua, Genesis 38:2 | Bath-shua the Canaanitess, 1 Chronicles 2:3 |
| Son of Nahshon | Salmon, Ruth 4:20 and Matthew 1:4 | Salma, 1 Chronicles 2:11 |
| Son of Hezron | Ram, Ruth 4:19 | Aram, Matthew 1:3 |
| Third son of Jesse | Shimea, 1 Chronicles 2:13 | Shammah, 1 Samuel 16:9 and 17:13 |
| Sons of Jesse | Seven, David the seventh, 1 Chronicles 2:15 | Eight, David the youngest, 1 Samuel 17:12-14 |
| Mother of Boaz | Rahab, Matthew 1:5 | Not named in the Hebrew Bible |
The women of the line
The Book of Ruth recalls Tamar by name. When Boaz takes Ruth at the gate of Bethlehem before ten elders, the people bless him with the words, “let thy house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore unto Judah”.7 Ruth, the Moabite widow of Mahlon, bore Obed, and the women of the town named him.7
The Gospel of Matthew opens with the same line and names three of its mothers. It says that Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar, that Salmon begat Booz of Rachab, and that Booz begat Obed of Ruth.11 The Hebrew Bible gives Salmon no wife, so Rahab stands on the Judah family tree with a broken line. Matthew goes on to the line of Joseph, which the Jesus family tree follows.11
The line continues in the King David family tree, and the generations before Judah are in the Abraham, Isaac and Jacob family tree. The Judah family tree opens in the editor and prints as a PNG or a PDF.
Questions about the Judah family tree
How Judah is related to King David
David descends from Judah through Perez in ten names, which Ruth 4:18-22 and 1 Chronicles 2 list from Perez to Jesse and David.
Who the sons of Judah were
Er, Onan and Shelah by the daughter of Shua, and the twins Perez and Zerah by Tamar. 1 Chronicles 2:4 counts five in all.
People and sources
A page of its own lists all 26 people on the chart, each with a short note and the sources for it, and the 13 numbered sources this article cites. It also gives the credits of the portraits and this page as a reference in the APA, MLA, Chicago and Harvard styles, ready to copy.