The Tribe of Judah features prominently in Deuteronomistic history, which most scholars agree was reduced to written form, although subject to exilic and post-exilic alterations and emendations, during the reign of the Judahist reformer Josiah from 641 to 609 BCE.

Tamar becomes Onan's wife in accordance with custom, but he too is killed after he refuses to father children for his older brother's childless widow, and spills his seed instead.

A. Emerton, Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Cambridge, regards the connections as evidence for including chapter 38 in the J corpus, and suggests that the J writer dovetailed the Joseph and Judah traditions.

[12] Derek Kidner points out that the insertion of chapter 38 "creates suspense for the reader",[13] but Robert Alter goes further and suggests it is a result of the "brilliant splicing of sources by a literary artist".

[14] Similarly, J. P. Fokkelman notes that the "extra attention" for Judah in chapter 38, "sets him up for his major role as the brothers' spokesman in Genesis 44".

[17] Judah's position is further enhanced through the downfall of his older brothers: Reuben, the eldest, cedes his birthright through sexual misconduct with Jacob's concubine Bilhah (Gen. 35:22), and the bloody revenge taken by Simeon and Levi following the rape of Dinah (Gen. chap.

[17] The eternal legacy of these events are foreshadowed in the deathbed blessing of Jacob (Gen. 49:1-33), which has been attributed according to the documentary hypothesis to the pro-Judah Yahwist source.

[18] In Jacob's blessing, Reuben has "not the excellency" to lead "because thou went up to thy father's bed, then defiled [it]"; meanwhile, Simeon and Levi are condemned as "cruel" and "weapons of violence [are] their kinship."

[19] Hebraist Gary Rendsburg argues that the original Biblical audience would have noticed the parallels between Judah and Tamar on the one hand and David and Bathsheba on the other.

[23] Emerton notes that Dillman and Noth considered the account of the deaths of Er and Onan to "reflect the dying out of two clans of Judah bearing their names, or at least of their failure to maintain a separate existence".

[23] Along with the account of Lot and his daughters (Genesis 19:30–38), Tamar and Judah is one of two instances of "sperm stealing" in the Bible, in which a woman seduces a male relative under false pretenses in order to become pregnant.

[27][28] This passage also describes Judah as the strongest of his brothers in which rabbinical literature portray him as having had extraordinary physical strength, able to shout for over 400 parasangs, able to crush iron into dust by his mouth, and with hair that stiffened so much, when he became angry, that it pierced his clothes.

[39] According to classical rabbinical literature, because Judah had proposed that he should take any blame forever, this ultimately led to his bones being rolled around his coffin without cease, while it was being carried during the Exodus, until Moses interceded with God, by arguing that Judah's confession (in regard to cohabiting with Tamar) had led to Reuben confessing his own incest.

[26] Apparently, Judah learned a lesson from his experience with Tamar that he must be responsible for those around him and this eventually prepares him for his future reconciliatory encounter with Joseph.

[40] Genesis Rabbah, and particularly the midrashic book of Jasher, expand on this by describing Judah's plea[clarification needed] as much more extensive than given in the Torah, and more vehement.

[26] Before his death, Judah told his children about his bravery and heroism in the wars against the kings of Canaan and the family of Esau, also confessed his shortcomings caused by wine that led him astray in his relationship with Bathshua and Tamar.

[54] Another local tradition, held by Druze and Muslims, places the tomb of Judah in "Nabi Yehuda", a maqam located near Horvat Omrit in the Hula Valley.