The Tribe of Judah played a central role in the Deuteronomistic history, which encompasses the books of Deuteronomy through II Kings.

The tribe of Judah, its conquests, and the centrality of its capital in Jerusalem for the worship of Yahweh featured prominently in the Deuteronomistic history, encompassing the books of Deuteronomy through II Kings, which most scholars agree was reduced to written form, although subject to exilic and post-exilic alterations and emendations, during the reign of the Judahite reformer Josiah from 641–609 BCE.

Judah's portion is described in Joshua 15[3] as encompassing all the Southern Land of Israel, specially the Negev, the Wilderness of Zin and Jerusalem.

[13][14][15] Disagreeing with the latter view, Old Testament scholar Walter Dietrich contends that the biblical stories of circa 10th-century BCE monarchs contain a significant historical kernel and are not simply late fictions.

The Book of Kings is uncompromising in its low opinion of its larger and richer neighbor to the north and understands its conquest by Assyria in 722 BCE as divine retribution for the Kingdom's return to idolatry.

However, the special religious roles decreed for the Levites and Kohanim were preserved, but Jerusalem became the sole place of worship and sacrifice among the returning exiles, northerners and southerners alike.

[21] With Leah as a matriarch, biblical scholars regard the tribe as having been believed by the text's authors to have been part of the original Israelite confederation.

[22] Professor Aaron Demsky argues that the genealogical record of Shelah and his sons was an allegory of the history of Shelanite clans in Shephelah (i.e. Judean foothills).

For example, the literary prophets Isaiah, Amos, Joel, Micah, Obadiah, Zechariah, and Zephaniah, all belonged to the tribe.

[26] The triumph or victory of "the Lion of the Tribe of Judah", who is able to open the scroll and its seven seals, forms part of the vision of the writer of the Book of Revelation in the New Testament.