JUDAH AND HIS SONS

When the sons of Jacob saw how inconsolable their father
was, they went to Judah, and said to him, "This great misfortune
is thy fault." Judah replied: "It was I that asked
you, What profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his
blood? and now you say the sin lies at my door." The
brethren continued to argue: "But it was thou that didst
say, Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and we followed
thy advice. Hadst thou said, Let us restore him to
his father, we had heeded these words of thine as well."

The brethren hereupon deprived Judah of his dignity, for
hitherto he had been their king, and they also excluded him
from their fellowship, and he had to seek his fortune alone.[74]
Through the mediation of his chief shepherd Hirah, he became
acquainted with the Canaanitish king of Adullam,
Barsan by name. Though he was well aware of the corruption
of the generations of Canaan, he permitted passion to
get the better of him, and took a Canaanite to wife. The
Adullamite king gave a banquet in his honor, at which his
daughter Bath-shua poured the wine, and intoxicated by
wine and passion Judah took her and married her.[75] Judah's
action may be compared to that of the lion who passes a carrion
and eats of it, though a cur preceding him on the way
had refused to touch it. Even Esau came in time to acknowledge
that the daughters of Canaan were wicked, and
the lion Judah must needs take one of them to wife.[76] The