6. One of the postexilic Levites into whose hand Ezra and his party weighed out all the precious items that had been brought with them from Babylon to Jerusalem in 468 B.C.E. (Ezra 8:33, 34) See Nos. 8, 9, 10, below.

7. A son or descendant of Pashhur, and one of the priests who dismissed their foreign wives and sons.—Ezra 10:22, 44.

8. One of the Levites whom Ezra successfully encouraged to send away their foreign wives. (Ezra 10:10, 11, 23, 44) Possibly the same as Nos. 6, 9, 10.

9. One of the Levites associated with Ezra and Nehemiah who read and explained the Law to the people. (Neh. 8:7-9) Possibly the same as Nos. 6, 8 and 10.

10. A Levite “over the outside business” of the rebuilt temple. (Neh. 11:15, 16) Possibly the same as Nos. 6, 8 and 9.

JOZACAR

(Joʹza·car) [Jehovah has remembered].

A servant of King Jehoash of Judah, who, with his companion Jehozabad, killed their ruler in reprisal for the death of Zechariah and apparently other sons of High Priest Jehoiada. However, Jehoash’s son and successor Amaziah, in turn, avenged his father’s death by striking down Jozacar and his accomplice. Jozacar was the son of Shimeath, an Ammonitess. He is also called Zabad.—2 Ki. 12:20, 21; 2 Chron. 24:20-22, 25-27; 25:1, 3.

JUBAL

(Juʹbal).

Son of Lamech and Adah; descendant of Cain. As “founder of all those who handle the harp and the pipe,” Jubal may have invented both stringed and wind instruments, or perhaps he ‘founded’ a profession, which gave considerable impetus to the progress of music.—Gen. 4:17-21.

JUBILEE

[Heb., yoh·velʹ (or, yo·velʹ), the blast of a horn; ram’s horn].

Starting with the time of entering the Promised Land, the nation of Israel was to count six years during which time the land was sown, cultivated and harvested, but the seventh year was to be a sabbath year, during which the land must lie fallow. In the seventh year no sowing or pruning could be done. Even the growth from kernels of grain spilled during the harvest of the previous year could not be reaped, and they were not to gather the grapes of their unpruned vines. Grain and fruit that grew of itself would be available to the owner, his slaves, hired laborers, alien residents and the poor. Domestic animals and wild beasts also were allowed to eat of it. (Lev. 25:2-7; Ex. 23:10, 11) Seven of these seven-year periods (7 x 7 = 49) were to be counted, and the following year, the fiftieth, was to be a Jubilee year. It shared features of the sabbatical year. The land again had complete rest. The same regulations applied to the produce of the land. (Lev. 25:8-12) This meant that the produce of the forty-eighth year of each fifty-year cycle would be the primary source of food for that year and for a little over two years following, until the harvest of the fifty-first, or the year after the Jubilee. Jehovah’s special blessing on the sixth year resulted in a crop yield sufficient to furnish food through the sabbath year. (Lev. 25:20-22) Similarly, God provided a bountiful and sufficient harvest in the forty-eighth year to supply the nation through the sabbath year and the Jubilee that followed, if the Jews kept his law.

The Jubilee was in a sense an entire year of festival, a year of liberty. The keeping of it would demonstrate Israel’s faith in their God Jehovah and would be a time of thanksgiving and happiness in his provisions.

It was on the tenth day of the seventh month (in the month of Tishri), on the Day of Atonement, that the horn (Shoh·pharʹ, or Sho·pharʹ, a curved animal’s horn) was sounded, proclaiming liberty throughout the land. This meant freedom for the Hebrew slaves, many of whom had sold themselves because of debt. Such release normally would not come until the seventh year of servitude (Ex. 21:2), but the Jubilee provided liberty even for those who had not yet served for six years. All hereditary land possessions that had been sold (usually because of financial reverses) were returned, and each man returned to his family and his ancestral possession. No family was to sink into the depths of perpetual poverty. Every family was to have its honor and respect. Even one who squandered his substance could not forever lose his inheritance for his posterity. After all, the land was really Jehovah’s, and the Israelites themselves were alien residents and settlers from Jehovah’s standpoint. (Lev. 25:23, 24) If the nation kept God’s laws, then, as he said: “No one should come to be poor among you.”—Lev. 25:8-10, 13; Deut. 15:4, 5.

By reason of the Jubilee law none of the land could be sold in perpetuity. God provided that if a man sold any land of his hereditary possession, the sale price was to be gauged according to the number of years left until the Jubilee. The same rate was in effect when hereditary land was repurchased by its owner. In effect, a sale of land, therefore, was actually only the sale of the use of the land and its produce for the number of years left until Jubilee year. (Lev. 25:15, 16, 23-28) This applied to houses in unwalled settlements, which were counted as the open country, but houses in walled cities were not included in property returned at Jubilee. Exceptions to this were the houses of the Levites, whose only possessions were the houses and the pasture grounds around the Levite cities. These had their houses returned at Jubilee; the pasture ground of Levite cities could not be sold.—Lev. 25:29-34.

The wonderful provision of the Jubilee year can better be appreciated when one considers, not only the beneficial results to the individual Israelites, but especially the effect on the nation as a whole. When the Jubilee arrangement was properly observed, the nation was restored in the Jubilee year to the full and proper theocratic state that God purposed and established at the beginning. Government was on a sound basis. The national economy would always be stable and the nation would have no crushing debt. (Deut. 15:6) The Jubilee brought about a stable standard of land values and also prevented a great internal debt and its resultant false prosperity, bringing inflation, deflation and business depression.

The Jubilee law, when obeyed, preserved the nation from gravitating to the sad state that we observe today in many lands, where there are virtually only two classes, the extremely rich landed property owners and the extremely poor, “serfs,” “sharecroppers” and the like. The benefits to the individual strengthened the nation, for none would be underprivileged and crushed into unproductiveness by a bad economic situation, but all could contribute their talents and abilities to the national welfare. With Jehovah providing blessings of the yield of the ground and with the education that was provided, Israel, while obedient, would enjoy the perfect government and prosperity that only the true theocracy could provide.—Isa. 33:22.

The Law was read to the people on sabbath years, particularly during the Festival of Booths or Ingathering. (Deut. 31:10-12) They should thereby have been drawn closer to Jehovah and should have maintained their freedom. Jehovah warned the Israelites that they would suffer tragedy if they were disobedient and repeatedly ignored his laws (which included those pertaining to the sabbath and Jubilee years).—Lev. 26:27-45.

Starting the count of years with the entry of the Israelites into the Promised Land, their first Jubilee year began in Tishri of 1424 B.C.E. (Lev. 25:2-4, 8-10) Between the time of entering the Promised Land in 1473 B.C.E. and the fall of Jerusalem in 607 B.C.E., the Israelites were obligated to celebrate seventeen Jubilees. But it is a sad commentary on their history that they did not appreciate Jehovah as their King. They eventually violated his commands, including the sabbath laws, and suffered the loss of the blessings he arranged for them. Their failure brought reproach on God before the nations of the world and hindered them from realizing the excellence of his theocratic government.—2 Chron. 36:20, 21.

There are allusions to a symbolic meaning of the Jubilee arrangement in the Christian Greek Scriptures. Jesus Christ said he came to “preach a release to the captives.” He said: “Lord of the sabbath is what the Son of man is,” and shortly thereafter on a sabbath day he restored a man’s withered hand to a sound condition. The apostle Paul points forward to the time when “the creation itself also will be set free from enslavement to corruption and have the glorious freedom of the children of God.”—Luke 4:16-18; Matt. 12:8-13; Rom. 8:20, 21; see SABBATH YEAR.

JUCAL

(Juʹcal) [abbreviated form of Jehucal, meaning Jehovah is able, mighty].

“Son of Shelemiah”; one of the princes of Judah who asked that the prophet Jeremiah be executed for weakening the hands of the warriors.—Jer. 38:1-4.

JUDAH

(Juʹdah) [lauded; (object of) laudation].

1. Jacob’s fourth son by his wife Leah. (Gen. 29:35; 1 Chron. 2:1) After spending about nine years of his life at Haran in Paddan-aram, Judah was taken with all of Jacob’s household to Canaan. (Compare Genesis 29:4, 5, 32-35; 30:9-12, 16-28; 31:17, 18, 41.) Subsequently he resided with his father at Succoth and then at Shechem. After his sister Dinah was violated by Hamor’s son, and Simeon and Levi had avenged her by killing all the males of Shechem, Judah evidently shared in plundering the city.—Gen. 33:17, 18; 34:1, 2, 25-29.

RELATIONSHIP TO JOSEPH

In the course of time, because Jacob favored him, Joseph came to be hated by Judah and his other half brothers. Their hatred intensified after Joseph related two dreams that pointed to his becoming their superior. Therefore, when Jacob sent Joseph to check on his half brothers as they cared for the flocks, upon seeing him from a distance, they plotted to kill him. But at the suggestion of Reuben, who had in mind saving Joseph’s life, they pitched him into a dry waterpit.—Gen. 37:2-24.

Thereafter, as a caravan of Ishmaelites came to view, Judah, apparently in Reuben’s absence, convinced the others that, rather than murdering Joseph, it would be better to sell him to the passing merchants. (Gen. 37:25-27) Despite Joseph’s plea for compassion, they sold him for twenty silver pieces. (Gen. 37:28; 42:21) Although the indications are that Judah’s main concern was to save Joseph’s life and the sale itself afterward proved to be a blessing for all concerned, Judah, like the others, was guilty of a grave sin that long burdened his conscience. (Gen. 42:21, 22; 44:16; 45:4, 5; 50:15-21) (Under the Mosaic law later given to the Israelites, this offense carried the death penalty. [Ex. 21:16]) Afterward Judah also joined the others in deceiving Jacob into thinking that Joseph had been killed by a wild beast. (Gen. 37:31-33) Judah was then about twenty years old.

JUDAH’S FAMILY

It seems that after this incident Judah left his brothers. He took up tenting near Hirah the Adullamite, and apparently a friendly relationship developed between them. During this time Judah married the daughter of the Canaanite Shua. By her he had three sons, Er, Onan and Shelah. The youngest, Shelah, was born at Achzib.—Gen. 38:1-5.

Later, Judah selected Tamar as a wife for his firstborn Er. But on account of his badness, Er was executed by Jehovah. Judah then instructed his second son, Onan, to perform brother-in-law marriage. But Onan, although having relations with Tamar, “wasted his semen on the ground so as not to give offspring to his brother.” For this Jehovah also slew him. Judah then recommended that Tamar return to her father’s house and wait until Shelah matured. Yet, even after Shelah had grown up, Judah, seemingly reasoning that his youngest son might die, did not give him in marriage to Tamar.—Gen. 38:6-11, 14.

Therefore, subsequent to Judah’s becoming a widower, Tamar, on learning that her father-in-law was going to Timnah, disguised herself as a prostitute and then seated herself at the entrance of Enaim on the road Judah would be traversing. Not recognizing his daughter-in-law and assuming her to be a prostitute, Judah had relations with her. When it later came to light that Tamar was pregnant, Judah demanded that she be burned as a harlot. But, upon the presentation of the evidence that he himself had made her pregnant, Judah exclaimed: “She is more righteous than I am, for the reason that I did not give her to Shelah my son.” Thus unwittingly Judah had taken the place of Shelah in fathering legal offspring. Some six months later Tamar gave birth to the twins Perez and Zerah. Judah had no further relations with her.—Gen. 38:12-30.

TO EGYPT FOR FOOD

Sometime later reports reached famine-stricken Canaan that food was available in Egypt. Consequently, at Jacob’s direction, ten of his sons, including Judah, went there for food. At this time their half-brother Joseph was serving as Egypt’s food administrator. Whereas Joseph immediately knew them, they did not recognize him. Joseph accused them of being spies and warned them not to return without Benjamin, whom they mentioned in professing their innocence to being spies. Joseph also had one of his half brothers, Simeon, bound and held as a hostage.—Gen. 42:1-25.

Understandably, Jacob, presuming that he had lost both Joseph and Simeon, was unwilling to let Benjamin accompany his other sons to Egypt. Reuben’s emotional statement that Jacob could put his own two sons to death if he did not return Benjamin carried insufficient weight, perhaps because he had proved himself to be unreliable by violating his father’s concubine. (Gen. 35:22) Finally Judah succeeded in getting his father’s consent by promising to be surety for Benjamin.—Gen. 42:36-38; 43:8-14.

Homeward bound, after having bought cereals in Egypt, Jacob’s sons were overtaken by Joseph’s steward and accused of theft (actually a ruse by Joseph). When the supposedly stolen item was found in Benjamin’s bag, the men returned and entered Joseph’s house. It was Judah who then answered the charge and eloquently and earnestly pleaded in behalf of Benjamin and for the sake of his father, requesting that he be constituted a slave in Benjamin’s stead. So moved was Joseph by Judah’s sincere plea that he could no longer control his emotions. Thereafter, alone with his brothers, Joseph identified himself. After pardoning them for having sold him into slavery, Joseph instructed his half brothers to get Jacob and then return to Egypt, as the famine was to continue for five more years.—Gen. 44:1–45:13.

Later, as Jacob and his entire household neared Egypt, Jacob “sent Judah in advance of him to Joseph to impart information ahead of him to Goshen.”—Gen. 46:28.

SUPERIOR AMONG HIS BROTHERS

By his concern for his aged father and his noble effort to preserve Benjamin’s freedom at the cost of his own, Judah proved himself to be superior among his brothers. (1 Chron. 5:2) No longer was he the Judah who in his youth had shared in plundering