"Veiled as the libel is here, it becomes apparent as soon as we cast a glance upon David's family. The picture which this libel draws of Judah hits David himself sharply. The 'Canaanite'--namely, whom Judah marries [?]--is no other than the wife of Uriah the Hittite (murdered at David's command) whom David himself married adulterously. This wife of Judah is said to have been the daughter of a man named Shuah. Therefore she is a Bath-shua, and is thus called (verse 12). But Bathshua is also Bathsheba herself, as one may conclude from 1 Chron. iii. 5. The eldest son died, hateful in the sight of God, just like the first son of Bathsheba (2 Sam. xii. 15). The son of Judah is alleged to have been called Er; why? because reading it backwards (rea, wrong) it means 'bad,' 'wicked.' The second son is called Onan, and dies for sexual sins. He is no other than David's son Amnon, who meets his death on account of his sexual sins (2 Sam. xiii). The Tamar of Judah's story is the same as the Tamar dishonored by Amnon,--the daughter of David, who, in spite of her misfortune and her purity, is, to the entire ruin of her good name, humiliated to a person who plays the prostitute. And Shelah who does not die,--add to his name only the letter m, and you have Solomon." If in the light of these facts, which reveal the mythical character of some of the worst things told of Judah and David, the blessings of Jacob (Gen. xlix.) be carefully read, the blessing on Judah will be found rather equivocal. Colenso translates: "A lion's whelp is Judah, Ravaging the young of the suckling ewes." Is this couplet related to Nathan's parable of the rich man taking away the poor man's one little ewe lamb which smote the conscience of David? "The staff shall not depart from Judah, Nor the rod from between his feet Until Shiloh come." Is this merely a device of the Ephraimite rebels, Jeroboamites, pretending to find in a patriarchal prophecy a prediction that Judah is to be superseded by the descendants of Joseph (on whom Jacob's encomiums and blessings are unstinted)? Shiloh was always their headquarters.