Jehudijah

Biblical Record

Jehudijah appears only once, in the genealogy of the tribe of Judah in 1 Chronicles 4. First Chronicles 4:17 lists Mered among the sons of Ezra; this Ezra is not the same person as Ezra the scribe. Verse 18 then records that Mered took Bithiah, the daughter of Pharaoh, as his wife, and that "his wife Jehudijah" bore three sons (KJV). The three sons were Jered the father of Gedor, Heber the father of Socho, and Jekuthiel the father of Zanoah.

Gedor, Socho, and Zanoah are names of towns in the territory of Judah. For this reason, many interpreters understand "father" here to mean the founder of the town or the chief of its inhabitants. Beyond this, Scripture says nothing about Jehudijah's life or deeds.

Significance Within the Bible

This passage names two wives of Mered: Bithiah, the daughter of the Egyptian king, and Jehudijah. Within the genealogy, Jehudijah is therefore read as a figure set alongside Bithiah, Mered's Gentile wife. The New Testament makes no mention of Jehudijah.

Interpretations and Debates

• A name or a descriptor? The Hebrew word can be understood to mean "Judahite woman" or "Jewish woman." The Korean Revised Version and the New Korean Revised Version render it as the proper name "Jehudijah." Some English translations, however, render it as "his Judahite wife," contrasting her with Bithiah, who was from Egypt.
• The order of the text: The sentence order in 4:17–18 is awkward. Some scholars have therefore proposed that part of verse 18 originally followed verse 17 and should be read in that position. This is also why the arrangement of the sentences differs somewhat from one translation to another.
• Rabbinic tradition: Jewish rabbinic literature is reported to preserve an interpretation that identifies Jehudijah with Bithiah. According to this interpretation, the daughter of Pharaoh who rescued Moses was called "the Jewish woman" because she renounced idolatry. Other traditions identify Mered with Caleb or interpret the names of the three sons as alternative names for Moses. Such interpretations are not stated directly in the biblical text but belong to later midrash (Jewish interpretation of Scripture), and they should be distinguished from what the text itself records.

In the Korean Church

Jehudijah is rarely treated on her own in sermons or Sunday school lessons. Her name is encountered mainly when reading the genealogies of 1 Chronicles as part of reading through the Bible.