Page "Judah (biblical person)" Paragraph 17

The classical rabbinical literature argues that Judah reacted violently to the threat against Benjamin, shouting so loudly that Hushim, who was then in Canaan, was able to hear Judah ask him to travel to Egypt, to help Judah destroy it ; some sources have Judah angrily picking up an extremely heavy stone ( 400 shekels in weight ), throwing it into the air, then grinding it to dust with his feet once it had landed.

These rabbinical sources argue that Judah had Naphtali enumerate the districts of Egypt, and after finding out that there were 12 ( historically, there were actually 20 in Lower Egypt and 22 in Upper Egypt ), he decided to destroy three himself, and have his brothers destroy one of the remaining districts each ; the threat of destroying Egypt was, according to these sources, what really motivated Joseph to reveal himself to his brothers.