The word “Jew” does not apply to all of Yisrael. It refers to the tribe of Judah (Yudah) the fourth son of Jacob (Yacob). The gradual ethnonymic shift from “Israelites” to “Jews”, regardless of their descent from Yudah, although not contained in the Torah, is made explicit in the Book of Esther (4th century BCE) of the Tanakh. According to the Hebrew Bible, these inhabitants predominately descend from the tribe of Yudah from Yudah. Genesis 29:35 and 49:8 connect “Yudah” with the verb yada, meaning “praise”,
The term “Jew” is derived from the Hebrew word יְהוּדִי Yehudi, with the plural יְהוּדִים Yehudim. Endonyms in other Jewish languages include the Ladino ג׳ודיו Djudio (plural ג׳ודיוס, Djudios) and the Yiddish ייִד Yid (plural ייִדן Yidn). Originally, it is used to describe the inhabitants of the Israelite kingdom of Yudah. It is also used to distinguish their descendants from the gentiles and the Samaritans.