As Jacob was upon his death bed, he made prophecies concerning his various sons. Concerning Judah he said:

The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. - Gen 49:10

The Hebrew word for Shiloh is thought to mean peaceable or tranquil however, Jew and Christian alike have agreed that the term is used here in reference to the Messiah. The text asserted that the tribe of Judah would have governmental authority until Messiah came. This authority commenced with the ascent of David to the throne. In the days of Solomon's son Rehoboam, the kingdom became divided and the southern part was called Judah. It consisted of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin and some of Levi and a handful from the remaining 10 tribes, but its kings were always from Judah. After the Babylonian conquest, there were no longer any Jewish kings; however, there continued to be great lawgivers from the tribe of Judah, such as Nehemiah and Zerubbabel, and this continued until the times of Jesus. Then with the Roman invasion around A.D. 70, the Jews were dispersed to a greater degree than ever before and their genealogical records were destroyed. Though the Jews have been partially regathered to their homeland in recent times, none of their current political leaders can prove themselves to be of the tribe of Judah.

The sceptre therefore fell from Judah in the times of Jesus, and as this was to occur in the times of the Messiah, the unbelieving Jew is confronted with the only reasonable conclusion that the testimony of his own patriarch and the facts of history will allow; namely, that Jesus is the Messiah.

Furthermore, the prophet Hosea wrote:

For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days. - Hos 3:4-5

Anyone should plainly see that this prophecy is an exact description of the state of the Jews from the times of Jesus until now. This prophecy also defines a time in which the sceptre has clearly departed from their hands. The sceptre has been taken from them because it belongs to Jesus Christ, and it can never be rightfully possessed by another.