This gentilic designates the clan descended from Shelah, the third son of Judah. It appears in the wilderness census in Numbers, where Judah's descendants are enumerated by families. The definite article indicates the collective group—all of Shelah's descendants. Shelah survived where his older brothers Er and Onan did not, and through him passed a major line of Judah's inheritance. The term uses the standard Hebrew pattern for clan names, adding '-ite' to the ancestor's name. This clan formed one of Judah's major subdivisions.