3Now Judith had told her maid to stand outside the bedchamber and to wait for her to come out, as she did on the other days; for she said she would be going out for her prayers. She had said the same thing to Bagoas. 4So everyone went out, and no one, either small or great, was left in the bedchamber. Then Judith, standing beside his bed, said in her heart, “O Lord God of all might, look in this hour on the work of my hands for the exaltation of Jerusalem. 5Now indeed is the time to help your heritage and to carry out my design to destroy the enemies who have risen up against us.”
6She went up to the bedpost near Holofernes’ head, and took down his sword that hung there. 7She came close to his bed, took hold of the hair of his head, and said, “Give me strength today, O Lord God of Israel!” 8Then she struck his neck twice with all her might, and cut off his head. 9Next she rolled his body off the bed and pulled down the canopy from the posts. Soon afterward she went out and gave Holofernes’ head to her maid, 10who placed it in her food bag.
Judith Returns to Bethulia
Then the two of them went out together, as they were accustomed to do for prayer. They passed through the camp, circled around the valley, and went up the mountain to Bethulia, and came to its gates. 11From a distance Judith called out to the sentries at the gates, “Open, open the gate! God, our God, is with us, still showing his power in Israel and his strength against our enemies, as he has done today!”
12When the people of her town heard her voice, they hurried down to the town gate and summoned the elders of the town. 13They all ran together, both small and great, for it seemed unbelievable that she had returned. They opened the gate and welcomed them. Then they lit a fire to give light, and gathered around them. 14Then she said to them with a loud voice, “Praise God, O praise him! Praise God, who has not withdrawn his mercy from the house of Israel, but has destroyed our enemies by my hand this very night!”
15Then she pulled the head out of the bag and showed it to them, and said, “See here, the head of Holofernes, the commander of the Assyrian army, and here is the canopy beneath which he lay in his drunken stupor. The Lord has struck him down by the hand of a woman. 16As the Lord lives, who has protected me in the way I went, I swear that it was my face that seduced him to his destruction, and that he committed no sin with me, to defile and shame me.”
17All the people were greatly astonished. They bowed down and worshiped God, and said with one accord, “Blessed are you our God, who have this day humiliated the enemies of your people.”
18Then Uzziah said to her, “O daughter, you are blessed by the Most High God above all other women on earth; and blessed be the Lord God, who created the heavens and the earth, who has guided you to cut off the head of the leader of our enemies. 19Your praisea will never depart from the hearts of those who remember the power of God. 20May God grant this to be a perpetual honor to you, and may he reward you with blessings, because you risked your own life when our nation was brought low, and you averted our ruin, walking in the straight path before our God.” And all the people said, “Amen. Amen.”
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a Other ancient authorities read hope
13.1–10a Holofernes loses his head.
13.2–8 Judith is alone with Holofernes who is dead drunk. She prays twice (vv. 4–5, 7) and strikes his neck twice (v. 8) with his own sword.
13.9–10a The reason for her actions, taking the head and pulling the canopy down, appear later (v. 15).
13.10b–11 In Section C, which begins the second half of Part 2 (see note on 8.1–16.25), Judith and her maid retrace their steps (see 10.9–10) to Bethulia through the valley and up the mountain.
13.11 Judith proclaims that God is with them, in contrast to the people’s cry that God has abandoned them (7.25).
13.12–16.20 Judith plans the destruction of Israel’s enemy. This section, $$$$$, repeats elements found in B of Part 2 (8.9–10.8; see note on 8.1–16.25). Both open with a meeting with Judith: she summons the town officials (8.10); the people assemble when they “hear” (13.12) her voice asking that the gate be opened (13.13). (Cf. the uses of the important verb variously translated as hear or listen in 4.1, 13; 5.5; 7.9; 8.1, 9 [twice], 11, 17, 32; 9.4, 12; 10.14; 11.8, 9, 16; 13.12; 14.1, 7, 19; 15.1, 5.) B and B contain an instruction from Judith that begins with the words listen to me (8.11; 14.1). She prays for success in 9.1–14 and announces it in 13.14–16. Uzziah blesses her in 8.35 and again in 13.18–20.
13.12–14.10 Judith now speaks to the people of Bethulia.
13.15 By the hand of a woman. See note on 9.10. Judith gives God full credit for the triumph (see also v. 4; 16.5).
13.17 Blessed, Greek eulogetos, appears only seven times in Judith, and all its occurrences are in $$$$$ (13.17; 13.18 [twice]; 14.7; 15.9; 15.10; 15.12).
Judith 14
Judith’s Counsel
1Then Judith said to them, “Listen to me, my friends. Take this head and hang it upon the parapet of your wall. 2As soon as day breaks and the sun rises on the earth, each of you take up your weapons, and let every able-bodied man go out of the town; set a captain over them, as if you were going down to the plain against the Assyrian outpost; only do not go down. 3Then they will seize their arms and go into the camp and rouse the officers of the Assyrian army. They will rush into the tent of Holofernes and will not find him. Then panic will come over them, and they will flee before you. 4Then you and all who live within the borders of Israel will pursue them and cut them down in their tracks. 5But before you do all this, bring Achior the Ammonite to me so that he may see and recognize the man who despised the house of Israel and sent him to us as if to his death.”
6So they summoned Achior from the house of Uzziah. When he came and saw the head of Holofernes in the hand of one of the men in the assembly of the people, he fell down on his face in a faint. 7When they raised him up he threw himself at Judith’s feet, and did obeisance to her, and said, “Blessed are you in every tent of Judah! In every nation those who hear your name will be alarmed. 8Now tell me what you have done during these days.”
So Judith told him in the presence of the people all that she had done, from the day she left until the moment she began speaking to them. 9When she had finished, the people raised a great shout and made a joyful noise in their town. 10When Achior saw all that the God of Israel had done, he believed firmly in God. So he was circumcised, and joined the house of Israel, remaining so to this day.
Holofernes’ Death Is Discovered
11As soon as it was dawn they hung the head of Holofernes on the wall. Then they all took their weapons, and they went out in companies to the mountain passes. 12When the Assyrians saw them they sent word to their commanders, who then went to the generals and the captains and to all their other officers. 13They came to Holofernes’ tent and said to the steward in charge of all his personal affairs, “Wake up our lord, for the slaves have been so bold as to come down against us to give battle, to their utter destruction.”
14So Bagoas went in and knocked at the entry of the tent, for he supposed that he was sleeping with Judith. 15But when no one answered, he opened it and went into the bedchamber and found him sprawled on the floor dead, with his head missing. 16He cried out with a loud voice and wept and groaned and shouted, and tore his clothes. 17Then he went to the tent where Judith had stayed, and when he did not find her, he rushed out to the people and shouted, 18“The slaves have tricked us! One Hebrew woman has brought disgrace on the house of King Nebuchadnezzar. Look, Holofernes is lying on the ground, and his head is missing!”
19When the leaders of the Assyrian army heard this, they tore their tunics and were greatly dismayed, and their loud cries and shouts rose up throughout the camp.
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14.1–5 Listen to me is used three times in this form; cf. the imperatives in 8.11, 32. Judith instructs the people to hang the head of Holofernes upon the parapet and to display themselves in ranks before the enemy at daybreak. Her strate
gy is that the Assyrians will then discover that Holofernes is dead and flee in panic.
14.5–6 Achior is brought to Judith so that Holofernes’ head can be verified. Achior collapses at the sight.
14.7 Blessed…in…Judah, reminiscent of the praise of Jael in Judg 5.24.
14.10 So he was circumcised. The author is not concerned with the prohibition of Deut 23.3 that no Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly, even to the tenth generation. Since Judith is more than ten generations removed from Jacob (8.1), so also is Achior and perhaps this law was not judged pertinent. Some suggest that this verse accounts for the exclusion of this book from the Hebrew canon.
14.11–15.7 The effect of Judith’s strategy on the Assyrian camp.
14.19 When the Assyrians hear Holofernes is dead, they are greatly dismayed; cf. the description of Israel in 4.1–2.
Judith 15
The Assyrians Flee in Panic
1When the men in the tents heard it, they were amazed at what had happened. 2Overcome with fear and trembling, they did not wait for one another, but with one impulse all rushed out and fled by every path across the plain and through the hill country. 3Those who had camped in the hills around Bethulia also took to flight. Then the Israelites, everyone that was a soldier, rushed out upon them. 4Uzziah sent men to Betomas-thaima and Choba and Kola, and to all the frontiers of Israel, to tell what had taken place and to urge all to rush out upon the enemy to destroy them. 5When the Israelites heard it, with one accord they fell upon the enemy,b and cut them down as far as Choba. Those in Jerusalem and all the hill country also came, for they were told what had happened in the camp of the enemy. The men in Gilead and in Galilee outflanked them with great slaughter, even beyond Damascus and its borders. 6The rest of the people of Bethulia fell upon the Assyrian camp and plundered it, acquiring great riches. 7And the Israelites, when they returned from the slaughter, took possession of what remained. Even the villages and towns in the hill country and in the plain got a great amount of booty, since there was a vast quantity of it.
The Israelites Celebrate Their Victory
8Then the high priest Joakim and the elders of the Israelites who lived in Jerusalem came to witness the good things that the Lord had done for Israel, and to see Judith and to wish her well. 9When they met her, they all blessed her with one accord and said to her, “You are the glory of Jerusalem, you are the great boast of Israel, you are the great pride of our nation! 10You have done all this with your own hand; you have done great good to Israel, and God is well pleased with it. May the Almighty Lord bless you forever!” And all the people said, “Amen.”
11All the people plundered the camp for thirty days. They gave Judith the tent of Holofernes and all his silver dinnerware, his beds, his bowls, and all his furniture. She took them and loaded her mules and hitched up her carts and piled the things on them.
12All the women of Israel gathered to see her, and blessed her, and some of them performed a dance in her honor. She took ivy-wreathed wands in her hands and distributed them to the women who were with her; 13and she and those who were with her crowned themselves with olive wreaths. She went before all the people in the dance, leading all the women, while all the men of Israel followed, bearing their arms and wearing garlands and singing hymns.
Judith Offers Her Hymn of Praise
14Judith began this thanksgiving before all Israel, and all the people loudly sang this song of praise.
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a Other ancient authorities add and Bebai
b Gk them
15.2 Here the Assyrians experience the fear and trembling they caused in 2.28.
15.4 Betomas-thaim and Choba and Kola, unidentified locations.
15.8–16.20 A victory celebration in Bethulia with Joakim, the high priest of Jerusalem (15.8–10); a thirty-day interlude (15.11); and a triumphal procession of dance and song to Jerusalem for a three-month celebration (15.12–16.17).
15.11 The Israelites plunder the enemy camp for thirty days; added to the four days Judith spent in the Assyrian camp, the time balances the thirty-four days Bethulia was under siege (7.20).
15.12 Ivy-wreathed wands were regularly associated with the cult of the Greek deity Dionysos. Cf. 3 Macc 2.29. Their use by Judith here is another ironic touch that suggests that she is more than a match for Bacchantes, the female devotees of Dionysos who in frenzy could tear apart opponents of the god.
15.13 The wearing of olive wreaths was another Greek custom. Judith led the women in dance (like Miriam in Ex 15.20).
15.14–16.17 Judith’s hymn of praise is most likely modeled on the Song of Moses (Ex 15.1–18). This liturgical poem opens with a hymnic introduction in which Judith calls the people to worship and proclaims God victor and deliverer (16.1–2). There follows in vv. 3–12 a narration of the epic event in which Judith describes the Assyrian threat (vv. 3–5) and another voice tells of her triumph (vv. 6–10). In the hymnic conclusion (vv. 13–17) Judith praises God with a new song (v. 13) and summons all creation to join her song of praise.
Judith 16
1And Judith said,
Begin a song to my God with tambourines,
sing to my Lord with cymbals.
Raise to him a new psalm;a
exalt him, and call upon his name.
2For the Lord is a God who crushes wars;
he sets up his camp among his people;
he delivered me from the hands of my pursuers.
3The Assyrian came down from the mountains of the north;
he came with myriads of his warriors;
their numbers blocked up the wadis,
and their cavalry covered the hills.
4He boasted that he would burn up my territory,
and kill my young men with the sword,
and dash my infants to the ground,
and seize my children as booty,
and take my virgins as spoil.
5But the Lord Almighty has foiled them
by the hand of a woman.b
6For their mighty one did not fall by the hands of the young men,
nor did the sons of the Titans strike him down,
nor did tall giants set upon him;
but Judith daughter of Merari
with the beauty of her countenance undid him.
7For she put away her widow’s clothing
to exalt the oppressed in Israel.
She anointed her face with perfume;
8she fastened her hair with a tiara
and put on a linen gown to beguile him.
9Her sandal ravished his eyes,
her beauty captivated his mind,
and the sword severed his neck!
10The Persians trembled at her boldness,
the Medes were daunted at her daring.
11Then my oppressed people shouted;
my weak people cried out,c and the enemyd trembled;
they lifted up their voices, and the enemye were turned back.
12Sons of slave-girls pierced them through
and wounded them like the children of fugitives;
they perished before the army of my Lord.
13I will sing to my God a new song:
O Lord, you are great and glorious,
wonderful in strength, invincible.
14Let all your creatures serve you,
for you spoke, and they were made.
You sent forth your spirit,f and it formed them;g
there is none that can resist your voice.
15For the mountains shall be shaken to their foundations with the waters;
before your glance the rocks shall melt like wax.
But to those who fear you
you show mercy.
16For every sacrifice as a fragrant offering is a small thing,
and the fat of all whole burnt offerings to you is a very little thing;
but whoever fears the Lord is great forever.
17Woe to the nations that rise up against my people!
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The Lord Almighty will take vengeance on them in the day of judgment;
he will send fire and worms into their flesh;
they shall weep in pain forever.
18When they arrived at Jerusalem, they worshiped God. As soon as the people were purified, they offered their burnt offerings, their freewill offerings, and their gifts. 19Judith also dedicated to God all the possessions of Holofernes, which the people had given her; and the canopy that she had taken for herself from his bedchamber she gave as a votive offering. 20For three months the people continued feasting in Jerusalem before the sanctuary, and Judith remained with them.
The Renown and Death of Judith
21After this they all returned home to their own inheritances. Judith went to Bethulia, and remained on her estate. For the rest of her life she was honored throughout the whole country. 22Many desired to marry her, but she gave herself to no man all the days of her life after her husband Manasseh died and was gathered to his people. 23She became more and more famous, and grew old in her husband’s house, reaching the age of one hundred five. She set her maid free. She died in Bethulia, and they buried her in the cave of her husband Manasseh; 24and the house of Israel mourned her for seven days. Before she died she distributed her property to all those who were next of kin to her husband Manasseh, and to her own nearest kindred. 25No one ever again spread terror among the Israelites during the lifetime of Judith, or for a long time after her death.
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a Other ancient authorities read a psalm and praise
b Other ancient authorities add he has confounded them
HarperCollins Study Bible Page 354