thin king

Judith - a story from the Bible

Nebuchadnezzar the Assyrian king, in the seventeenth year of his reign, defeated King Arphaxad. He then planned to take revenge on all those countries that rejected his call to help. He appointed Holofernes, the general in chief, to take possession of all those who surrender but to lay waste all those who resisted.

Holofernes devastated all those territories and destroyed their gods of the earth to make them worship Nebuchadnezzar alone as a god. Finally Holofernes arrived before the Judean mountains. The Israelites were in extreme fear, but they prepared for war, stored up provisions, fortified their villages and posted guards on all the summits of the high mountains. Joakim the high priest, the senate of Israel and all of Israel cried to God with great fervour and did penance, girded themselves with sackcloth, prostrated themselves in front of the temple building with ashes strewn on their heads, offered the daily holocaust and cried to the Lord with all their strength to look with favour on the whole house of Israel.

Holofernes, in great anger, summoned all the satraps around to find out about these Israelites who dared to oppose him. Achior, the leader of all the Ammonites, told him everything about the history of the Israelites who were finally settled in this land by their God for being faithful. He warned Holofernes not to attack them while they were faithful to their God but to wait for them to sin against their God who would then allow them to be conquered and scattered. But Holofernes ridiculed and deported Achior to the Israelites, threatening to kill him there later.

The Israelites welcome Achior who informed them of what had happened and the boasting threats of Holofernes. At this the Israelites fell prostrate, worshiped God and prayed for help.

The next day Holofernes advanced and the huge army encamped in the valley while the Israelites kept vigilance in the high mountains, despite knowing that the enemy would devour the whole country as neither the high mountains nor the valleys and hills could support them. But upon advice, Holofernes seized the water sources and besieged the Israelites instead of attacking upwards which would be disastrous.

Thirty-four days later the Israelites, without water, went into despair and cried out to Uzziah and the rulers of the city to surrender. But Uzziah asked for five days more for their God to show His mercy; and throughout the city they were in great misery.

In those days Judith, daughter of the lineage of the son of Simeon of Israel, was a widow of Manasseh of her own tribe and clan, who died from sunstroke while supervising the barley harvest. Judith was beautiful and lovely to behold. She performed her duties of widowhood diligently; she was a very God-fearing woman, and no one had a bad word to say about her. Her husband had left her gold and silver, servants and maids, livestock and fields, which she was maintaining.

When Judith heard what had happened, she arranged for Uzziah and the elders of the city to visit her. She pointed out their impropriety with God by laying down conditions and putting God to the test. She talked about God having his own ways and not to anger God, but to be thankful instead for being put to the test like their forefathers. Uzziah praised her for her prudence and wisdom, saying these corresponded to the worthy dispositions of her heart.

Then Judith told them that she would do something that would go down from generation to generation among the descendants of their race. She asked them to let her pass through the gate with her maid that night; so that, within the days specified to surrender the city, the Lord would rescue Israel by her hand. Uzziah and the rulers told her to go in peace and pleaded the Lord to help her take vengeance upon their enemies; then they left.

Judith threw herself down prostrate with ashes strewn upon her head and wearing nothing over her sackcloth. And Judith prayed to the Lord with a loud voice, recalling how the Lord, God of her forefather Simeon, had been with them in their battle against their enemies. She prayed God to grant her, a widow, the strong hand to execute her plan to deliver them from the enemy out to destroy their covenant, holy temple, Mount Zion, and the homes they had inherited.

Having thus prayed, Judith quickly bathed and anointed herself with rich ointment, changed her garments, arranged her hair, wore sandals, put on anklets, bracelets, rings, earrings, and all her other jewelry. She made herself very beautiful, to captivate the eyes of all the men who should see her. Then having had her maid prepared all the provisions they went through the gate out of the city, leaving Uzziah and the elders astounded at her beauty.

Judith passed the Assyrian outpost with her story of escaping the Israelites about to be punished by God, and of her intention to reveal to Holofernes the secret to conquer the mountain without a fight nor injury nor loss of life. Her words and beauty struck them such that they detailed a hundred of their men to escort her and her maid to the tent of Holofernes.

When Holofernes and his servants beheld Judith, they all marveled at the beauty. She threw herself down prostrate before him, but his servants raised her up. Judith praised Holofernes greatly for his wisdom, sagacity and distinguished military strategy, and that everything would live for Nebuchadnezzar, king of all the earth, through him. She told him that what Achior had informed him was true, but since the Israelites determined to consume all the things which God forbade them to eat because their food gave out and all their water ran low, the wrath of their God would be upon them. She said that the day the messengers to Jerusalem brought back the authorization from the council of the elders and they acted upon it, they would be handed over for destruction. And she had fled to perform God's work with Holofernes, being a God-fearing woman, serving God faithfully.

Judith said that she would remain with him, but each night she would have to go out to the ravine and pray to God to be told when the Israelites have sinned which she would inform him. And she would lead him to destroy the Israelites as she was sent to do. Her words, well spoken by one so fair to behold, pleased Holofernes who said that when it was done, her God would be his God, and she would dwell in the palace of King Nebuchadnezzar, and be renowned throughout the earth.

Judith declined the room set for her with all the silverware, delicacies and wine, saying it could be an occasion of sin and that she was amply supplied by herself. She slept in the tent till midnight, then she rose and went out to pray, Holofernes having ordered his bodyguard not to hinder her. Thus she stayed in the camp three days. Each night she went out to the ravine of Bethulia, she washed herself at the spring of the camp, and besought the Lord to direct her way for the triumph of His people. Then she returned purified to the tent, and remained there until her food was brought to her toward evening.

On the fourth day Holofernes gave a banquet for his servants only, and he sent Bagoas to invite Judith to enjoy life like one of the Assyrian women who live in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar. She replied that she could not refuse her lord and would do whatever was pleasing to him promptly; also it would be a joy for her till the day of her death.

Thereupon she proceeded to put on her festive garments and all her feminine adornments. Meanwhile her maid went ahead and spread out on the floor for her in front of Holofernes the fleece Bagoas had furnished for her daily use in reclining at her dinner. Then Judith came in and reclined on it. The heart of Holofernes was in rapture over her, and his spirit was shaken. He was burning with the desire to possess her, for he had been biding his time to seduce her from the day he saw her.

Holofernes said to her, "Drink and be merry with us!" Judith replied, "I will gladly drink, my lord, for at no time since I was born have I ever enjoyed life as much as I do today." She then took the things her maid had prepared, and ate and drank in his presence.

Holofernes, charmed by her, drank a great quantity of wine, more than he had ever drunk on one single day in his life. When it grew late, everybody left, and Bagoas closed the tent from the outside. Judith was alone in the tent with Holofernes, who lay prostrate on his bed, sodden with wine. She had ordered her maid to wait outside the bedroom as on the other days, for she would be going out for her prayer. She had also said this to Bagoas.

Judith stood by Holofernes' bed and prayed to God to look graciously on her undertaking for the exaltation of Jerusalem. Then she took Holofernes's sword, and with all her might she struck him twice in the neck and cut off his head. She rolled his body off the bed and took the canopy from its supports. Soon she came out and handed the head of Holofernes to her maid who put it into her food pouch; and the two went off together as they were accustomed to do for prayer.

They passed through the camp, and skirting the ravine, reached Bethulia on the mountain. As they approached its gates, Judith shouted to the guards from a distance, "Open! Open the gate! God, our God, is with us. Once more he has made manifest his strength in Israel and his power against our enemies; he has done it this very day."

All the people, from the least to the greatest, hurriedly assembled, for her return seemed unbelievable. They opened the gate and welcomed the two women. They made a fire for light and gathered around them. Judith showed them the head of Holofernes and the canopy under which he laid in his drunkenness. She said the Lord had protected her, and it was her face that seduced Holofernes to his ruin, adding that he did not sin with her to her defilement or disgrace.

Then Judith told them to hang the head on the parapet of the wall, and at daybreak to let everyone seize his weapons and rush out of the city under command of a captain as if to attack the advance guard of the Assyrians, but without going down.

She also called for Achior who fainted when he saw the head of Holofernes, and on recovering he said, "Blessed are you in every tent of Judah; and in every foreign nation, all who hear of you will be struck with terror." That very day he became one of them.

At daybreak, as Judith had said, when the Assyrians saw the advancing Israelites, they notified their captains who, in turn, went to the generals and division leaders and all their other commanders; and they came to the tent of Holofernes. And, when Bagoas went in, he found a headless corpse. And unable to find Judith he broke into a loud clamor of weeping, groaning and howling, rent his garments and cried out to the troops, "The slaves have duped us! A single Hebrew woman has brought disgrace on the house of King Nebuchadnezzar. Here is Holofernes headless on the ground!"

And panic struck the enemy, they scattered in all directions, and fled along every road, both through the valley and in the mountains. All the Israelites, with one accord, attacked them and cut them down. For thirty days the whole populace plundered and acquired great riches till the towns and villages in the mountains and on the plain were crammed with the enormous quantity of booty they had seized. They gave Judith the tent of Holofernes, with all his silver, his couches, his dishes, and all his furniture, which she accepted. She harnessed her mules, hitched her wagons to them, and loaded these things on them.

The high priest Joakim and the elders of the Israelites with one accord blessed her, saying, "You are the glory of Jerusalem, the surpassing joy of Israel, you are the splendid boast of our people." Judith led all Israel in a song of thanksgiving, and the people swelled this hymn of praise. Judith dedicated, as a votive offering to God, all the things of Holofernes that the people had given her, as well as the canopy that she herself had taken from his bedroom. For three months the people continued their celebration in Jerusalem before the sanctuary, and Judith remained with them.

Judith remained on her estate in Bethulia, renowned throughout the land. She gave herself to no man all the days of her life from the time of the death and burial of her husband, Manasseh. She lived to the advanced age of a hundred and five and was buried in the tomb of her husband, Manasseh. Before she died, she distributed her goods to the relatives of her husband, Manasseh, and to her own relatives; and to the maid she gave her freedom.

During the life of Judith and for a long time after her death, no one again disturbed the Israelites.