The Return · Not dated
Chapter 7
Holofernes
Judith is in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles; most Protestant Bibles leave it out or print it apart as the Apocrypha.
The Lord heard their voice, and looked at their affliction. The people continued fasting many days in all Judea and Jerusalem before the sanctuary of the Lord Almighty.
For parents
This chapter tells of a king’s war of revenge. Arphaxad is run through with spears (Judith 1:15); Nebuchadnezzar and Holofernes threaten to kill whole peoples, fill the valleys with their dead, soak the mountains with their blood and run Achior through with the sword (1:12; 2:5–13; 6:2–9); and Holofernes’ army burns, plunders and kills young men with the sword (2:23–27). It ends with a town under siege, where women and young men faint from thirst in the streets and the people fear they will see their babies die (7:19–32); none of it is told in gory detail.
reigned over the in , the great city, in the days when reigned over the in . Arphaxad built walls of cut stone around Ecbatana, seventy high (about a hundred feet), with towers a hundred cubits high at its gates, and gates wide enough for his mighty army to march out.
In the twelfth year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar made war on King Arphaxad in the great plain near Ragau. People came to meet him from the hill country, from along the , the and the Hydaspes, and from the plain of Arioch. Many nations of the sons of Chelod gathered for the battle.
Nebuchadnezzar sent messengers to everyone in and the west, from and through , upper , and to , and , as far as . But none of them took his command seriously, and they would not go to war with him. They weren’t afraid of him; to them he was just one man. They sent his messengers away in disgrace.
Nebuchadnezzar was furious. He swore by his throne and kingdom to have his revenge on Cilicia, Damascus and Syria, and to kill everyone in , , and Egypt with his sword.
In the seventeenth year he defeated Arphaxad in battle, sent his whole army running and took his cities. He captured the towers of Ecbatana, plundered its streets and turned its beauty into shame. He caught Arphaxad in the mountains of Ragau, ran him through with his spears and destroyed him for good.
Then he went home to Nineveh with his army from many nations, and they rested and feasted there for a hundred and twenty days.
In the eighteenth year, the twenty-second day of the first month, the talk in Nebuchadnezzar’s household was that he would take revenge on the whole land, just as he had said. He called together his officials and great men and told them his secret plans. He went over all the wickedness of the land himself, and they decided that everyone who had not obeyed him should be destroyed.
Then he called for , the chief captain of his army and next in rank to him. “The great king, the lord of all the earth, says this,” he said. “Go out from here with a hundred and twenty thousand foot soldiers and twelve thousand horsemen, men who trust in their strength, and march against all the west, because they disobeyed my command.
“Tell them to get earth and water ready as a sign that they give themselves up, because I will go out against them in my fury. The feet of my army will cover the whole face of the earth, and my soldiers will plunder those people. Their dead will fill their valleys and streams, and the river will fill with their bodies until it overflows. I will take them as captives to the farthest corners of the earth.
“But you go first and take all their lands for me. If they give themselves up to you, keep them for me until the day they are punished. As for those who resist, don’t spare them: give them up to be killed and plundered all through your land. I swear by my life and by the power of my kingdom: I have spoken, and I will do it with my own hand. Don’t break any of your lord’s commands. Carry them all out, and don’t put them off.”
So Holofernes called together the officers of the Assyrian army. He counted out the hundred and twenty thousand chosen men and twelve thousand archers on horseback that his lord had ordered, and made them ready for war. He took camels, donkeys and mules for the baggage, flocks and herds without number for food, and a huge amount of gold and silver out of the king’s house.
They set out ahead of King Nebuchadnezzar to cover the face of the earth to the west. A crowd from many nations went with them, like , like the sand of the earth, too many to count.
Three days out of Nineveh they camped near Bectileth, and from there Holofernes went into the hill country. He destroyed Put and Lud, plundered the people of Rasses and of , crossed the Euphrates, went through and broke down every high city on the river Arbonai. He took the lands of Cilicia, killing all who resisted him, and came to the borders of Japheth, facing Arabia.
He surrounded all the people of , set their tents on fire and plundered their sheepfolds. At the wheat harvest he went down into the plain of Damascus, set all their fields on fire and wiped out their flocks and herds. He plundered their cities, left their plains in ruins and killed all their young men with the sword.
Fear and dread of him fell on all who lived along the coast, from and to Azotus and Ascalon.
They sent messengers to him with words of peace. “Look, we, the servants of Nebuchadnezzar the great king, lie at your feet; use us as you please,” they said. “Our homes and lands, our fields, flocks and herds are yours too, to use as you please. Our cities and their people are your servants. Come and do with them whatever you think best.” The men brought Holofernes this message.
Then Holofernes came down to the coast with his army. He put soldiers in the high cities and took chosen men from them as allies. The people there and all the country around welcomed him with garlands, dancing and tambourines.
He broke down all their borders and cut down their sacred groves. He had been told to destroy every god of the land, so that all the nations would worship Nebuchadnezzar only, and every language and tribe would call on him as a god.
Then he came toward Esdraelon, near Dotaea, and camped between Geba and Scythopolis for a whole month, to gather his army’s supplies.
The people of Israel who lived in Judea heard all that Holofernes had done to the nations, and how he had plundered all their temples and destroyed them completely. They were terrified as he came near, and afraid for Jerusalem and the house of the Lord their God, because they had only just come back from the captivity and the people of Judea had only recently been gathered together. The vessels used in worship, the and the house had been made holy again after being defiled.
They sent word to every part of Samaria, to towns such as Beth-horon, Belmaim and , and to the valley of Salem. They took the tops of the high mountains ahead of time, strengthened the villages there, and stored up food for the war, because their fields had just been harvested.
, the in Jerusalem in those days, wrote to those who lived in and Betomesthaim, which is opposite Esdraelon. He told them to seize the paths up into the hill country, the way into Judea. It would be easy to stop the enemy there, because the way was narrow, with room for two men at most.
The people of Israel did as Joakim the high priest had commanded them, as did the council of all the people of Israel, which was meeting in Jerusalem.
All the men of Israel cried to God with all their hearts and humbled themselves. They wrapped around their waists, and so did their wives and children, their cattle, every foreigner living among them, every hired worker and every slave they had bought. All the men and women of Israel, the little children too, and the people of Jerusalem, lay face down in front of the Lord’s house. They put ashes on their heads, spread out their sackcloth in the Lord’s presence, and wrapped the altar in sackcloth.
With one voice they cried out earnestly to the God of Israel. They begged him not to hand over their children as prey or their wives as plunder, and not to give up the towns they had inherited to be destroyed. They begged him not to let the sanctuary be defiled and made a disgrace for the nations to gloat over.
The Lord heard their voice and saw their trouble. All through Judea and Jerusalem the people went on for many days in front of the sanctuary of the Lord Almighty.
Joakim the high priest, all the priests who stood in the Lord’s presence, and those who served the Lord wore sackcloth around their waists. They offered the regular , the offerings the people had promised and the gifts they gave freely. There were ashes on their turbans. With all their strength they begged the Lord to look kindly on the whole house of Israel.
Word reached Holofernes that the people of Israel had made ready for war. They had shut the passes of the hill country, fortified the tops of the high hills and set up barricades in the plains. He was furious, and called together all the princes of Moab, the captains of Ammon and the governors of the coast.
“Tell me now, you sons of ,” he said, “who are these people in the hill country? What cities do they live in? How big is their army? Where is their power and their strength? What king rules them and leads their army? Of everyone in the west, why have they alone turned their backs and refused to come and meet me?”
Then , the leader of all the children of Ammon, said to him, “Let my lord hear a word from me, and I will tell you the truth about the people who live in this hill country near you. No lie will come out of my mouth.
“These people are descended from the . Before this they lived for a time in Mesopotamia, because they would not follow the gods of their ancestors in the land of the Chaldeans. They left the way of their parents and worshiped the God of heaven, the God whom they knew. Their parents threw them out from the presence of their gods, and they fled to Mesopotamia and lived there a long time.
“Then their God commanded them to leave that place and go to the land of . They settled there and grew rich in gold and silver and great herds of cattle. When a famine covered all the land of Canaan, they went down into Egypt. They lived there until they had grown up, and they became so many that no one could count them.
“Then the king of Egypt rose up against them. He was cunning with them and brought them low. He put them to work making bricks and made them slaves. They cried to their God, and he struck all the land of Egypt with plagues no one could cure, and the Egyptians threw them out.
“God dried up the before them and brought them onto the road to and , and they drove out everyone who lived in the wilderness. They lived in the land of the , and with their strength they destroyed everyone in . They crossed the and took the whole hill country. They drove out the Canaanites, , and Shechemites, and all the , and they lived there a long time.
“As long as they did not sin before their God, they prospered, because God, who hates wrongdoing, was with them. But when they turned from the way he had set for them, they were destroyed in many hard battles and taken captive to a land that was not theirs. The house of their God was torn down to the ground, and their enemies took their cities.
“And now they have come back to their God, and come up from the places where they were scattered. They have taken Jerusalem, where their sanctuary is, and they have settled in the hill country, because it lay empty.
“So, my lord and master, if there is any fault in this people, if they are sinning against their God, we will find out what is tripping them up, and we will go up and defeat them. But if their nation has done nothing wrong, let my lord pass them by. Otherwise their Lord may defend them, their God may be on their side, and we will be disgraced in front of the whole earth.”
When Achior had finished, all the people standing around the tent grumbled. Holofernes’ great men, and all who lived by the sea and in Moab, said Achior should be cut to pieces. “We won’t be afraid of the people of Israel,” they said. “Look, they have no power and no strength to fight a hard battle. So we will go up, Lord Holofernes, and they will be prey for your whole army to devour.”
When the uproar around the council died down, Holofernes spoke to Achior and all the children of Moab in front of all the foreigners. “Who are you, Achior, you and these hired men of Ephraim, to prophesy among us today and tell us not to make war on Israel because their God will defend them? And who is God but Nebuchadnezzar?
“He will send out his might and wipe them off the face of the earth, and their God will not save them. We, his servants, will strike them down as one man. They will not stand against the might of our horsemen, because with them we will burn them up. Their blood will soak their mountains, and their dead will fill their plains. They will not stand before us; they will surely die, says King Nebuchadnezzar, lord of all the earth, because he has said, ‘The words I have spoken will not be wasted.’
“But you, Achior, you hired man of Ammon, have spoken these words on this day of your wickedness. From today you will not see my face again until I have taken revenge on the people who came out of Egypt. Then, when I come back, the sword of my army and the crowd of those who serve me will run through your sides, and you will fall among their dead.
“My servants will bring you back up into the hills and set you down in one of the towns by the passes. You will not die until you are destroyed with them. And if in your heart you hope they will not be captured, don’t look so sad. I have spoken, and not one of my words will come to nothing.”
Then Holofernes ordered the servants who waited on him in his tent to take Achior back to Bethulia and hand him over to the people of Israel. They took him out of the camp, across the plain and up into the hills, to the springs below Bethulia.
When the men of the city saw them on the hilltop, they took up their weapons and went out to the top of the hill. Every man with a threw stones to keep them from coming up. The servants took cover below the hill. They tied Achior up, threw him down, left him at the foot of the hill, and went back to their lord.
But the people of Israel came down from their city, untied him, led him into Bethulia and brought him before its rulers. The rulers in those days were son of Micah, of the tribe of , with Chabris the son of Gothoniel and Charmis the son of Melchiel.
They called together all the of the city, and all the young men and women came running to the assembly. They stood Achior in the middle of all the people, and Ozias asked him what had happened. Achior told them what had been said in Holofernes’ council and among the Assyrian princes, and all the boastful words Holofernes had spoken against the house of Israel.
The people bowed down and worshiped God, and they cried out, “O Lord God of heaven, look at their arrogance, and have pity on our people, who have been brought so low. Look on the faces of those who are set apart for you this day.”
They comforted Achior and praised him greatly. Then Ozias took him out of the assembly into his house and made a feast for the elders. They called on the God of Israel for help all that night.
The next day Holofernes commanded his whole army and all his allies to move camp toward Bethulia, seize the passes into the hills and fight the people of Israel. That day all their strong men set out: a hundred and seventy thousand foot soldiers and twelve thousand horsemen, besides the baggage and the men on foot among them, a huge crowd. They camped in the valley near Bethulia, by the spring, and spread out from Dothaim to Belmaim and from Bethulia to Cyamon.
When the people of Israel saw how many there were, they were terrified. “Now these men will lick the whole earth clean,” they said to one another. “Not the high mountains, not the valleys, not the hills will be able to bear their weight.” Every man took up his weapons, and they lit fires on their towers and kept watch all that night.
On the second day Holofernes led out all his horsemen where the people of Bethulia could see them. He looked over the paths up to their city, searched out the springs, seized them and set soldiers to guard them. Then he went back to his own people.
Then all the rulers of the people of , all the leaders of the people of Moab, and the captains of the coast came to him. “Let our lord hear a word,” they said, “so that your army suffers no losses. These people of Israel don’t trust in their spears but in how high their mountains are, because their mountaintops are hard to reach. So, my lord, don’t fight them in open battle, and not one man of your people will die.
“Stay in your camp and keep every man of your army safe. Let your servants take the spring at the foot of the mountain, because everyone in Bethulia gets their water there. Then thirst will kill them, and they will give up their city. We and our people will camp on the mountaintops nearby and keep watch, so that not one man gets out of the city. They will waste away from hunger, along with their wives and children. Before the sword comes against them, they will be lying in their own streets. And you will pay them back with harm, because they rebelled and did not come out to meet you in peace.”
Holofernes and all his officers liked what they said, and he ordered them to do it. The army of the children of Ammon moved out with five thousand Assyrians, camped in the valley, and seized the water and the springs of the people of Israel.
The people of Esau went up with the Ammonites and camped in the hill country near Dothaim, and they sent some of their men south and east toward Ekrebel. The rest of the Assyrian army camped in the plain and covered all the face of the land. Their tents and baggage were set up there in a great crowd, and there were a great many of them.
The people of Israel cried out to the Lord their God, because their courage failed them. All their enemies had surrounded them. There was no way to escape.
The whole Assyrian army, foot soldiers, chariots and horsemen, stayed around them for thirty-four days. Every water jar in Bethulia ran dry, and the were emptied. No one could drink their fill even for one day, because every drink was measured out.
The young children lost heart. The women and the young men fainted from thirst and fell down in the streets and the gateways of the city. They had no strength left.
All the people, young men, women and children too, crowded together against Ozias and the rulers of the city, and shouted in front of all the elders, “May God judge between all of you and us! You have done us great wrong by not speaking words of peace to the Assyrians. Now there is no one to help us. God has handed us over to them, and thirst and great destruction have struck us down in front of them.
“Now call them in, and hand the whole city over to Holofernes’ people and all his army to plunder. It is better for us to be taken by them. We will be their servants, but we will live, and we won’t see our babies die before our eyes, or our wives and children fainting away in death. We call on the sky and the earth to witness against you, and on our God and the Lord of our ancestors. He punishes us as our sins and our ancestors’ sins deserve. Do what we have said today!”
There was great weeping from the whole assembly together, and they cried to the Lord God with a loud voice.
Ozias said to them, “Take courage, brothers! Let’s hold on five more days. Before they are over, the Lord our God will turn his mercy toward us, because he will not desert us altogether. But if these days pass and no help comes, I will do what you say.”
Then he sent the people away, each to his own camp, and they went off to the walls and towers of their city. He sent the women and children home. In the city they were brought very low.