Judith’s Song

“Woman, take courage,” Holofernes said to her. “Don’t be afraid. I have never hurt anyone who has chosen to serve Nebuchadnezzar, the king of all the earth. If your people in the hill country had not looked down on me, I would not have raised my spear against them. They did this to themselves. Now tell me why you ran away from them and came to us. You have come here to save yourself. Take courage! You will live tonight and from now on. No one will harm you; everyone will treat you well, the way they treat the servants of my lord King Nebuchadnezzar.”

“Listen to what I have to say,” said Judith, “and let me speak to you. I won’t lie to my lord tonight. If you do what I tell you, God will see the whole thing through with you, and you, my lord, will not fail in anything you set out to do. Nebuchadnezzar, king of all the earth, sent you to keep every living thing safe. I swear by his life and by his power: because of you, people serve him, and not only people. The wild animals, the cattle and the birds of the sky will live by your strength too, in the days of Nebuchadnezzar and all his family. We have heard about your wisdom and your clever plans. All over the earth, people say that you alone in the whole kingdom are brave, that you know so much, and that you do amazing things in war.

“Now, about what Achior said in your council: we have heard his words, because the men of Bethulia saved him, and he told them everything he had said to you. So, my lord and master, don’t brush his words aside. Keep them in your heart, because they are true. Our people won’t be punished, and the sword won’t defeat them, unless they sin against their God. And now their sin has caught up with them. So you, my lord, will not be beaten or let down in your plans, and death will fall on them. When they do this wrong, they will make their God angry. Their food has run out and their water is low, so they have agreed among themselves to kill their livestock and to eat everything God’s laws told them not to eat. They have made up their minds to use up the first grain of the harvest and the tithes of wine and oil. They had made these holy and set them aside for the priests who serve before our God in Jerusalem, and none of the people are allowed even to touch them with their hands. They have sent men to Jerusalem to bring back permission from the council of elders, because the people living there have done this too. When the answer comes and they do it, they will be given to you to be destroyed that same day.

“So when I learned all this, I ran away from them. God has sent me to do things with you that will amaze the whole earth, everyone who hears about them. I am religious, and I serve the God of heaven day and night. Now, my lord, I will stay with you, and I will go out into the valley at night. I will pray to God, and he will tell me when they have sinned. Then I will come and tell you, and you can go out with all your army. Not one of them will be able to stand against you. I will lead you through the middle of Judea until you come to Jerusalem, and I will set up your throne in the middle of it. You will drive them like a flock with no shepherd, and not even a dog will open its mouth at you. I was told these things ahead of time; they were made known to me, and I was sent to tell you.”

Holofernes and all his servants liked what she said, and they were amazed at her wisdom. “From one end of the earth to the other, there is no woman like her,” they said, “so beautiful and so wise in what she says!”

“God did well to send you on ahead of the people,” Holofernes told her, “so that the power would be in our hands, and those who looked down on my lord would be destroyed. You are beautiful to look at and wise in what you say. If you do what you have said, your God will be my God, and you will make your home in King Nebuchadnezzar’s palace and be famous all over the earth.”

He had her brought in where his silver dishes were set out, and he ordered his servants to make her some of his own fine food and to pour her some of his own wine. But Judith said, “I can’t eat it, or it might lead me into sin. I will have what I need from the things I brought with me.”

“But if what you brought runs out,” said Holofernes, “where will we find more like it to give you? None of your own people are here with us.”

“As surely as you live, my lord,” said Judith, “I won’t use up what I brought with me before the Lord has used my hand to do what he has decided.”

Then Holofernes’ servants brought her into the tent, and she slept until midnight. Near dawn she got up and sent word to Holofernes, asking him to order his men to let her go out to pray. Holofernes told his guards not to stop her. She stayed in the camp three days. Each night she went out into the valley of Bethulia and washed at the spring in the camp. When she came up, she begged the Lord God of Israel to guide her way, so that his people would win. She came back clean and stayed in the tent until she ate her meal in the evening.

Bagoas went out from Holofernes and came to Judith. “Beautiful lady,” he said, “don’t be afraid to come to my lord. Come and be honored in his presence, drink wine and have a good time with us. Today you can become like one of the women of Assyria who serve in Nebuchadnezzar’s palace.”

“Who am I to say no to my lord?” said Judith. “I will hurry to do whatever pleases him, and it will be my joy until the day I die.” She got up and dressed herself in her fine clothes, all that a woman wears to look her best. Her maid went and laid sheepskins on the ground for her beside Holofernes. Bagoas had given them to Judith to sit on when she ate each day.

Judith came in and sat down, and Holofernes was swept away by her. His desire for her was stirred, and he wanted very much to sleep with her. Ever since the day he first saw her, he had been watching for a chance to trick her into it. “Drink now,” he said to her, “and have a good time with us!”

“I will drink now, my lord,” said Judith, “because today is the greatest day I have had since I was born.” Then, in front of him, she ate and drank what her maid had prepared. Holofernes was delighted with her, and he drank a great deal of wine, more than he had drunk on any one day since he was born.

When evening came, his servants hurried off. Bagoas shut the tent from outside and sent the attendants away from his master. They went off to bed, all of them tired, because the feast had been long. Only Judith was left in the tent, alone with Holofernes, who lay sprawled on his bed, drunk with wine. She had told her maid to stand outside the bedroom and wait for her to come out, as she did every day. She had said she was going out to pray, and she had told Bagoas the same thing.

Everyone went away from her, and no one, great or small, was left in the bedroom. Standing by his bed, Judith prayed in her heart, “Lord God of all power, at this hour, look at what my hands are doing to lift Jerusalem high. Now is the time to help your own people, and to do what I have planned: to destroy the enemies who have risen against us.”

She came to the post at the head of the bed and took his sword down from it. She went up to the bed and took hold of his hair. “Lord God of Israel, make me strong today!” she said. With all her strength she struck him twice on the neck and cut off his head.

She pushed the body off the bed and took down the cloth canopy that hung over the bed on its posts. A little later she went out and gave Holofernes’ head to her maid, and the maid put it in their bag of food. Then the two of them went out together to pray, as they always did. They passed through the camp, went around the valley, climbed up the mountain of Bethulia and came to the town gates.

“Praise God!” she called out loudly. “Praise him! Praise God, who has not taken his mercy away from the house of Israel, but has destroyed our enemies by my hand tonight!” Then she took the head out of the bag and showed it. “Look, the head of Holofernes, commander of Assyria’s army! And look, the canopy he lay under when he was drunk! The Lord struck him by the hand of a woman. The Lord kept me safe on the way I went, and as surely as he lives, my face deceived him and led him to his ruin, but he did not sleep with me. He did not make me unclean or bring me shame.”

All the people were filled with amazement. They bowed low and worshiped God, and they all said together, “Blessed are you, our God! Today you have humbled the enemies of your people!”

“Daughter,” Ozias said to her, “you are blessed in the sight of the Most High God above all the women on earth! And blessed is the Lord God, who created the heavens and the earth, who guided you to cut off the head of our enemies’ leader! Your hope will stay forever in the hearts of all who remember the strength of God. May God make these things bring you praise forever, and may he bless you with good things, because you put your own life in danger when our people were suffering. You kept us from ruin, walking a straight path before our God.”

And all the people said, “Amen! Amen!”

“Listen to me now, my brothers,” said Judith. “Take this head and hang it from the top of your wall. As soon as morning comes and the sun rises, all of you pick up your weapons, and let every brave man among you go out of the town. Put a captain over them, as if you were about to go down to the plain toward the Assyrian lookouts. But don’t go down. The lookouts will put on their armor, go into their camp and wake the captains of the Assyrian army. They will run together to Holofernes’ tent and won’t find him. Then fear will fall on them, and they will run from you. You, and everyone who lives within the borders of Israel, will chase them and cut them down as they go. But before you do these things, call Achior the Ammonite here to me, so that he can see and recognize the man who looked down on the house of Israel and sent Achior to us as if to his death.”

So they called Achior from Ozias’s house. When he came, he saw Holofernes’ head in a man’s hand, there in front of all the people, and he fell on his face and fainted. When he came to, he threw himself down at Judith’s feet and bowed to her. “Blessed are you in every tent of Judah!” he said. “In every nation, those who hear your name will be troubled. Now tell me everything you have done in these days.”

So in front of all the people Judith told him everything she had done, from the day she went out until that moment. When she finished, the people shouted aloud and made a joyful noise in their city. When Achior saw all the things that the God of Israel had done, he believed in God deeply. He was circumcised and was made part of the house of Israel, and so it is to this day.

Bagoas went in and knocked at the outer door of the tent, because he thought Holofernes was sleeping with Judith. No one answered, so he opened the door and went into the bedroom. There he found Holofernes thrown down dead in the doorway, and his head had been taken from him.

He cried out loudly, weeping and groaning and shouting, and tore his clothes. He went into the tent where Judith was staying, but she wasn’t there. Then he rushed out to the men and shouted, “The slaves have betrayed us! One Hebrew woman has brought shame on King Nebuchadnezzar’s house! Look! Holofernes is down on the ground, and his head is not on his body!”

When the rulers of the Assyrian army heard the news, they tore their tunics in deep distress. There were cries and a great uproar all through the camp. The men in the tents heard it and were stunned at what had happened. They began to shake with fear. No one dared stay near anyone else any longer. They all rushed out at once and fled down every road across the plain and the hill country. Those camped in the hills around Bethulia ran away too. Then every fighting man of Israel rushed out at them.

Ozias sent word to Betomasthaim, Bebai, Chobai and Chola, and to every corner of Israel, to tell what had happened and to call everyone to rush at the enemy and destroy them. When word reached the Israelites, they all attacked the enemy together and cut them down as far as Chobai. People came from Jerusalem and all the hill country too, because they had been told what had happened in the enemy camp. The men of Gilead and Galilee attacked the enemy from the side and killed a great many of them, until they were past Damascus and its lands.

The rest of the people living in Bethulia attacked the Assyrian camp and plundered it, and they grew very rich. When the Israelites came back from the slaughter, they took what was left. The villages and towns of the hills and the plain took a great deal of plunder too, because there was so much of it.

Joakim the high priest, and the elders of Israel who lived in Jerusalem, came to see the good things the Lord had done for Israel. They came to see Judith too, and to greet her. When they came to her, they all blessed her with one voice: “You are the honor of Jerusalem! You are the great glory of Israel! You are the great joy of our people! With your own hand you have done all these things. You have done good things for Israel, and God is pleased with them. May the Almighty Lord bless you forever!”

And all the people said, “Amen!”

For thirty days the people plundered the camp, and they gave Holofernes’ tent to Judith, with all his silver cups, his beds, his bowls and all his furniture. She took them, loaded them onto her mule, got her wagons ready and piled the things on them.

All the women of Israel came running together to see her. They blessed her, and they held a dance for her. She took branches in her hands and gave them out to the women with her. Then she and the women with her made themselves garlands of olive leaves. Judith went in front of all the people in the dance, leading all the women. All the men of Israel followed in their armor, wearing garlands, with songs on their lips.

When they came to Jerusalem, they worshiped God. Once the people had been made clean, they offered their whole burnt offerings, the offerings they gave of their own free will, and their gifts. Judith dedicated to God all of Holofernes’ things that the people had given her. She also gave the Lord the canopy she had taken for herself from Holofernes’ bedroom. For three months the people went on feasting in Jerusalem in front of the sanctuary, and Judith stayed with them.

After those days, everyone went home to their own land. Judith went back to Bethulia and stayed on her own property, and as long as she lived she was honored all through the land. Many men wanted her, but from the day her husband Manasses died and joined his ancestors, no man slept with her for the rest of her life. She became greater and greater, and she grew old in her husband’s house, until she was a hundred and five. She let her maid go free. Then she died in Bethulia. They buried her in the cave where her husband Manasses was buried. For seven days the house of Israel mourned for her. Before she died, she had divided her property among the nearest relatives of her husband Manasses and her own nearest relatives.

No one made the people of Israel afraid again in Judith’s days, or for a long time after she died.