Chapter Fourteen

1–4. Judith’s counsel about going against the enemy. 5–10. Scene with Achior. 11–13. The advance of the Jews and Assyrian preparations. 14–19. The discovery of Holofernes’ death and the impression this event had on the Assyrian army.

Judith 14:1. Then Judith said to them: “Listen to me, brothers. Take this head and hang it on the battlements of your wall. Judith 14:2. And when morning comes and the sun rises over the earth, each of you take your war equipment, go out armed beyond the city, and give them a leader, as if you were about to come down on the plain against the Assyrian advance guard, but do not come down. Judith 14:3. Then they, taking all their equipment, will go to their camp, awaken the commanders of the Assyrian army, and run to Holofernes’ tent, but will not find him; then fear will seize them, and they will flee from you. Judith 14:4. And you and all who dwell in every part of Israel, pursuing them, strike them on the way. 1–4. Judith does not yet consider her deed finished. The further events that contributed to the success of her exploit and its brilliant completion, and now she continues to act with the same confidence and prophetically true accuracy, calculation and conviction as before. Having given the advice to display Holofernes’ head on the battlements of the city wall, she proposes that all the strong men arm themselves, go out of the city early in the morning in battle order, and by no means advance onto the plain yet—showing only the appearance that they went out for a decisive attack. This will force the enemy to discover their leader’s death at the most opportune moment for the Jews, a moment of realizing the utmost necessity for a leader, which will intensify the impression of discovering his death to such an extreme degree that they will flee from fear alone, and the Jews will need only to pursue them in complete confusion to their complete defeat.

Judith 14:5. But before you do this, call to me Achior the Ammonite: let him see and know the one who despised the house of Israel and sent him to us as if to his death. 5. Judith orders Achior to be called so that—on the one hand—the head’s belonging to Holofernes would be better confirmed, and on the other—so that he might be at peace about his fate and in general, so that what Judith was convinced would happen—and what indeed happened immediately—would occur: Achior’s final belief in the power and greatness of the God of Israel and his joining “the house of Israel.”

Judith 14:6. And they called Achior from Uzziah’s house. When he came and saw Holofernes’ head in the hand of a man in the midst of the assembly of the people, he fell on his face and fainted. 6. The sight of Holofernes’ head made the strongest impression on Achior: he “fell on his face and fainted” so completely that others “lifted him up” (verse 7). He is not gladdened by the death of a man who treated him so unjustly and inhumanely, who condemned him to death—but he is struck by the greatness of the event, in which the faith he had expressed in the special protection of the God of Israel for His people and in the special power and greatness of this God was so clearly vindicated, having accomplished so terrible and scarcely credible a deed through the hand of a weak woman. In Achior’s ears there must have still resounded the proud and presumptuous speeches against the God of Israel and His people, and the contrast between bitter reality and these speeches, combined with the offensive sight of the recent blasphemer, naturally had to produce in his spirit a most decisive and complete revolution, preceded by the strongest emotional shock.

Judith 14:7. When they lifted him up, he fell at Judith’s feet, bowed to her, and said: “You are blessed in every settlement of Judah and in every people; all who hear your name will be amazed. Judith 14:8. Tell me now, what have you done in these days? And Judith in the midst of the people told him all she had done from the day she went out until the day she spoke with them. 8. “Tell me now, what have you done in these days?”—Judith’s account to Achior of her exploit was at the same time an account to the whole people (“in the midst of the people”), who had not yet heard a detailed and complete report of this event.

Judith 14:9. When she finished speaking, the people cried out loudly, and their joyful cry was heard throughout the city. Judith 14:10. And Achior, seeing all that the God of Israel had done, truly believed in God, circumcised the foreskin of his flesh, and joined the house of Israel, even to this day. 9–10. Judith’s detailed account of her wondrous exploit drew from the relieved breasts of the people joyful shouts of joy, which echoed throughout the entire city. As for Achior, he “truly believed in God, was circumcised, and joined the house of Israel even to this day.” Comparing this account with the parallel passage Deut 23:3 (“An Ammonite and Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the Lord, and even to the tenth generation none of them shall enter the assembly of the Lord forever”)—we must, apparently, reconcile them in their apparent contradiction as follows: the restriction mentioned in Deuteronomy to the tenth generation apparently applies only to the descendants of those Ammonites who at that time directly provoked this restriction by their hostility to the people of God going into the land promised to them. Beyond the tenth generation from these Ammonites, contemporary with the time of the Exodus, this restriction and prohibition could naturally lose its force; this is precisely what we see in this case in Achior joining the house of Israel. Other considerations do not allow us to view the matter otherwise: the Jews, who at this very time had become especially sensitive to all such precepts of the law, would by no means have set aside this law in favor of even Achior if this restriction and prohibition regarding the Ammonites had the same force for all times and generations. “He joined (Achior) the house of Israel even to this day.” This last expression could mean not only that Achior himself was alive at the moment when the author wrote these lines, but also, for example, that he lived on in his descendants, who continued to consider themselves members of the assembly of Israel, in no way different from the true descendants of Abraham.

Judith 14:11. When morning came, they hung Holofernes’ head on the wall; each man took his weapon, and they went out in companies to the slopes of the mountain. Judith 14:12. The sons of Assyria, seeing them, sent to their leaders, and they went to their commanders, to the captains of thousands, and to every one of their officers. Judith 14:13. When they came to Holofernes’ tent, they said to him who was steward of all his property: “Awake our lord, for these slaves have dared to come out to battle with us, to be completely destroyed. 13. “Said to him who was steward of all his property.” Some manuscripts directly name the steward himself—Bagoas. This is confirmed by the following verse 14, where Bagoas, fulfilling the leaders’ demand, goes to awaken his master. “These slaves have dared...” According to some scholars, the word “slaves” (hoi douloi) appears here as a result of the translator mixing words in the Hebrew original, “Hebrew” and “slaves,” which differ in spelling by only one letter, so similar to each other. Such confusion is indeed very possible, and it is not surprising that in some manuscripts, such as the Old Latin (Vet. Lat.), in the indicated place, instead of the word “slaves,” we actually find the expression: “sons of Israel” (filii Israel), although this was done—as is believed—not because the translator wished to be more accurate in translation, but simply by willful change, wishing to be clearer. In any case, the word “slaves” is quite appropriate and no less fitting here than any other. It particularly well emphasizes the presumptuous and contemptuous, arrogant feeling of the Assyrians toward the Hebrews, whom they considered as already delivered into the power of Nebuchadnezzar, and they wished to regard their warlike ardor only as the most trivial madness. Against the theory that “Hebrew” was confused with “slaves” argues, apparently, the fact that in the following verse 18 the translator could not help but notice and correct his oversight, translating in conjunction with the doubtful expression, and quite correctly, a similar expression by Bagoas about “the Hebrew woman who brought shame upon the house of King Nebuchadnezzar by killing Holofernes”: mia gyne ton Hebraion. “Have dared to come out to battle with us, to be completely destroyed”—another example of the extreme presumption and contemptuous attitude of the Assyrians toward the offensive movement of the Hebrews.

Judith 14:14. Bagoas entered and knocked on the tent door, for he thought that he was sleeping with Judith. 14. “Bagoas... thought that he (Holofernes) was sleeping with Judith.” See above the commentary to Jdt 13:9-10. Bagoas had been the last to withdraw from Holofernes’ tent, having closed him inside with Judith, and, like others tired out by the length of the feast, probably quickly fell into deep sleep on his own bed (Jdt 13:1 verse). It is quite possible that neither he nor anyone else among the participants and witnesses of what happened noticed Judith’s suspiciously quick exit from the tent. Those who might have seen her already at a distance from the tent could find nothing suspicious in this, being accustomed for several nights in a row to similar excursions by her (see above, to Jdt 13:9-10 verse).

Judith 14:15. When no one answered him, he opened the door and went into the sleeping chamber, and found Holofernes lying dead at the threshold with his head cut off from him. Judith 14:16. Then he cried out with a loud voice, with weeping, groaning, and a strong cry, and tore his clothes. Judith 14:17. Then he went into the tent where Judith was staying, and did not find her. So he rushed out to the people and cried out: Judith 14:18. “The slaves have acted treacherously; one Hebrew woman brought shame upon the house of King Nebuchadnezzar, for behold, Holofernes is on the ground, and his head is not on him. 16–18. From Holofernes’ tent, when the murder is discovered, Bagoas goes to Judith’s tent, whose absence in the dead man’s tent immediately led thought to her as the guilty party. Judith’s absence in her own tent left no doubt whatsoever, which Bagoas immediately announced—“with weeping, groaning, and a strong cry,” having torn his clothes as a sign of the greatest sorrow. “The slaves have acted treacherously.” Bagoas here either actually represents Judith’s exploit as the fulfillment of a treacherous and cunning plan of all the Jews, or simply expresses himself in general, considering Judith alone to be the real perpetrator of the murder, but accusing all the Hebrews along with her, as those to whom such a calamitous and shameful event for the Assyrians was needed and pleasant. “A Hebrew woman brought shame upon the house of King Nebuchadnezzar.” It would not have been so shameful to fall in open, honorable battle, as to be outwitted and destroyed by a mere woman, under such inglorious circumstances and conditions. The shame fell all the more grimly upon the entire “house of King Nebuchadnezzar,” the more confidence and authority from that house Holofernes, as the most experienced and chief leader of the Assyrian army, had been given, being “second” to Nebuchadnezzar (Jdt 2:4).

Judith 14:19. When the commanders of the Assyrian army heard these words, they tore their clothes, and their souls were greatly troubled, and there was a loud cry and a very great outcry throughout the camp. 19. The impression produced by the terrible revelation of Holofernes’ death—to such an extent that they could not offer energetic resistance to the Jews—is not entirely explicable by psychological laws alone. Undoubtedly, Judith, who correctly foresaw this confusion, did not base herself on psychological considerations alone. Her confident prediction of events (Jdt 14:3-4) was based much more on inspired faith in God’s aid, which many times before in similarly critical circumstances had brought the faithful followers of Jehovah to just as victorious and glorious resolution of difficulties. And indeed, with the loss of Holofernes, in fact nothing was lost for the enemy. His death should have, it would seem, only further enraged the Assyrians, and remaining still immeasurably superior in strength and numbers and position advantages, they still had all the means to inflict a terrible vindictive blow on the treacherous city. Clearly, if instead of all this they flee in complete confusion from the comparatively insignificant handful of Jews, falling in multitudes from their blows, then—they flee driven and struck by another higher force, having no need for its victory in a large number of soldiers. Thus again was vindicated so brilliantly the great Divine truth: “The wicked flees though no one pursues” (Prov 28:1)—a truth especially brightly expressed in the whole series of Israel’s glorious victories in the epoch of the Exodus, in the conquest of the Promised Land, in the times of Joshua, the Judges, the Kings, and throughout the entire history of Israel generally.