Chapter Eight

1–8 Judith’s genealogy and brief information about her. 9–27. Her appearance with a rebuking and exhorting speech in the assembly of the city elders. 28–31. Uzziah’s response. 32–36. Judith declares her intention to save the people from the enemy.

Judith 8:1. In those days Judith heard, daughter of Merari, son of Ox, son of Joseph, son of Oziel, son of Hilkiah, son of Ananias, son of Gideon, son of Raphain, son of Akiphon, son of Elijah, son of Eliav, son of Nathanael, son of Salamiel, son of Salasadai, son of Jeil. 1. By the common custom of Hebrew genealogies, Judith’s lineage is traced through twenty generations back to Israel; individual generations are mutually supplemented in various manuscripts; Simeon is missing, the last patriarch before Israel, of whom Judith herself speaks clearly elsewhere (Jdt 9:2 verse; cf. Num 1:6). Already this providential exactness and full harmony of Judith’s genealogy with other biblical data eliminates any possibility and right to deny her actual existence and treat her entire history as one continuous fiction. For a fiction this would be too much—to see it adorned with such thorough and genuinely vivid details, with which the Book of Judith constantly accompanies its narrative at every turn (such are, for example, the following 2–3 verses of the chapter in question, and many others).

Judith 8:2. Her husband Manasseh, from the same tribe and family as she, died during the barley harvest; Judith 8:3. for when he stood in the field near those binding sheaves, heat struck his head, and he fell ill and died in his city Bethulia; they buried him with his fathers in the field between Dothan and Balamon. Judith 8:4. And Judith was widowed in her house three years and four months. 4. The time of Judith’s widowhood (3 years and 4 months) is indicated here, clearly, before the events described, and particularly before the moment when Judith, preparing to go to Holofernes, for the first time after her husband’s death removed her “garments of her widowhood” and put on again “garments of gladness,” into which she had dressed herself during her husband’s life (Jdt 10:3).

Judith 8:5. She made a tent for herself on the roof of her house, put sackcloth on her loins, and wore garments of her widowhood. 5. “Garments of widowhood”—plain ones, without any ornaments (Jdt 10:3; Gen 38:14).

Judith 8:6. She fasted all the days of her widowhood, except the days before the Sabbaths and the Sabbaths themselves, the days before new moons and the new moons, and the feasts and festivals of the house of Israel. 6. The “days before the Sabbaths” and “days before new moons” mentioned here (prosabbata and pronoumania) gave some grounds for recognizing the relatively late dating of the Book of Judith, on the grounds that “pre-Sabbaths” and “pre-new-moons” supposedly came to be honored by Jews as festivals at a rather late time. This would be convincing, however, only if we knew precisely when the observance of such vigils began; but since this does not admit of exact determination, it naturally cannot serve as a measure for establishing the date. The force of this refutation and the weakness of the objection are further increased by the fact that the mention of “pre-Sabbaths” and “pre-new-moons” in the Book of Judith bears the character of incidentality and suspicion; at least the Vulgate makes no mention of them whatsoever, which makes one suspect that the original text did not speak of them either.

Judith 8:7. She was beautiful in appearance and very attractive in countenance; her husband Manasseh left her gold and silver, servants and slave-women, cattle and fields, which she possessed. 7. After the mention of Judith’s husband Manasseh, Vet. Lat. also gives Manasseh’s genealogy: filius Joseph filii Achitob f. Melhis f. Elia f. Nathanahel f. Syrrasadac f. Simeon f. Israel, but this genealogy is clearly drawn from verse 1 of the chapter (from Judith’s own genealogy), which was suggested by verse 2’s mention of Manasseh’s descent from the same tribe and family as Judith.

Judith 8:8. And no one spoke an evil word against her, for she was very God-fearing. Judith 8:9. She heard the harsh words of the people against their rulers, because they were despairing due to lack of water, and Judith heard all the words which Uzziah said to them, how he swore to them that within five days he would deliver the city to the Assyrians, Judith 8:10. and she sent her maidservant, who managed all her property, to summon Uzziah, Chabris, and Charmi, the elders of her city. Judith 8:11. They came, and she said to them: “Listen to me, rulers of the inhabitants of Bethulia! The word you spoke today before the people was wrong, and you have made an oath between God and yourselves, and said that you would deliver the city to our enemies unless within these days the Lord helps us. 9–11. In the corresponding place of Uzziah’s discourse with the people, we find only his simple promise to deliver the city to the enemy (“I will do as you say,” Jdt 7:31) if help does not come (within five days). In the present verse we encounter an important feature that Uzziah “swore that within five days he would deliver the city to the Assyrians.” In the further verse 11 we find a new feature: the unwise oath is attributed not only to Uzziah, but to all the “rulers of the inhabitants of Bethulia,” concerning whom, by the way, mention is also made in Jdt 7:26 verse and further. In the further verse 30 Uzziah himself, apparently, confirms the truth of this, expressing in Jdt 7:31 as if personally in his own name (“I will do...”), but now he prefers to speak in the language of a representative of others (“the people forced us to act as we said to them and bound us with an oath, which we will not break”). All these supplements must have force in their evident naturalness and sufficient attestation. In verse 10 the names of the city elders according to the Russian Bible are given somewhat differently than in the parallel passage Jdt 6:15: there—Chabri and Charmi (Gr. Χαβρίς and Χαρμίς), but here and further in Jdt 10:6—Chabrin and Charmin. These same names in other parallel biblical passages are also given differently: Gen 46:9—Charmi (precisely from Heb. ???), and in Josh 7:1—there Charmi (in gen. “Charmius”). The correct, in accordance with the Hebrew, spelling and pronunciation of these names should be such as one of them is given in the indicated passage of Genesis 46:9: Charmi—???, and means Chabri—???. The forms Chabri and Charmi likewise represent precision and accordance, but of a lesser degree, and not with the Hebrew, but with the Greek spelling (Χαβρίς and Χαρμίς). As for the forms Chabrin and Charmin, this is already a complete misunderstanding. In both cases, where according to the Russian Bible these names are given in such forms (Jdt 8:10), these names stand in the accusative case, whereupon the Greek endings naturally change into “ίν” (Χαβρίν and Χαρμίν). The translator into Russian did not stop to think about this metamorphosis, completely understandable in the Greek text, nor did he trouble himself to recall the forms of names already used by him (Jdt 6:15), and, supposing—in Jdt 8:10—that he was dealing with names of unchangeable endings, translated literally the Greek accusatives, attaching to them Russian accusative endings. From this came—instead of Chabriya and Charmiya—Chabrin and Charmin (Χαβρίν᾿ а and Χαρμίν᾿ а).

Judith 8:12. “Who are you that test God today and stand in the place of God among the children of men? Judith 8:13. “Behold, you test the Lord Almighty, but you shall never know anything; Judith 8:14. “for you cannot probe the depths of the human heart, nor understand the words of its thoughts: how then can you test God, who made all these things, and know His mind, and understand His thought? No, do not anger the Lord, our God! Judith 8:15. “For if He does not wish to help us in these five days, then He has the power to protect us in whatever days He pleases, or to strike us before the eyes of our enemies. Judith 8:16. “Do not pledge the counsels of the Lord our God: God cannot be threatened as a man, nor can we direct Him as one would a son of man. Judith 8:17. “Therefore, waiting for His salvation, let us call upon Him for help, and He will hear our voice if it pleases Him. Judith 8:18. “For there has never been in our generations, nor is there at the present time, a tribe or family or people or city among us that worships gods made by hands, as was in former days, Judith 8:19. “for which reason our fathers were delivered to the sword and to plunder and fell with a great fall before our enemies. Judith 8:20. “But we know no God but Him, and therefore we hope that He will not despise us and none of our race. Judith 8:21. “For with our captivity Judah will fall, and all our sanctuaries will be plundered, and He will demand an accounting for their desecration from our lips, Judith 8:22. “and the slaughter of our brothers and the captivity of the land and the desolation of our inheritance will turn upon our heads among the nations to which we shall be enslaved, and we shall be a reproach and shame in the sight of those who conquer us; Judith 8:23. “for slavery will not bring us honor, but the Lord, our God, will account it as dishonor for us. Judith 8:24. “Therefore, brothers, let us show to our brothers that our lives depend on us, and on us rest the sanctuaries, and the house of the Lord, and the altar. Judith 8:25. “For all this let us give thanks to the Lord, our God, who tests us as He tested our fathers. Judith 8:26. “Remember what He did to Abraham, how He tested Isaac, what happened to Jacob in Syrian Mesopotamia, when he tended the flocks of Laban, his mother’s brother: Judith 8:27. “for He did not test them for the punishment of their hearts, but the Lord chastises those who approach Him only for correction, not for revenge. 11–27. Judith’s speech, most animated, touching, and reasonable, bears in its first part (verses 11–16) a rebuking character, and in the second part (verses 17–27) an exhorting character. Looking more deeply into the matter, one cannot help but feel that the form which Uzziah gave to his promise to deliver the city indeed bore a provocative and demanding character in relation to the Lord God and His free self-determination. If Uzziah had expressed himself simply: “I will deliver the city if within 5 days there is no change for the better in its situation,”—then this would have been entirely in order of human deliberation. But when he first voiced his entire hope in the Lord’s help, and then arbitrarily by his own human reckoning set a term for this help, which was exclusively the matter of Divine self-determination, then this was clearly an infringement upon that self-determination, a limitation of the Unlimited and All-Powerful, the All-Wise and All-Good Being: it was what the similar action of Moses in the wilderness was, when, not bearing to the end the faint-hearted despair of the people, he “tested” the Lord with an equally faint-hearted cry: “Listen, you rebels, must we bring water out of this rock for you?” (Num 20:10). This was a “testing” of the Lord, a “trial” or “proof” of His power, a “challenge” to His all-powerfulness, wisdom, and goodness. It was, by the subtle definition of Judith herself (verse 16), as it were a “pledging” of the counsels of the Lord our God, a “threatening” of Him as one would a man, a prompting of His actions, an extortion of His miracles. All this deserved the rebuke and admonition with which Judith first addresses the rulers of the city. The second, exhorting part of the speech, expressing hope that the Lord will not abandon His people, firmly and elaborately affirms this hope through deeply subtle considerations. The chief of these considerations was also brought forward by Achior (Jdt 5:21) as a warning to Holofernes: this is the faithfulness of the people to the Lord their God and the knowledge of no other God but Him (verse 20). In confirmation of this consideration, mention is made (in the form of an introductory sentence—verses 18–19) of a reminder that all the former misfortunes of the people were caused by apostasies from God, which have not happened in recent times and are not happening. Another consideration for patient waiting for Divine help is that the fall of their city would be the fall and captivity of all Judah with all her sanctuaries, and they would appear as if especially responsible for this misfortune and the desecration of the sanctuaries. And conversely—by winning through patient prayer the help and courageously enduring the present trial, they would appear as the mediators of salvation for the rest of Israel and the sanctuaries of God’s house. This latter was so undoubted for Judith that she already in advance calls for giving thanks to God. “For all this let us give thanks to the Lord, our God, who tests us as He tested our fathers!” (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob)—concludes this wonderful woman, with inspiration and burning faith, whose very appearance at such desperate moments with such presence of mind was already a miracle that made one believe in the near possibility of other miracles necessary for the salvation of the afflicted city. Uzziah was waiting for one such miracle in the sending of rain, and now, seeing before him this wonderfully courageous and inspired woman, he hopes through her prayer to obtain from the Lord the saving gift of rain and asks her to present this prayer. (Verses 28–31). However, even this was a “subjecting” of the Lord to limited human considerations, a “prompting” of His actions, which often exceed all human considerations, expectations, and suppositions. Wherefore Judith responds to Uzziah’s request (about rain) with a completely different action, which truly was more miraculous than rain and justly deserved to be carried forward “by the sons of our race to generation after generation.” (Verse 22.)

Judith 8:28. Uzziah said to her: “All that you have spoken you have spoken from a good heart, and no one will oppose your words, Judith 8:29. “for your wisdom has been known not only from this day, but from the beginning of your days all the people have known your understanding and the good disposition of your heart. Judith 8:30. “But the people are exhausted from thirst and forced us to do as we said to them, and bound us with an oath which we will not break. Judith 8:31. “Therefore pray for us, for you are a devout woman, and the Lord will send rain to fill our water cisterns, and we will no longer faint from thirst. Judith 8:32. Judith said to them: “Listen to me, and I will accomplish a deed which will be passed down by the sons of our race to generation after generation. Judith 8:33. “Stand tonight at the gates, and I will go out with my maidservant, and during the days after which you have decided to deliver the city to our enemies, the Lord will visit Israel by my hand. 33. Although the designation of the term (5 days) for the salvation of the city seemed in the eyes of God, from Judith’s point of view, to be objectionable, nevertheless Judith does not alter this term, clearly not finding it convenient that an oath once given could be broken, and she goes about her deed in full assurance that during the indicated days the Lord will visit Israel through her hand. Having decided to go to the enemy camp that very night, Judith asks the rulers to come to the gates. This was probably necessary in order to immediately obtain their urgent permission to open the gates, which were watched with special vigilance by the guard (Jdt 10:9); to request such permission beforehand was not convenient in view of the fact that her plan could become known and arouse unnecessary and dangerous curiosity. The presence of the rulers here may have been necessary also so that they could see with their own eyes that the work of saving the people had begun, and so they could with great patience and hope endure the especially difficult final days of the city perishing from the siege, awaiting the end of what had been begun.

Judith 8:34. “Only do not ask me about my undertaking, for I will not tell you until I have accomplished what I intend to do. Judith 8:35. And Uzziah and the rulers said to her: “Go in peace, and may the Lord God go before you to avenge us on our enemies! Judith 8:36. And they departed from her tent and went to their troops. 34–36. Judith does not inform anyone, not even the rulers, about the plans of her undertaking. Filled with deep faith that her deed is the deed of God, she expects help from no one, has need of no one’s advice and instruction, and therefore does not consider it necessary to divulge this Divine deed to anyone beforehand. It is enough that this wonderful woman, acting throughout this entire history in the spirit and power of true inspired chosen ones of God, manages to inspire such trust in herself that the rulers, feeling the nearness of deliverance from enemies, send her off with such a relieved heart: “Go in peace, and may the Lord God go before you to avenge us on our enemies!”