Judith

By Mary Jane Chaignot

Categories: Apocrypha

Judith doesn’t appear in the book bearing her name until half way through – at the beginning of chapter 8.
Her name is the female equivalent of Judah or Judas. The word “Judea” was derived from them. The English translation of Judean is Jew. So Judith’s name means “Jewess.”
If this book was indeed written during the time of the Maccabees, it might have brought back memories of Judas Maccabeus, who also defeated a Syrian general.
She lived in the city of Bethulia. The name might be allegorical. It could mean “beth-el” (house of God) or be derived from a compound word from “betulah” and “Jah” (Yahweh’s virgin). The actual location of Bethulia is unknown, but it is definitely separate from Jerusalem.
Judith is the only woman in the Bible to have an extended genealogy that goes all the way back to Israel. She is of the tribe of Simeon.
The purpose of her genealogy is to authenticate her identity.
Surprisingly, her husband, Manasseh, is only identified in relation to her. He died years earlier from sunstroke (a rather insignificant ending).
After her husband died, Judith continued to mourn. It had been three years and four months since his death. Jewish law only required a year.
She fasted every day, except for feast days.
She set up a tent on her roof where she prayed and fasted. Apparently, she lived up there and only came down on festival days.
She was also very beautiful and financially stable.
Her wealth included gold and silver, livestock, slaves, and fields.
Apparently, she had no children and made no attempt to invoke Levirate marriage from Manasseh’s family.
Nor did she look for another husband.
Nothing about Judith is typical of a Jewish woman, much less a Jewish widow.
Though she was in seclusion, Judith heard about Uzziah’s compromise to wait five days to see if it would rain before surrendering to Holofernes’ army.
She sent her maid to invite Uzziah and the elders to come to her home. It is likely that modesty prevented her from going to them herself.
When they arrived, she chastised them for trying to test God. Yet, she was confident that God would come to their aid because they had been a faithful people.
She was also convinced that God would act through them. In short, then, God was actually testing them.
Her counsel is considered to be “wise.” Accordingly, she is the penultimate “wise woman.” Yet, she is also very clever; she is one of few biblical characters who is considered to be both “wise” and “clever.” She is “clever” in that she does not hesitate to use deceit in her dealings with Holofernes.
Uzziah called Judith a redeemer for the people, a mediator between the citizens and God (similar to Moses, perhaps). Mostly, though, he wanted her to pray for rain. (They needed water to fill the cisterns since the Assyrians had cut their water supply 34 days earlier.)
Judith didn’t comment on praying for rain, but she did tell Uzziah to “stand by.” She expected to deliver Israel by her own “hand.”
Without revealing her plans, she stated that “endless generations” would remember what she had done.
Uzziah agreed to do as she wished. He admitted that the people “forced” him into taking an oath about that five-day agreement. (No one ever suggested that they just rescind it.)
The bottom line is that Judith had five days in which to execute her plan.
As soon as they left, Judith put ashes on her head and uncovered the sackcloth that she was wearing under her clothes. Both were symbolic of her mourning.
She prayed at the same time that sacrifices would have been offered at the temple.
In her prayer, she revealed that she was a descendant of Simeon and remembered his revenge on the Shechemites for their “rape” of Dinah. Judith saw herself as another “avenger.” In their great hour of need, she saw this as a positive quality.
Such thinking reflected her belief that God was simply in control of everything. Since the slaughter happened, God must have been in control of it and acted through Simeon (and Levi). In like manner, God will now act through her – a woman. Therefore, she prayed outright that God would destroy Holofernes and his army through her hand.
It is noteworthy that it would be considered very shameful for a warrior to be killed by the hand of a woman. Of course, their entire culture was based on values of honor and shame. This would be the ultimate insult for the Assyrians.
As her prayer developed, she saw herself as the go’el (the redeemer) for Jerusalem. Typically, the go’el was a kinsperson who had legal responsibilities for the affairs of his relatives. She was the only one available who could do this.
Her weapon of choice was the deceit of her lips. Deceit is rarely thought of as a positive quality, but Judith intended to use it for good. Again, this is quite contrary to the norm.
When she was finished with her prayers, Judith geared up for action.
She bathed, anointed her body with perfume, and put on new clothes. She fixed her hair and adorned herself with fine jewels.
Part of her goal was to seduce men: she was now so beautiful that men were awestruck by her.
She instructed her maid to prepare food to take along for the journey. This would ensure that she would not be eating unclean food.
With everything readied, Judith and her maid were off. They found the elders at the city gate and received their blessing.
Despite having complete command of her situation, Judith bowed down to the elders – a gesture that showed her humility.
Shortly after leaving the gates of the city, Judith was captured by Assyrian forces.
Their conversation is filled with irony in that every sentence has a double meaning.
Judith lied from the beginning, telling them she was ready to give a “trustworthy” report to Holofernes about the Israelites who were about to begin sinning – and she wanted no part of that!
The guards quickly took her to Holofernes, all the while showing her the greatest respect!
Holofernes was in his tent – an opulent palace for one on the go.
It had two chambers: one for sleeping, the other for meetings. Throughout the story, Holofernes remained in his tent.
Like the other men, Holofernes was totally smitten by Judith’s beauty and was very hospitable to her.
He questioned Judith, who repeated her earlier declarations.
Yet, everything she said could be interpreted at two levels. When she talked about “my lord,” she was referring to God. Holofernes thought she was referring to him. She promised to say nothing but the truth to the lord – that would be her true Lord (with a capital L).
Holofernes thought she was flirting with him and he lost all sense of skepticism.
She continued that Achior was right about the Jews. When they are faithful, they are invincible. She explained that, fortunately for Holofernes, the Israelites were about to start sinning because of the siege. Because they were starving, they would soon be eating things that were decidedly unclean.
According to her, the citizens of Bethulia had sent a delegation to Jerusalem to get permission to eat anything – clean or unclean. The priests would probably grant their request and thus would also be implicated in the sinning. (None of this was true.)
She offered to let him know as soon as they got back because that’s when the sinning would start and he would be able to defeat them.
Judith ended her speech by saying, “God has sent me to accomplish with you things that will astonish the world.” (One can only imagine how Holofernes heard those words.)
For three days, Judith established her own schedule. She ate her own food and arranged a time each day to go out of the camp to pray. This was usually done early each morning before dawn.
This allowed her to bathe and “purify” herself. Being in the very presence of Holofernes rendered her unclean. (This highlights the huge dichotomy between her purposeful lying and her diligence regarding ritual purifications.)
Then Holofernes decided to have a banquet. This was for his servants, not his soldiers (which, of course, meant that he would be without his bodyguards).
Holofernes sent his eunuch to “persuade” Judith to come to his banquet. He hoped this would be the night he would be able to have sex with her. At the very least, he had to try to seduce her; otherwise she would start making fun of him. This would be very humiliating.
She agreed to attend, even leading Holofernes on a bit about looking forward to being with him. (Again, this is a double entendre. He thinks it’s for sex. She plans to do him in.)
Nonetheless, Holofernes was so excited that he drank heavily until he passed out.
When the banquet was over, all of the servants left the area. Holofernes’ personal attendant carefully closed up the tent, leaving them completely alone.
When all was quiet, Judith prayed mightily to the Lord. She asked that he would give her the strength to do what she had to do.
Then she grabbed Holofernes’ sword and decapitated him.
With that, she met up with her maid and they both went out for “prayer.” Holofernes’ head was in their sack.
This time, however, they didn’t go for prayer; they went back to Bethulia.
Upon reaching the city, she shouted for the men to open the gates.
There was much rejoicing as she showed the elders the head of Holofernes and the canopy she had taken from his bed.
Having the canopy meant she was in his very room, but she was quick to say that God prevented her from being defiled.
All the people believed her.
Uzziah blessed her again.
Judith called for Achior to come and identify the head of Holofernes, which he did.
He was so impressed with Judith’s success that he converted on the spot. He, as well as the citizens, gave credit to both Judith and God.
She ordered that the head of Holofernes be hung from the parapet. It was not enough that he was dead; he must also be publicly shamed. For a warrior to die by the hand of a woman was considered to be very shameful.
She told the citizens that as soon as the day broke, they should gather their weapons and go out of the town prepared to fight.
The Assyrians would see them and awaken their commanders.
When they discovered Holofernes was dead, they would panic, and then the Israelites could go after them.
Judith’s plan didn’t end with the death of Holofernes. And all the people agreed with her strategy, calling her a heroine.
Events happened just as she had foretold. The Assyrians went to their commanders and Holofernes’ attendant went in to wake him up. When he saw the headless corpse, he cried out, “One Hebrew woman has brought disgrace on the house of king Nebuchadnezzar.”
After the battle (and the looting), the citizens of Bethulia went to Jerusalem for sacrifices and celebration.
They stayed there for three months.
Though the army had given Judith all of Holofernes’ expensive possessions, she offered them all at the temple.
During the celebration that followed, Judith was hailed as the deliverer of “all Israel.”
As far as the people were concerned, this was a victory for the oppressed.
Needless to say, much praise was given to God and He was worshipped.
After the celebrations, Judith returned to her estate where she lived to be 105.
Living in the tent on the rooftop, however, seemed to be a thing of the past.
She continued to have contact with the townspeople, but refused all marriage proposals.
Before she died, she freed her slaves and divided the estate among her husband’s next of kin.
When she died, Israel mourned over her for seven days.
She was, therefore, honored both in life and after her death.
Because of her, the land of Israel had peace during her lifetime and for a long time after her death.

Bible Characters