2.24 Then he followed the Euphrates, geographically impossible without backtracking. Abron, unknown.
2.25 Seized…Cilicia seems better after v. 21. Japheth, the youngest of Noah’s three sons, ancestor of the Indo-European family of nations whose area stretched from the south coast of Europe to Persia (Gen 5.32; 10.2–5). Facing Arabia, facing the Syrian desert (1 Macc 11.16).
2.26 Midianites, nomads identified in the annals of Tiglath-pileser III (ca. 732 BCE) as Haiappu, perhaps located in northwest Arabia.
2.27 Damascus, capital of Syria.
2.28 People who lived along the seacoast. Seven peoples are listed in the Phoenician maritime and commercial centers. Sidon, a city on the Mediterranean coast. Tyre, originally an island twenty-five miles south of Sidon, difficult to subdue because of its protected location. Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre for thirteen years; Alexander attacked it by building a mole half a mile long and 200 feet wide from the mainland. Sur, Ocina, both unknown. Jamnia, nine miles north of Azotus, about four miles inland. Azotus, formerly Ashdod, one of the five principal cities of the Philistines. Ascalon, also one of the five Philistine cities, destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 609 BCE.
Judith 3
Entreaties for Peace
1They therefore sent messengers to him to sue for peace in these words: 2“We, the servants of Nebuchadnezzar, the Great King, lie prostrate before you. Do with us whatever you will. 3See, our buildings and all our land and all our wheat fields and our flocks and herds and all our encampmentsa lie before you; do with them as you please. 4Our towns and their inhabitants are also your slaves; come and deal with them as you see fit.”
5The men came to Holofernes and told him all this. 6Then he went down to the seacoast with his army and stationed garrisons in the fortified towns and took picked men from them as auxiliaries. 7These people and all in the countryside welcomed him with garlands and dances and tambourines. 8Yet he demolished all their shrinesb and cut down their sacred groves; for he had been commissioned to destroy all the gods of the land, so that all nations should worship Nebuchadnezzar alone, and that all their dialects and tribes should call upon him as a god.
9Then he came toward Esdraelon, near Dothan, facing the great ridge of Judea; 10he camped between Geba and Scythopolis, and remained for a whole month in order to collect all the supplies for his army.
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a Gk all the sheepfolds of our tents
b Syr: Gk borders
3.1–4 The seven cities in 2.28 surrender.
3.8 Violating the instruction of 2.10–13, Holofernes demolishes all their shrines, claiming that Nebuchadnezzar is the sovereign god (6.2) whom all must worship. Ptolemy V of Egypt (203–181 BCE) was the first king to present himself as “God Manifest.” No Assyrian, Babylonian, or Persian king is known to have claimed divinity.
3.9 Esdraelon, the western portion of the Valley of Jezreel. Dothan, fifteen miles southeast of Scythopolis, is mentioned also in 4.6; 7.3, 18; 8.3, leading some to suggest that this was the author’s home.
3.10 Geba, uncertain. Scythopolis, the only city in Judith given its Greek name, strategically guarded the eastern end of the Valley of Jezreel and was the chief city of the Decapolis; in Hebrew, Beth-Shan. Cf. 1 Sam 31.10–12; 1 Kings 4.12.
Judith 4
Judea on the Alert
1When the Israelites living in Judea heard of everything that Holofernes, the general of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the Assyrians, had done to the nations, and how he had plundered and destroyed all their temples, 2they were therefore greatly terrified at his approach; they were alarmed both for Jerusalem and for the temple of the Lord their God. 3For they had only recently returned from exile, and all the people of Judea had just now gathered together, and the sacred vessels and the altar and the temple had been consecrated after their profanation. 4So they sent word to every district of Samaria, and to Kona, Beth-horon, Belmain, and Jericho, and to Choba and Aesora, and the valley of Salem. 5They immediately seized all the high hilltops and fortified the villages on them and stored up food in preparation for war—since their fields had recently been harvested.
6The high priest, Joakim, who was in Jerusalem at the time, wrote to the people of Bethulia and Betomesthaim, which faces Esdraelon opposite the plain near Dothan, 7ordering them to seize the mountain passes, since by them Judea could be invaded; and it would be easy to stop any who tried to enter, for the approach was narrow, wide enough for only two at a time to pass.
Prayer and Penance
8So the Israelites did as they had been ordered by the high priest Joakim and the senate of the whole people of Israel, in session at Jerusalem. 9And every man of Israel cried out to God with great fervor, and they humbled themselves with much fasting. 10They and their wives and their children and their cattle and every resident alien and hired laborer and purchased slave—they all put sackcloth around their waists. 11And all the Israelite men, women, and children living at Jerusalem prostrated themselves before the temple and put ashes on their heads and spread out their sackcloth before the Lord. 12They even draped the altar with sackcloth and cried out in unison, praying fervently to the God of Israel not to allow their infants to be carried off and their wives to be taken as booty, and the towns they had inherited to be destroyed, and the sanctuary to be profaned and desecrated to the malicious joy of the Gentiles.
13The Lord heard their prayers and had regard for their distress; for the people fasted many days throughout Judea and in Jerusalem before the sanctuary of the Lord Almighty. 14The high priest Joakim and all the priests who stood before the Lord and ministered to the Lord, with sackcloth around their loins, offered the daily burnt offerings, the votive offerings, and freewill offerings of the people. 15With ashes on their turbans, they cried out to the Lord with all their might to look with favor on the whole house of Israel.
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4.1–15 In Section B (see note on 2.14–7.32) the scene shifts to Judea and what is happening there. Israel hears and is greatly terrified; Joakim orders preparations for war.
4.3 Recently returned from exile, a reference to 539 BCE, inconsistent with 2.1. The issue is further complicated by the phrase consecrated after their profanation, referring to the rededication of the temple. The event envisioned in the narrative would have occurred sometime after 515 BCE in the rebuilt temple, but the description is more appropriate for the rededication of the temple that took place in 164 BCE after its profanation by Antiochus Epiphanes.
4.4 Of the eight cities listed, only Samaria, Beth-horon, and Jericho can be located.
4.6 The high priest Joakim (see also 4.8, 14; 15.8) exercises both military and religious authority (on this role of the high priest, see Jonathan in 1 Macc 10.18–21; on the name, see Neh 12.26). Bethulia. The site is perhaps to be identified with Bethel or Shechem. Betomesthaim, unknown.
4.7 Wide enough…pass, dramatic exaggeration.
4.8 Senate. A supreme Jewish council was not known until the Maccabean period (see 2 Macc 11.27). The Greek term used here, gerousia, “council of elders,” is also used in 11.14; 15.8.
4.10 Wearing sackcloth was a traditional act of mourning, penitence, and supplication.
4.13 The Lord heard their prayers, an important detail in the later development of the story when the people believe God has abandoned them (7.25).
Judith 5
Council against the Israelites
1It was reported to Holofernes, the general of the Assyrian army, that the people of Israel had prepared for war and had closed the mountain passes and fortified all the high hilltops and set up barricades in the plains. 2In great anger he called together all the princes of Moab and the commanders of Ammon and all the governors of the coastland, 3and said to them, “Tell me, you Canaanites, what people is this that lives in the hill country? What towns do they inhabit? How large is their army, and in what does their power and strength consist? Who rules over them as king and leads their army? 4And why hav
e they alone, of all who live in the west, refused to come out and meet me?”
Achior’s Report
5Then Achior, the leader of all the Ammonites, said to him, “May my lord please listen to a report from the mouth of your servant, and I will tell you the truth about this people that lives in the mountain district near you. No falsehood shall come from your servant’s mouth. 6These people are descended from the Chaldeans. 7At one time they lived in Mesopotamia, because they did not wish to follow the gods of their ancestors who were in Chaldea. 8Since they had abandoned the ways of their ancestors, and worshiped the God of heaven, the God they had come to know, their ancestorsa drove them out from the presence of their gods. So they fled to Mesopotamia, and lived there for a long time. 9Then their God commanded them to leave the place where they were living and go to the land of Canaan. There they settled, and grew very prosperous in gold and silver and very much livestock. 10When a famine spread over the land of Canaan they went down to Egypt and lived there as long as they had food. There they became so great a multitude that their race could not be counted. 11So the king of Egypt became hostile to them; he exploited them and forced them to make bricks. 12They cried out to their God, and he afflicted the whole land of Egypt with incurable plagues. So the Egyptians drove them out of their sight. 13Then God dried up the Red Sea before them, 14and he led them by the way of Sinai and Kadesh-barnea. They drove out all the people of the desert, 15and took up residence in the land of the Amorites, and by their might destroyed all the inhabitants of Heshbon; and crossing over the Jordan they took possession of all the hill country. 16They drove out before them the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Shechemites, and all the Gergesites, and lived there a long time.
17“As long as they did not sin against their God they prospered, for the God who hates iniquity is with them. 18But when they departed from the way he had prescribed for them, they were utterly defeated in many battles and were led away captive to a foreign land. The temple of their God was razed to the ground, and their towns were occupied by their enemies. 19But now they have returned to their God, and have come back from the places where they were scattered, and have occupied Jerusalem, where their sanctuary is, and have settled in the hill country, because it was uninhabited.
20“So now, my master and lord, if there is any oversight in this people and they sin against their God and we find out their offense, then we can go up and defeat them. 21But if they are not a guilty nation, then let my lord pass them by; for their Lord and God will defend them, and we shall become the laughingstock of the whole world.”
22When Achior had finished saying these things, all the people standing around the tent began to complain; Holofernes’ officers and all the inhabitants of the seacoast and Moab insisted that he should be cut to pieces. 23They said, “We are not afraid of the Israelites; they are a people with no strength or power for making war. 24Therefore let us go ahead, Lord Holofernes, and your vast army will swallow them up.”
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a Gk they
5.1–6.13 In Section C (see note on 2.14–7.32) the scene shifts to the Assyrian camp outside Bethulia. Holofernes talks with Achior; Achior is expelled from the camp for suggesting that the Assyrians may fail to capture Bethulia because of the power of its God.
5.2 Moab, Ammon. The Moabites, east of the Dead Sea, and the Ammonites, in Transjordan north of Moab, were Semitic peoples who were traditional enemies of Israel (see 2 Kings 24.2).
5.5 Achior, a righteous Gentile. His name may mean in Hebrew “brother of light” or may be derived from Ahihud, meaning “brother of Judah.”
5.5–21 Achior recites Israel’s history from Abraham to the exile and affirms God’s special protection of the covenant people if they do not sin.
5.8 God of heaven, also in 6.19; 11.17 (cf. 7.28; 9.12; 13.18); the title is more common in Persian times (see Gen 24.3, 7; 2 Chr 36.23; Ezra 1.2; 5.11, 12; 6.9, 10; 7.12, 21; Dan 2.37; Jon 1.9; Tob 10.11–12).
5.16 Cf. other lists of dispossessed peoples in Gen 15.19–21, Ex 3.8, 17; Deut 7.1; Josh 11.3. The inclusion of the Shechemites is unusual and perhaps anticipates the allusion to revenge on the Shechemites by Simeon (Gen 34) in Judith’s prayer (9.2).
Judith 6
Achior Handed over to the Israelites
1When the disturbance made by the people outside the council had died down, Holofernes, the commander of the Assyrian army, said to Achiora in the presence of all the foreign contingents:
2“Who are you, Achior and you mercenaries of Ephraim, to prophesy among us as you have done today and tell us not to make war against the people of Israel because their God will defend them? What god is there except Nebuchadnezzar? He will send his forces and destroy them from the face of the earth. Their God will not save them; 3we the king’sb servants will destroy them as one man. They cannot resist the might of our cavalry. 4We will overwhelm them;c their mountains will be drunk with their blood, and their fields will be full of their dead. Not even their footprints will survive our attack; they will utterly perish. So says King Nebuchadnezzar, lord of the whole earth. For he has spoken; none of his words shall be in vain.
5“As for you, Achior, you Ammonite mercenary, you have said these words in a moment of perversity; you shall not see my face again from this day until I take revenge on this race that came out of Egypt. 6Then at my return the sword of my army and the speard of my servants shall pierce your sides, and you shall fall among their wounded. 7Now my slaves are going to take you back into the hill country and put you in one of the towns beside the passes. 8You will not die until you perish along with them. 9If you really hope in your heart that they will not be taken, then do not look downcast! I have spoken, and none of my words shall fail to come true.”
10Then Holofernes ordered his slaves, who waited on him in his tent, to seize Achior and take him away to Bethulia and hand him over to the Israelites. 11So the slaves took him and led him out of the camp into the plain, and from the plain they went up into the hill country and came to the springs below Bethulia. 12When the men of the town saw them,e they seized their weapons and ran out of the town to the top of the hill, and all the slingers kept them from coming up by throwing stones at them. 13So having taken shelter below the hill, they bound Achior and left him lying at the foot of the hill, and returned to their master.
14Then the Israelites came down from their town and found him; they untied him and brought him into Bethulia and placed him before the magistrates of their town, 15who in those days were Uzziah son of Micah, of the tribe of Simeon, and Chabris son of Gothoniel, and Charmis son of Melchiel. 16They called together all the elders of the town, and all their young men and women ran to the assembly. They set Achior in the midst of all their people, and Uzziah questioned him about what had happened. 17He answered and told them what had taken place at the council of Holofernes, and all that he had said in the presence of the Assyrian leaders, and all that Holofernes had boasted he would do against the house of Israel. 18Then the people fell down and worshiped God, and cried out:
19“O Lord God of heaven, see their arrogance, and have pity on our people in their humiliation, and look kindly today on the faces of those who are consecrated to you.”
20Then they reassured Achior, and praised him highly. 21Uzziah took him from the assembly to his own house and gave a banquet for the elders; and all that night they called on the God of Israel for help.
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a Other ancient authorities add and to all the Moabites
b Gk his
c Other ancient authorities add with it
d Lat Syr: Gk people
e Other ancient authorities add on the top of the hill
6.2 Who are you? What god is there except Nebuchadnezzar? Holofernes asks important identity questions that constitute one of the corresponding symmetries in the two halves of the book. In 8.12, Judith asks the magistrates of Bethulia, Who are you to put God to the test today?
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br /> 6.5–9 Holofernes declares that Achior will not see his face again until revenge is taken against the Israelites; this verse anticipates the reversal of 14.6.
6.14–21 In Section C, which begins the second half of the chiastic structure for Part 1 of the book (see note on 2.14–7.32), the scene shifts back to Israel. From this point on the narrative in Part 1 inverts its scenes and actions. Achior who was expelled from the Assyrian camp is now brought into Bethulia; conversation with the Assyrian Holofernes corresponds to conversation with the Israelite magistrates of Bethulia.
6.15 Uzziah…of the tribe of Simeon. The tribe of Simeon first settled in the general vicinity of Shechem (Gen 34; Deut 27.12) but later moved to the most southerly border of the cultivated land in the vicinity of Beer-sheba with the capture the town Zephath/Hormah (Judg 1.17); it is not mentioned in the Song of Deborah (Judg 5) or the blessing of Moses (Deut 33). Judith is also from the tribe of Simeon (9.2). Chabris, Charmis, invented characters.
6.18 Then the people…worshiped God. As in 4.12, the people turn to God in their distress.
6.19 God of heaven. See note on 5.8.
Judith 7
The Campaign against Bethulia
1The next day Holofernes ordered his whole army, and all the allies who had joined him, to break camp and move against Bethulia, and to seize the passes up into the hill country and make war on the Israelites. 2So all their warriors marched off that day; their fighting forces numbered one hundred seventy thousand infantry and twelve thousand cavalry, not counting the baggage and the foot soldiers handling it, a very great multitude. 3They encamped in the valley near Bethulia, beside the spring, and they spread out in breadth over Dothan as far as Balbaim and in length from Bethulia to Cyamon, which faces Esdraelon.
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