Judith 12

Her Food, Her Nights, Her Prayer

1He ordered that she be brought in to the place where his silver plate was laid out, and directed that a table be spread for her with his own delicacies and that she drink his own wine. 2Judith answered: “I will not eat from it, or it will become a stumbling block. Let provision be made for me out of what came with me.” 3Holofernes said to her: “And if what you have with you runs out, where are we to fetch more of the same to give you? There is no one of your race among us.” 4Judith said to him: “As your soul lives, my lord, your slave will not use up what she has with her before the Lord does by my hand what he has planned.” 5Then the attendants of Holofernes led her into the tent, where she slept until the middle of the night and got up toward the morning watch. 6She sent word to Holofernes: “Let my lord give the order to let your slave go out to pray.” 7So Holofernes commanded his bodyguards not to hinder her. She stayed on three days in the camp, and each night she would go out to the gorge of Bethulia and bathe at the water spring in the camp. 8And when she came up out of it, she begged the Lord, Israel’s God, to make her road straight, so that the sons of his people might rise in stature. 9She would come back in clean and remain inside the tent until her food was set before her toward evening.

The Fourth Day: the Drinking Feast

10On the fourth day Holofernes gave a drinking feast for his own slaves alone, and invited none of his officials to the gathering. 11He said to the eunuch Bagoas, who had charge of everything he owned: “Go and persuade the Hebrew woman who is in your keeping to come to us, to eat and to drink with us. 12Look, it is a disgrace to our face if we let a woman like that go without ever being intimate with her. If we do not draw her in, she will laugh at us.” 13So Bagoas left Holofernes’ presence, went in to her, and said: “Do not let this beautiful young woman hesitate to come to my lord, to be honored before his face, to drink wine with us in good cheer, and to become this day like a daughter among the sons of Asshur who stand in Nebuchadnezzar’s house.” 14Judith said to him: “And who am I, to contradict my lord? Whatever is pleasing in his eyes I will hurry to do, and it will be my joy until the day of my death.” 15She got up and arrayed herself in her clothing and all her woman’s ornament, and her slave went ahead and spread on the ground for her, facing Holofernes, the soft fleeces she had gotten from Bagoas for her daily use, so that she could recline on them to eat. 16Judith came in and reclined, and the heart of Holofernes went out of him over her; his soul was shaken. He was seized with a violent craving to be with her — and from the day he first saw her he had been watching for the moment to deceive her. 17Holofernes said to her: “Drink, then, and join us in our cheer.” 18Judith said: “I will indeed drink, my lord, because today my life has been magnified in me more than on any day since my birth.” 19She took what her slave had prepared, and ate and drank facing him. 20Holofernes was delighted with her, and he drank an enormous quantity of wine — more than he had ever drunk on any single day since the day he was born.