Judith 13

The Head of Holofernes

1When evening came, his slaves hurried to clear out. Bagoas shut the tent from outside and sent the attendants away from his lord’s presence, and they went off to their beds — all of them worn down, since the drinking had gone on so long. 2Judith was left alone in the tent, with Holofernes sprawled forward on his bed, drowned in his wine. 3Judith had told her slave to stand outside the bedchamber and watch for her to come out, as on every other day; she had said she would be going out to her prayer, and she had spoken to Bagoas in the same terms. 4They had all gone from her presence, and no one was left in the bedchamber, small or great. Judith stood beside his bed and said in her heart: “Lord God of every power, look in this hour on the works of my hands, for the lifting up of Jerusalem. 5Now is the time to take hold of your inheritance, to turn what I have undertaken into a break in the ranks of the enemies who have risen against us.” 6She went to the bedpost at the head of Holofernes and took his short sword down from it. 7She came close to the bed, gripped his head by the hair, and said: “Make me strong, Lord, God of Israel, on this day.” 8And twice, with all her strength, she struck at his neck, and she took his head off him. 9She rolled his body off the mattress and pulled the canopy down from its poles. A moment later she went out and handed the head of Holofernes to her maid, 10who dropped it into her food satchel. The two of them went out together, as their custom was, for prayer. They crossed the camp, went around that gorge, climbed the hill of Bethulia, and reached its gates.

Judith at the Gate of Bethulia

11From far off Judith called to the men on guard at the gates: “Open! Open the gate! God is with us, our God — still working strength in Israel and force against our enemies, as he has done this very day.” 12When the men of her town heard her voice, they hurried down to their town gate and called the elders of the town together. 13They all came running, the smallest of them and the greatest, because her arrival was past anything they expected. They opened the gate, welcomed the two women in, kindled a fire for light, and crowded in a ring around them. 14And she said to them at the top of her voice: “Praise God! Praise him, praise God, who has not taken his mercy away from Israel’s house but has broken our enemies by my hand this very night!” 15She drew the head out of the satchel, showed it to them, and said: “Here is the head of Holofernes, commander in chief of the forces of Asshur, and here is the canopy he lay under in his drunkenness. The Lord struck him down by a woman’s hand. 16And as the Lord lives, who guarded me on the road I traveled: my face is what deceived him, to his own ruin, and he committed no sin with me, for defilement or for shame.” 17The whole people was beside itself. They bowed low in worship before God and said with one voice: “Blessed are you, our God, who on this day have reduced the enemies of your people to nothing.” 18And Uzziah said to her: “Daughter, blessed are you by the Most High God above every woman on earth, and blessed is the Lord God, maker of the heavens and the earth, who steered you to strike the head of our enemies’ chief. 19Your hope will never leave the hearts of men who remember God’s strength, to the end of the age. 20And may God make all this an everlasting height for you, visiting you with good things, because you did not spare your own life over the humiliation of our race, but went out to avenge our downfall, walking straight ahead in the presence of our God.” And the whole people answered: “Let it be so! Let it be so!”