Judith 15

The Rout and the Plunder

1When the men in the tents heard it, they were thunderstruck at what had happened. 2Trembling and terror fell on them. Not one man would stay any longer in the sight of his neighbor; they spilled out all together and ran by every road across the plain and through the hill country. 3The men camped in the hill country around Bethulia turned and ran as well. And then the Israelites, every fighting man among them, spilled out after them. 4Uzziah sent word to Betomasthaim, to Bebai, to Chobai, to Kola, and into all the territory of Israel, reporting what had been accomplished, so that everyone would spill out on the enemy and cut them down. 5When the Israelites heard it, they all fell on them with one accord and hacked at them as far as Choba. In the same way the men from Jerusalem came, and men from the whole hill country, for they had been told what had come about in their enemies’ camp; and those in Gilead and those in Galilee outflanked them and struck them a huge blow, all the way past Damascus and its territory. 6The rest, those still living in Bethulia, fell on the camp of Asshur, plundered it, and grew very rich. 7And the Israelites, coming back from the slaughter, took possession of what was left. The villages and farmsteads in the hill country and on the plain got hold of a great deal of loot, for the quantity of it was enormous.

Jerusalem Comes Down to Bless Her

8Then Joakim the high priest and the council of elders of the Israelites, those living in Jerusalem, came to look at the good things the Lord had done for Israel, to see Judith, and to speak peace with her. 9When they came in to her, they all blessed her with one voice and said to her: “You are the lifting up of Jerusalem, you are the great pride of Israel, you are the great boast of our race. 10All this you did with your own hand. You have done Israel good, and God has been pleased with it. May you be blessed by the Lord Almighty for time everlasting.” And all the people said: “Let it be so.” 11The whole people stripped the camp for thirty days. They gave Judith the tent of Holofernes and all his silver plate, the couches, the basins, and every one of his furnishings. She took them, loaded them on her mule, harnessed her carts, and heaped the goods onto them. 12Every woman of Israel came running to see her. They blessed her and set up a dance among themselves in her honor, and she took thyrsus wands into her hands and handed them to the women with her. 13She and the women with her crowned themselves with olive, and she walked out ahead of the whole people, leading all the women in the dance, and every man of Israel followed under arms, garlanded, with hymns in their mouths. 14And Judith led off this thanksgiving before all Israel, and the whole people sang this praise back.