Judith the Widow
1In those days the news reached Judith, daughter of Merari, son of Ox, son of Joseph, son of Uzziel, son of Elkiah, son of Hananiah, son of Gideon, son of Raphain, son of Ahitub, son of Elihu, son of Hilkiah, son of Eliab, son of Nathanael, son of Shelumiel, son of Zurishaddai, son of Israel. 2Her husband was Manasseh, of her own tribe and her own family, and he had died in the days of the barley harvest. 3He had been standing over the men binding sheaves in the field when the scorching heat struck his head. He collapsed onto his bed and died in Bethulia, his own town, and they laid him beside his fathers in the field midway between Dothan and Balamon. 4Judith had been living as a widow in her house for three years and four months. 5She had made herself a shelter on the roof of her house; she wore sackcloth around her waist, and the clothes of her widowhood stayed on her. 6She fasted every day of her widowhood, apart from the eve of the Sabbath and the Sabbath itself, the eve of the new moon and the new moon, and the festivals and glad days of Israel’s house. 7She was lovely in form and strikingly beautiful to look at. Manasseh her husband had left her gold, silver, slaves and slave girls, livestock and fields, and she had stayed on to manage them. 8There was no one who brought an evil word against her, for she feared God deeply.
Judith Rebukes the Elders
9Now she heard the people’s evil words against the ruler, since their spirit had given way for want of water; and Judith heard the whole of what Uzziah had told them, how he had sworn to hand the town over to the Assyrians in five days. 10So she sent her personal maid, the one who managed everything she owned, to call Chabris and Charmis, the elders of her town. 11They came to her, and she said to them: “Listen to me, you rulers of the people of Bethulia. What you said in front of the people today was not straight, and neither was this oath you swore and set up between God and yourselves, promising to give the town over to our enemies unless within those days the Lord turns and helps you. 12And who are you, to put God on trial today, to stand in God’s place among the sons of men? 13Here you are cross-examining the Lord Almighty — and you will understand nothing, not ever. 14You cannot sound the bottom of a human heart, nor lay hold of the words of a human mind. Then how will you search out God, who made all of this, and know his mind and follow his reasoning? Never, my brothers! Do not provoke the Lord our God. 15For if he does not choose to help us in these five days, he has the authority to shelter us on whatever days he pleases — or to destroy us in front of our enemies. 16But you, do not hold the plans of the Lord our God in pawn. God is not a man, to be threatened, nor a son of man, to be argued into a verdict. 17So let us wait for the rescue that comes from him, calling on him to come to our aid; and he will listen to our voice, if that is what pleases him. 18For in our generations no one has risen up, and there is no one today — no tribe, no family, no district, no town of ours — that bows to gods made by hand, the way it happened in earlier days. 19That was why our fathers were given over to the sword and to plunder, and fell in a great fall in front of our enemies. 20But we know no other god but him, and so we hope he will not look past us, nor past anyone of our race. 21For if we are taken, so too will all Judea be taken: our holy things will be plundered, and he will demand their defilement out of our blood. 22The butchery of our brothers, the carrying off of the land, the emptying of our inheritance — he will turn it all back onto our own heads among the nations wherever we end up as slaves, and we will be a stumbling block and a disgrace in the eyes of those who own us. 23Our slavery will not bring us into favor; the Lord our God will set it down as dishonor. 24So now, brothers, let us show our brothers that their life hangs on us — that the holy things, the house, and the altar lean on us. 25On top of all this, let us thank the Lord our God, who is testing us just as he tested our fathers. 26Remember what he did with Abraham, how he tested Isaac, and all that came upon Jacob in Syrian Mesopotamia while he pastured the flocks of Laban, his mother’s brother. 27He has not put us in the fire to assay our hearts, as he did with them, nor has he taken vengeance on us. It is to bring them to their senses that the Lord whips those who come near him.” 28Uzziah said to her: “Everything you have said, you spoke out of a good heart; no one is going to stand against your words. 29Today is not the first time your wisdom has shown itself: from the beginning of your days the whole people has known your good sense, because the mold of your heart is good. 30But the people were desperate with thirst. They forced us to do what we had told them, and to bring on ourselves an oath we will not break. 31So pray for us now — you are a devout woman — and the Lord is going to send rain, our cisterns will fill, and we will give out no more.”
Judith Asks for the Gate
32Judith said to them: “Listen to me. I am going to do a thing that will travel down to the children of our race, generation after generation. 33Tonight you are to stand at the gate. I will go out, and my maid with me; and within the days you set before handing the town over to our enemies, Israel will be visited by the Lord through my hand. 34But you are not to pry into what I am doing. I will tell you nothing until what I am doing is finished.” 35Uzziah and the rulers said to her: “Go in peace, and may the Lord God walk ahead of you, for vengeance upon our enemies.” 36Then they turned back from the shelter and went to their posts.
