Orientation to Judith

(avg. read time: 6–11 mins.)

Our series on Second Temple Jewish texts continues today with the story of Judith. This one has a broader scope than Tobit and it is more action-oriented as it concerns Judea’s response to a crisis when they might have been forced into idolatry. In the midst of this crisis, a woman named Judith arises to be the instrument of God’s deliverance of his people. Her central act of beheading Holofernes has often been depicted.

Overview of Judith

Judith has a curious relationship with history. There has been debate about whether or not the story is historical. I do not wish to weigh in on this debate without due diligence in examining the intricacies of arguments, but at the very least we can say that the relationship of Judith as it is written with history as it happened is certainly not straightforward (i.e., more so than is the case of other historical writings with history). For those who argue that it is historical, the names given to figures and places must function as (often anachronistic) substitutes for others. For example, Judith’s town of Bethulia is otherwise unknown, but it has been suggested that it is another name given to Shechem. Even more remarkably, it has been suggested that Nebuchadnezzar must be a name given to someone else.

Any biblically or historically literate reader will be struck by the very opening and its reference to Nebuchadnezzar as one who ruled over the Assyrians in Nineveh (1:1). But this is not simply a question created by the opening. The antagonistic force is regularly referred to as the Assyrian army (rather than the Babylonian army) and Nebuchadnezzar is referred to multiple other times as “king of the Assyrians” (1:7, 11; 2:1, 4; 4:1).

The inciting event of the story is that Nebuchadnezzar had been waging war against Arphaxad, who ruled over the Medes, and had called to the lands west of him, including Judea (as well as Samaria and Galilee) to help him in his war. But they all refused to help him, and when he conquered Arphaxad he set himself to take revenge against the western lands. Thus, his general Holofernes is sent with an army of 132,000 (plus many others accompanying them with supplies) to conquer on his behalf until Nebuchadnezzar can come himself. When others along the coast in places like Tyre, Sidon, and Ascalon (among others) had heard of the wrath of Holofernes in conquering the various peoples, they entreated him for peace. Holofernes accepted their yield, but he demolished their sacred sites, because all nations were to worship Nebuchadnezzar alone (3:8).

Naturally, this concerns the people of Judea. They do not wish to be destroyed by this massive army, but they obviously cannot comply with this demand. Idolatry was the root of what led them to exile in the first place, and they had only recently returned therefrom (4:3). And they obviously do not wish for the temple to be destroyed after its consecration (hence, there is yet more chronological unclarity here). They prepare what defenses they can, and they also pray and fast with sackcloth and ashes (4:9–15; cf. 8:5; 9:1). As with the story of Tobit, prayer to the one God is both an identifying action of the faithful Jews and what moves the plot at crucial points. It does so here, as well as when Judith ascends to prominence as a hero for Israel (6:18–19; 8:31; 9). It is an identifying action of Judith whereby she also finds her triumph over Holofernes (11:17; 12:6–8). It is also by her ritual of prayer that she is able to accomplish her subterfuge in sneaking out of the Assyrian camp with the head of Holofernes after she has done the deed (13:3, 10).

When Holofernes initially hears about what the people of Israel have done, he asks the commanders of the surrounding peoples about them. Achior, leader of the Ammonites, steps forth to inform him about the people and their history (5:5–21). In this summary, he mentions how the history shows that the Jews can be defeated if they have sinned against their God and God hands them over to their enemies, but it also shows that if they are not a guilty nation, then Holofernes would be well advised to forget any campaign against them, for God will give his people the victory. Other commanders speak against him, and Holofernes ultimately decides to bind him and leave him with the Israelites (6), as he fully expects to triumph and kill Achior himself once he has destroyed the people of Israel. Holofernes does not believe any god will protect the Israelites, for he says there is no god but Nebuchadnezzar (6:2).

Where they leave him is the aforementioned town of Bethulia. There, one of magistrates is said to be of the tribe of Simeon (6:15; cf. 9:2). As we mentioned last time in this series, this goes to show that although the tribes have been scattered, they have not truly been “lost,” and a sense of tribal identity remained. This is especially interesting for Simeon given the history of that tribe that had its land in the south surrounded by the lands of Judah only for them to join with the north when the kingdoms of Israel and Judah split. Although, there is mention of some from among them going back to Judah in 2 Chronicles (15:8–9; 34:6).

After Achior apprises the Israelite leaders of the situation, they then appeal to God for help. God is often referenced in this text as “God,” “Lord,” “Lord God,” “Lord Almighty,” and so on. Particularly noteworthy are cases where he is referred to as “God of Israel” (4:12; 10:1; 12:8; 13:7; 14:10), “God of heaven” (5:8; 6:19; 11:17), “Lord/God of our ancestors” (7:28; 10:8), “God of my ancestor Simeon” (9:2). The second descriptor declares God’s transcendence and exaltation above all the kings of the earth (especially in light of how Nebuchadnezzar is called “king of all the earth” in 11:1) while the others stress his well-established connection with the people of Israel and their ancestors. Thus, they can appeal to and trust in his mercy (7:30; 13:14; 16:15). And his foreknowledge of and sovereignty over history are invoked in prayer (9:5–6). Judith’s prayer has the densest theological declarations that combine these various themes in 9:11b–12: “but of the lowly you are God, of the oppressed you are helper, [you are] upholder of the weak, of the forsaken [you are] protector, of the hopeless [you are] Savior. Please, please, God of my father, and God of the inheritance of Israel, Lord of the heavens and the earth, Creator of the waters, King of all your creation, hear my prayer” (cf. 8:14; 13:18).

This God does indeed act through Judith, who he raises up to be the hero of Israel after her town is besieged for weeks by Holofernes’s army. Judith was a widow who fasted and observed the holy days in breaking her fasts (8:1–6). She identifies herself as a descendant of Simeon (9:2; cf. 8:1), and she is known for her reverence/fear of God (8:8, 31). She also shows her perseverance in faithfulness when she rebukes the crowd for how they have raged against their leaders and their leaders (particularly Uzziah) for saying that they will surrender after five days if God does not save them in that time. She calls upon them not to put God to the test (8:11–17) when they fail to understand God’s thoughts are beyond comprehension (8:14, 16). She also reminds the people to avoid the way of idolatry that their ancestors had fallen into (8:18–20). Instead, they ought to remember how God tested their ancestors’ faithfulness, rise to the occasion, and remain thankful (8:25–27).

She then prays for herself in ch. 9, invoking God’s precedents, providence, and power. She plans to engage in deceit to accomplish her ends for Holofernes, but still she prays for God’s blessing of the action. She leaves the town with her maid and goes to the camp, pretending to offer Holofernes advice so that he can take the country without losing a single man. She says that what Achior told him before was quite true, but she says that a sin has actually overtaken Israel, which will lead to their defeat. Namely, she claims that the people in Jerusalem have taken to eating consecrated food that was supposed to be set aside for the priests who serve in the temple (11:11–15). She says if he will allow her to go outside to pray each night, God will reveal to her when the people of the different places have committed sins (11:17), and so she will deliver the land to him. Holofernes thus promises her that if what she says is true, her God will be his God and she will reside in splendor in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar to be renowned by the whole world (11:23).

After a few days, Holofernes attempts to seduce her at a banquet he has made for her. Of course, ch. 12 establishes that she has her own food prepared for her so that she should not partake of the food of the gentiles, and she assures Holofernes that she will not run out of what she needs before the purpose of the Lord is accomplished. Then at the banquet Holofernes designed for seducing her, he becomes utterly besotted (without seducing her), his servants are dismissed, and she acts as if she is preparing to go outside for her nightly prayers. With everything thus orchestrated, she beheads him on his bed and walks out with the head in bag that carried the food prepared for her (13:1–10).

Thus, she returns to Bethulia triumphant and instructs the people in how to attack the camp. But before the plan is carried out, she ensures that Achior is brought to see Holofernes’s head. When he sees, he becomes a convert, as signified by him receiving circumcision (14:5–10). Once Bagoas, the servant of Holofernes, realizes what has happened, the whole camp of the Assyrians is thrown into disarray. The Assyrians are then slaughtered as they flee by the people of Bethulia and the surrounding country. Judith is thus exalted. She then composes a hymn celebrating the victory (16:1–17), and she lives as a widow for the rest of her life (she lived to 105), ensuring that no other nation harassed the Israelites in her lifetime and distributing the wealth she had acquired to her kin (16:22–25).

Resonances with the OT and NT

Judith’s story has several resonances with the OT and at least a few with the NT. Obviously, Judith and multiple books in the OT reference Nebuchadnezzar, whether or not the name is a codename for someone else in Judith. The mocking of other gods before the power of the emperor is similar to how the Assyrians taunted Judah in the days of Hezekiah (2 Kgs 18:28–35 // 2 Chr 32:9–15 // Isa 36:13–19; 37:10–13), while the test of faith faced with the demand to worship Nebuchadnezzar alone is reminiscent of Dan 3. There is also a broad resemblance in Judith’s story and the story of two important women in Judges: Deborah and Jael (Judg 4). Judith is, at least in a few respects, like a combination of the two, while the rout against the massive army is more reminiscent of the similarly massive Midianite army being routed by Gideon (Judg 7). Moreover, reference is made to the events of the exodus (5:12–16; 6:5), the story of Dinah and the retribution carried out by Simeon and Levi (9:2–4), and the stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (8:26–27). The reference Judith makes to reserving first fruits of grain and tithes of wine and oil for the priests in Jerusalem has connections with multiple directives in the Torah (Exod 23:19; 34:26; Lev 2:14; 23:9–14; 27:30–33; Deut 14:22–29; 26:1–15).

As for the NT, the reference to God as “God of heaven” and its larger role in the contrast of heaven and earth is reminiscent of what we have seen in our analysis of the use of “kingdom of heaven” in Matthew. I have also noted elsewhere the example of Judith in reference to Anna the prophetess, as both may have lived as widows for similarly long times to similarly old ages. While the concern about idolatry that overlays this story is obviously informed by the history narrated in the OT, it also illustrates what informs Judaism at the time of the NT and the events narrated therein. That was one sin the Jews were particularly attentive to avoiding, given what happened last time the nation had given themselves over to it.

In terms of both the Testaments, it should be clear that the references to prayer and the descriptions of God resonate with the OT and the NT. I have also noted the text of Jdt 5 in my series on summaries of Israel’s history in the Bible and otherwise. Finally, as with the concern for idolatry, the references to food laws along with the observance of the holy days highlight practices that are informed by the OT but which in the era prior to and during the writing of the NT were crucial for setting the Jews apart from the gentiles.