Judith 13

¹ It grew late and his staff hurried away. Bagoas closed the tent from the outside, having shown out those who still lingered in his lord’s presence. They went to their beds wearied with all their drinking,

² and Judith was left alone in the tent with Holofernes who had collapsed wine-sodden on his bed.

³ Judith then told her maid to stay just outside the bedroom and wait for her to come out, as she did every morning. She had let it be understood she would be going out to her prayers and had also spoken of her intention to Bagoas.

⁴ By now everyone had left Holofernes and no one, either important or unimportant, was left in the bedroom. Standing beside the bed, Judith murmured to herself: ‘Lord God, to whom all strength belongs, prosper what my hands are now to do for the greater glory of Jerusalem,

⁵ now is the time to recover your heritage and further my designs to crush the enemies arrayed against us’.

⁶ With that she went up to the bedpost by Holofernes’ head and took down his scimitar;

⁷ coming closer to the bed she caught him by the hair and said, ‘Make me strong today, Lord God of Israel!’

⁸ Twice she struck at the nape of his neck with all her strength and cut off his head.

⁹ She then rolled his body off the bed and tore the canopy down from the bedposts. Soon after, she went out and gave the head of Holofernes to her attendant

¹⁰ who put it in her food bag. The two then left the camp together, as they always did when they went to pray. Once they were out of the camp, they skirted the ravine, climbed the slope to Bethulia and made for the gates.

¹¹ From a distance, Judith shouted to the guards on the gates, ‘Open the gate! Open! For the Lord our God is with us still, displaying his strength in Israel and his might against our enemies, as he has today!’

¹² Hearing her voice, the townsmen hurried down to the town gate and summoned the elders.

¹³ Everyone, great and small, came running down, since her arrival was unexpected. They threw the gate open, welcomed the women, lit a fire to see by and crowded round them.

¹⁴ Then Judith raised her voice and said, ‘Praise God! Praise him! Praise the God who has not withdrawn his mercy from the House of Israel, but has shattered our enemies by my hand tonight!’

¹⁵ She pulled the head out of the bag and held it for them to see. ‘This is the head of Holofernes, general-in-chief of the Assyrian army; here is the canopy under which he lay drunk! The Lord has struck him down by the hand of a woman!

¹⁶ ‘Glory to the Lord who has protected me in the course I took! My face seduced him, only to his own undoing; he committed no sin with me to shame me or disgrace me.’

¹⁷ Overcome with emotion, the people all fell on their knees and worshipped God, exclaiming as one man, ‘Blessings on you, O our God, for confounding your people’s enemies today!’

¹⁸ Uzziah then said to Judith: ‘May you be blessed, my daughter, by God Most High, beyond all women on earth; and may the Lord God be blessed, the Creator of heaven and earth, by whose guidance you cut off the head of the leader of our enemies.

¹⁹ The trust you have shown shall not pass from the memories of men, but shall ever remind them of the power of God.

²⁰ God grant you to be always held in honour, and rewarded with blessings, since you did not consider your own life when our nation was brought to its knees, but warded off our ruin, walking undeterred before our God.’ All the people answered, ‘Amen!, Amen!’