Judith
Psalm 119:97-120 • Psalm 81, 82
Esther 6:1-14 or Judith 10:1-23 • Acts 19:1-10 • Luke 4:1-13
Gefeol ða wine swa druncen
se rica on his reste middan swa he nyste ræda nanne
on gewitlocan. – the Anglo-Saxon Judith
It's a shame most Protestants don't get to read Judith in their Bible, one of the best-told prose stories of antiquity, and it's a double shame that it has to compete in this one lectionary reading assignment today with the only other great story in the Bible about a woman hero, Esther.
The biblical author of Judith begins by describing the tyrant Nebuchadnezzar, Emperor of the Assyrians, king of Nineveh, not to be confused with the historical tyrant, Nebuchadnezzar, Emperor of Babylon. In a few sentences, our author tells of this Nebuchadnezzar's successful wars against his neighbors and sketches a believable, cruel, proud, angry, vindictive bully who vows vengeance against the Israelites of Judea for holding out against him. His general Holofernes is like his master, as well as being, as we will find out later, hard drinking and licentious. He and his armies cut off the water supply and rage around the fortified precincts of Judea.
With the citizens dying of hunger and thirst and their fortitude faltering, the beautiful widow Judith abandons her mourning weeds and persuades the Council of the Elders, which includes some women, to continue resisting. When they hesitate, she offers a plan to kill Holofernes and carries out the plan herself by infiltrating the Assyrian camp with her trusty maid-servant, a butcher knife, and a food basket large enough to hold a big head. Unlike my unsatisfactory summary, the author of Judith tells his or her story beautifully. Please read it for its warning against drunkenness and licentiousness, and especially for a glorious early example of women helping their people through determination and prayer.
Written by John DuVal
John's translation of the lines above, from the Anglo-Saxon poem, Judith, is, “Then the great general/ fell drunk in his cushions, besotted and senseless,/ out of his wits.”
For a woman's illustration of two women finishing off the great general, he recommends one of Artemisia Gentileschi's many paintings on the subject. Caravaggio's painting is also good, more gruesome but not as powerful. Botticelli's merry Ritorno di Giuditti a Betulia best fits the happy outcome. All three can be found online.