THE BOOK OF JUDITH
Lesson 3
Chapters 4-5
The Judahites are Alerted to the Danger and Turn to God in Prayer
Holofernes Calls a Council of War
The author continues to ignore the historical record by placing the return from the Babylonian exile and the repopulation of Jerusalem (539-400 BC) all in the lifetime of Nebuchadnezzar II (died 562 BC). The return from exile under Persian King Cyrus is regarded as having already taken place (Judith 4:3; 5:19). The point is that the writer is not giving a historical account. Instead, he is reminding the covenant people how their past failures to repent their sins and return to obedience to the Mosaic covenant resulted in catastrophe. However, the invasion and promise of destruction they are now facing does not have to be a repeat of the past if they will only repent their sins and turn back to the Lord their God.
Judith 4:1-8 ~ Judaea on the Alert
1 When the Israelites living in Judaea heard how
Holofernes, general-in-chief of Nebuchadnezzar king of the Assyrians, had
treated the various nations, plundering their temples and destroying them, 2
they were thoroughly alarmed at his approach and trembled for Jerusalem
and the Temple of the Lord their God. 3 They had returned from
captivity only a short time before, and the resettlement of the people in
Judaea and the reconsecration of the sacred furnishings, of the altar, and of
the Temple, which had been profaned, were of recent date. 4 They
therefore alerted the whole of Samaria, Kona, Beth-Horon, Belmain, Jericho,
Choba, Aesora and the Salem valley. 5 They occupied the summits of
the highest mountains and fortified the villages on them; they laid in supplies
for the coming war, as the fields had just been harvested. 6 Joakim
the high priest, resident in Jerusalem at the time, wrote to the inhabitants of
Bethulia and of Betomesthaim, two towns facing Esdraelon, towards the plain of
Dothan. 7 He ordered them to occupy the mountain passes, the only
means of access to Judaea, for there it would be easy for them to halt an
attacking force, the narrowness of the approach not allowing men to advance
more than two abreast. 8 The Israelites carried out the orders of
Joakim the high priest and of the people's Council of Elders in session at
Jerusalem.
Holofernes and Bagoas, Holofernes' eunuch (Judith 12:11; 13:1ff), have Persian names, but there are also allusions to Greek customs (3:7-8; 15:13). Nebuchadnezzar functions as a symbol for the greatest disaster that could happen. The profanation of the Jerusalem Temple and the deportation of the people into exile did indeed take place under Nebuchadnezzar in 587 BC, but the return did not take place until 359 BC. Historically, the most recent profanation of the Temple took place under the Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes during the Maccabean war in the second century BC, the period in which the story of Judith takes place. The Maccabees restored and purified the Temple in 164 BC after defeating and driving out the Seleucid army. The author has layered three events in the past: the major disaster of the past, the major restoration of the past, and the crisis of his own time.
The Assyrians and Babylonians may have brought the greatest disasters to Israel/Judah, but those disasters were because the people had abandoned Yahweh:
Yet those hard times were overcome; Yahweh brought the people back from exile to rebuild their Temple. The writer of Judith is implying that the present crisis can also be reversed if the people turn back to God.
The people prepare to resist by establishing fortresses, stockpiling provisions, and stationing men in strategic positions (verses 4-8).
4 They therefore alerted the whole of Samaria, Kona, Beth-Horon, Belmain, Jericho, Choba, Aesora and the Salem valley.
6 Joakim the high priest, resident in
Jerusalem at the time, wrote to the inhabitants of Bethulia and of
Betomesthaim, two towns facing Esdraelon, towards the plain of Dothan.
Joakim is the High Priest of the Jerusalem Temple. The
towns of Bethulia and Betomesthaim are not mentioned elsewhere. In this
passage, they are represented as key positions dominating the approach to Judah
and Jerusalem
(4:6-8 and 8:21).
8 The Israelites carried out the orders of
Joakim the high priest and of the people's Council of Elders in session at
Jerusalem.
The High Priest associated with a "Council of Elders"
does not appear as an established institution until the Greek period in the 1st
century BC.
Judith 4:9-15 ~ A Nation at Prayer
9 All the men of Israel cried most
fervently to God and humbled themselves before him. 10 They, their
wives, their children, their cattle, all their resident aliens, hired or slave,
wrapped sackcloth round their loins. 11 All the Israelites in
Jerusalem, including women and children, lay prostrate in front of the Temple,
and with ashes on their heads stretched out their hands before the Lord. 12
They draped the altar itself in sackcloth and fervently joined together
in begging the God of Israel not to let their children be carried off, their
wives distributed as booty, the towns of their heritage destroyed, the Temple
profaned and desecrated for the heathen to gloat over. 13 The Lord
heard them and looked kindly on their distress. The people fasted for many days
throughout Judaea as well as in Jerusalem before the sanctuary of the Lord
Almighty. 14 Joakim the high priest and all who stood before the
Lord, the Lord's priests and ministers, wore sackcloth round their loins as
they offered the perpetual burnt offering and the votive and voluntary
offerings of the people. 15 With ashes on their turbans they
earnestly called on the Lord to look kindly on the House of Israel.
In this chapter, the people cry/call out to God. During their Egyptian enslavement, the Israelites seemed doomed. It appeared that Yahweh was absent and was only mentioned two times between Exodus 1:1 and 2:22, and then only regarding the Egyptian midwives. But when they finally cried out to Him, The Israelites, groaning in their slavery, cried out for help, and from the depths of their slavey their cry came up to God. God heard their groaning; God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Ex 2:23-24). And in 701 BC, King Sennacherib of Assyria advanced on all the fortified towns of Judah and captured them. Their fate seemed hopeless. Then, while the Assyrians besieged Jerusalem, King Hezekiah of Judah went to the Temple and called upon Yahweh, saying, "God of Israel ... Give ear, Yahweh, and listen; open your eyes, Yahweh, and see! ... Yahweh our God, save us from his (Assyrian King Sennachrib's) clutches, I beg you, and let all the kingdoms of the world know that you alone are God, Yahweh" (2 Kng 19:15-19). God heard the prayers of Hezekiah and his people. That night the angel of Yahweh struck down a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp, causing the Assyrians to abandon the siege and return to Assyria (2 Kng 19:35-37).
The covenant people's men, women, children, slaves, and resident aliens (Gentiles who are perhaps converts) humble themselves before God. They repent of their sins, wearing sackcloth on their bodies and ashes on their heads as a sign of their repentance. This pattern is consistently repeated in the Book of Judges (cf. Judg 3:7-11). In the Book of Judith, the people cry, beg, and call on Yahweh three times in seven verses (4:9, 12, 15). God hears their call and acknowledges their distress. The covenant people's crying out to God is the beginning of their deliverance.
12 They draped the altar itself in sackcloth.
Sackcloth was commonly used as penitential dress, but to dress the holy altar in
sackcloth is a surprising act. This is primarily a struggle about religion. The
enemy symbolizes impiety and the pride of thinking their leader is stronger
than Israel's God, unlike God's people who know that their strength can only
come from Yahweh alone. Their prayer is the way to acknowledge their dependence
on God. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: "by prayer and petition
we express awareness of our relationship with God. We are creatures who are not
our own beginning, not the masters of adversity, not our own last end. We are
sinners who as Christians know that we have turned away from our Father. Our
petition is already a turning back to him" (CCC 2629).
The people also fasted (verse 13). The prophet Isaiah wrote that fasting is meant to show one is determined to avoid sinning (cf. Is 58:3-5). Communal fasting is a way to implore God's mercy (cf. Jon 3:5; 2 Mac 13:13).
Judith 5:1-24 ~ A Council of War in Holofernes' Camp
1 Holofernes, general-in-chief of the Assyrian army, received the intelligence that the
Israelites were preparing for war, that they had closed the mountain passes,
fortified all the high peaks and laid obstructions in the plains. 2 Holofernes
was furious. He summoned all the princes of Moab, all the generals of Ammon and
all the satraps of the coastal regions. 3 "Men of Canaan,' he said,
tell me: what people is this that occupies the hill-country? What towns does
it inhabit? How large is its army? What are the sources of its power and
strength? Who is the king who rules it and commands its army? 4 Why
have they disdained to wait on me, as all the western peoples have?" 5 Achior,
leader of all the Ammonites, replied, May my lord be pleased to listen to what
your servant is going to say. I shall give you the facts about these mountain
folk whose home lies close to you. You will hear no lie from the mouth of your
servant. 6 These people are descended from the Chaldaeans. 7 They
once came to live in Mesopotamia, because they did not want to follow the gods
of their ancestors who lived in Chaldaea. 8 They abandoned the way
of their ancestors to worship the God of heaven, the God they learnt to
acknowledge. Banished from the presence of their own gods, they fled to
Mesopotamia where they lived for a long time. 9 When God told them
to leave their home and set out for Canaan, they settled there and accumulated
gold and silver and great herds of cattle. 10 Next, famine having
overwhelmed the land of Canaan, they went down to Egypt where they stayed till
they were well nourished. There they became a great multitude, a race beyond
counting. 11 But the king of Egypt turned against them and exploited
them by forcing them to make bricks; he degraded them, reducing them to
slavery. 12 They cried to their God, who struck the entire land of
Egypt with incurable plagues, and the Egyptians expelled them. 13 God
dried up the Red Sea before them 14 and led them forward by way of
Sinai and Kadesh-Barnea. Having driven off all the inhabitants of the desert,
15 they settled in the land of the Amorites and in their strength
exterminated the entire population of Heshbon. Then, having crossed the Jordan,
they took possession of all the hill-country, 16 driving out the
Canaanites before them and the Perizzites, Jebusites, Shechemites and all the
Girgashites, and lived there for many years. 17 All the while they
did not sin before their God, prosperity was theirs, for they have a God who
hates wickedness. 18 But when they turned from the path he had
marked out for them some were exterminated in a series of battles, others were
taken captive to a foreign land. The Temple of their God was razed to the
ground, and their towns were seized by their enemies. 19 Then having
turned once again to their God, they came back from the places to which they
had been dispersed and scattered, regained possession of Jerusalem, where they
have their Temple, and reoccupied the hill-country which had been left
deserted. 20 So, now, master and lord, if this people has committed
any fault, if they have sinned against their God, let us first be sure that
they really have this reason to fail, then advance and attack them. 21 But
if their nation is guiltless, my lord would do better to abstain, for fear that
their Lord and God should protect them. We should then become the
laughing-stock of the whole world.' 22 When Achior had ended this
speech, all the people crowding round the tent began protesting. Holofernes'
own senior officers, as well as all the coastal peoples and the Moabites,
threatened to tear him limb from limb. 23 Why should we be afraid
of the Israelites? They are a weak and powerless people, quite unable to stand
a stiff attack. 24 Forward! Advance! Your army, Holofernes our
master, will swallow them in one mouthful!'
General Holofernes reacts to Israel's defiance by summoning the leaders of the lands surrounding Israel. He is unfamiliar with the history of the people of Judah, so he asks his allies who surround Israel six questions:
He wants to know why the Israelites are unlike every other nation in the West that has surrendered to him.
The Moabites and Ammonites were the descendants of Abraham's nephew Lot (Gen 19:30-38), who occupied territories east of the Jordan River. Achior the Ammonite provides a summary of the history of the people of Judah. In verses 5-21, Achior reminds us of Ahilud, the virtuous Gentile sage in the Book of Tobit (see Tob 1:21). His summary of the history of Yahweh's covenant people focuses on the acts of God on behalf of His beloved people. His presentation prepares the way for Judith's discourse in 11:5-19. His favorable comments enrage the general's allies, who threaten to kill him (verse 22).
Verses 6-9 refer to Abram (Abraham), called by God to leave Ur of the Chaldeans to settle in a land of promise (Gen 11:28, 31; 12:1-2).
15 they settled
in the land of the Amorites and in their strength exterminated the entire
population of Heshbon. Then, having crossed the Jordan, they took possession of
all the hill-country, 16 driving out the Canaanites before them and
the Perizzites, Jebusites, Shechemites and all the Girgashites, and lived there
for many years.
Heshbon was a Moabite city,
located on the east side of the Jordan River. Moses and the Israelites captured
Heshbon during the conquest of Canaan. Later Heshbon was given as past of the
territory of the Israelite tribe of Ruben and designated a Levitical priestly
city and a city of refuge (Num 21:25;
Dt 1:4; 2:26;
Judg 11:12-28;
Josh 13:17, 26; 21:37;
1 Chron 6:66). Later it was reconquered by the Moabites
(Is 15:4; 16:8-9;
Jer 48:2).
These people inhabited Canaan before the conquest by Joshua and the Israelites:
According to Achior, the question Holofernes should be asking is whether the Israelites have remained faithful to their one God, Yahweh. If they have, then their God will fight for them, and they cannot be defeated. He repeats the basic principles of the theory of retribution in the Book of Deuteronomy: If Israel is obedient to God, the people will be blessed; if Israel fails in obedience, they will be cursed (Dt 28). Achior incorporates this into his advice to Holofernes: "20 So, now, master and lord, if this people has committed any fault, if they have sinned against their God, let us first be sure that they really have this reason to fail, then advance and attack them. 21 But if their nation is guiltless, my lord would do better to abstain, for fear that their Lord and God should protect them." Holofernes dismisses what Achior has told him. Neither he nor his allies can comprehend a power greater than Holofernes and his allies' material power.
24 Forward! Advance! Your army, Holofernes
our master, will swallow them in one mouthful!'
Verse 24 repeats a Persian expression (see
Ezra 5:11f and 6:9f),
which is also found in the Elephantine papyri.1
In the Bible, the expression is often put into the mouth of
a non-Jew (see Dan 2:18). Instead of heeding Achior's warning concerning the
people of Judah and their powerful God, the general's allies disregard his
message, threaten to kill him, and urge Holofernes to destroy the people of
Judah.
Endnote:
1. The Elephantine papyri
consist of thousands of documents concerning a Jewish community living on the
Egyptian border fortresses of Elephantine and Aswan spanning a period of 100
years in the 5th to 4th centuries BC.
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