Judith
Introduction
We are not going to spend much time to demonstrate that this entire story is fiction. The first verse tells us about Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the Assyrians, whereas he was the king of Babylon and he crushed Assyria. The discourses of his general, Holofernes, are unreal caricatures in which we find countless anachronisms. The Book of Judith is an edifying narrative (see the introduction of Esther). It was inspired by records and legends of the national resistance at the time of the Maccabees.
Having said that, however, it is obvious that the author wanted to remind us of a permanent truth about history: God is against the powers of oppression and he always carries out his own plan. This book contains numerous allusions to Exodus and Chapters 15-16 of Judith pick up again the ideas and words of Exodus 15. There was a promise made by God to Abraham (Gen 12:2-3); it is insisted upon more clearly in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28. According to this promise, God would defend his people when they were faithful to the law, but would deliver them to their enemies whenever they did not follow the law. God’s people returned from exile a short time before. They rebuilt the capital, Jerusalem, restored the temple and the worship of God, and were resettled in the entire country. In short, they were living a period of faithfulness to God and, according to his promise, God would protect them.
Throughout the entire book, and in the same order, we find the various episodes and the dialogues of the combat of David and Goliath. What prompted the author to explain the specific character of this new presentation of God’s victories appears to have been the heroic resistance against the Syrian invaders in the days of Maccabees. Judith’s victory expresses the hopes of the Jewish people after such difficult years, hopes that enabled them to recover their independence after more than three centuries. Thus not only had the Jews recovered their independence but they had also conquered a large section of Palestine: all the people thought that the time was approaching when God would gather his people and rule over the nations.
The Book of Judith (Judith means the Jewess) attempts to demonstrate that God keeps his promise. We should add that Judith is one of the rare books of the Scriptures with a woman as its heroine. This was prejudicial to the book. If it was excluded from the Hebrew Bible, it was in part, because they only had the Greek version. Perhaps they were also upset by the role of Judith: it was depriving the priests and doctors of their monopoly.
David and Goliath: the latter, armed to the teeth and the former, the weak one. One has the technology, sophisticated weapons and the international bank at his disposal. He is able to spread and to impose his truth throughout the world so that his own interests appear to be the cause of good… And the weak one, always despoiled, silenced, considered guilty, often segregated on reservations and in refugee camps. The hour of God will come. However, it may not be the revenge and the massacres with which the author of Judith was dreaming since the reins of history are in the hands of the one who was crucified and rose again and all will be the saved, even if we do not know what may be the salvation to which God is leading us.
2.1 Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Nineveh, passes a law demanding to be acknowledged as the only god; people resist. The king sends his armies to force people to comply; he defeats the powerful king of the Medes, but the Jewish people, unlike the others, refuse to submit.
7.19 When a community starts to look only at what is evil, its bad luck, it begins to lose faith in the future and forgets it has means for getting out of the situation.
God has delivered us into the hands of these pagans (v. 25). The people of Bethulia declare their defeat beforehand because they only see the human side of the situation, which is unpleasant, and do not remember God’s promise (Lev 26 and Dt 28). They have prayed and have done penance, but in spite of all that, God is deaf to their pleas. The conclusion is obvious: “We are lost.”
In their discouragement, they only see their need and do not measure the consequences of what they are doing. They do not think that to surrender to Holofernes and to acknowledge Nebuchadnezzar as God is to disown God. All they see is that it is better to live as slaves than to die.
“I do not get anything by asking; God will not listen to me,” is what we usually hear disheartened people say, as the people of Bethulia did. This discouragement is especially contagious when it comes from the father of the family.
8.4 The Lord achieves his plans through the humble; he reveals his plans to the little ones and the humble (Mt 11:25-30). We can observe the Lord’s way of doing things throughout the Scriptures: for example, his choosing David (1 S 16) and something similar in 1 Maccabees 3:18-22. In spite of her wealth, Judith is an insignificant woman before Holofernes’ military power.
Who are you to put God to the test? (v. 12). Faithfulness to God stands out in Judith’s speech to the leaders of the city. She reproaches them for wanting to put time limits on God to fulfill their human plans. Today many Christians do the same with their gifts when they wish to force God to grant them a specific favor.
If the enemies capture us… the whole of Judea will be taken (v. 21). Those with problems must think not only of their own interest but also of other people’s. Judith forces them to think about the rest of the nation and not only about their city, Bethulia. National solidarity compels them to resist.
12.10 In the dialogue between Judith and Holofernes, note how Judith says “my Lord” giving these words a double meaning. She does not lie, but she speaks in such a way that Holofernes takes it for himself meanwhile Judith means her Lord.
13.1 The whole account that follows emphasizes the vigilant love of God who intervenes when it is necessary and who safely conducts our enterprises, even those apparently doomed to failure when we risk everything to save our brothers and sisters. In this sense it is true. We shall note, however, that the trickery of Judith and the incredible rout of the Assyrians after the death of Holofernes are a dream of childish powerlessness. The account was composed after the time of the Maccabees from the memories of a crushed people, unable to resist the oppressor; it originated in the migrant Jewish communities who had lost their taste and capability for an armed struggle. The old dream of a magic resource rises again; here we have a miraculous intervention of God capable of overturning all situations and crushing evil forever.
Here it is easy to see a mixture of the human and the divine: limitless trust in God and the fabulous dreams of a child. Here once more the cross of Jesus and his resurrection, so strong and so discreet, will keep us within reality.
The account rings true however when the triumph of Judith makes little of the prestige and venerability of men, elders or priests, who pass for the leaders of God’s people. It is an act of reparation in favor of women in a thoroughly macho society: God has no thought for these alleged valiant or honored men; all they have to do is applaud an untitled woman.
18. May the Most High God bless you more than all women on earth. Luke will remember these words and will adapt them to Mary (Lk 1:42). With Luke, we easily see in Judith’s victory the image of another victory in which Mary “crushed the head of the serpent” in perfectly welcoming the Son of God and his patient work to redeem the world from the Devil’s hands, as the Scriptures had announced (Gen 3:15). The hymn we refer to: You are the glory of Israel speaks more truly of Mary than of Judith.
