Judith 10: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Judith finishes her prayer, takes off her sackcloth and widow's clothing, washes and dresses herself in her finest clothes and jewelry, and goes to the city gate with her maid and a bag of food. Ozias and the elders ask God to give her favor and let her succeed, and they open the gate for her. In the valley an Assyrian patrol stops her, and she says she is fleeing from the Hebrews and is coming to Holofernes to show him a way to take the whole hill country without losing a man. A hundred soldiers bring her to Holofernes' tent, the camp crowds around to look at her, and she bows to the ground before him until his servants lift her up.

Claim by Claim

1. 10:1
   • She stopped crying out to the God of Israel.
   • She finished speaking all these words.
2. 10:2
   • She got up from where she had fallen down.
   • She called her maid.
   • She went down into the house where she stayed on sabbath days and on her feast days.
3. 10:3
   • She took off the sackcloth she had been wearing.
   • She took off the garments of her widowhood.
   • She washed her body all over with water.
   • She anointed herself with rich ointment.
   • She arranged the hair of her head in braids.
   • She put a headdress on her head.
   • She put on her garments of gladness.
   • These were the garments she wore during the lifetime of her husband Manasses.
4. 10:4
   • She put sandals on her feet.
   • She put on her anklets, bracelets, rings, earrings, and all her ornaments.
   • She made herself very beautiful.
   • She adorned herself so as to catch the eyes of any men who saw her.
5. 10:5
   • She gave her maid a skin bottle of wine.
   • She gave her maid a flask of oil.
   • She filled a bag with parched grain, cakes of figs, and fine bread.
   • She wrapped up all her vessels together.
   • She laid these things on her maid.
6. 10:6
   • They went out to the gate of the city of Bethulia.
   • They found Ozias standing at the gate.
   • They found the elders of the city, Chabris and Charmis, standing at the gate.
7. 10:7
   • The men saw her.
   • Her face was altered.
   • Her clothing was changed.
   • They marvelled very greatly at her beauty.
   • They spoke to her.
8. 10:8
   • They asked that the God of their fathers grant her favour.
   • They asked that God bring her undertakings to completion.
   • They asked that this be to the glory of the children of Israel.
   • They asked that this be to the exaltation of Jerusalem.
   • They worshipped God.
9. 10:9
   • She spoke to them.
   • She told them to command that the gate of the city be opened for her.
   • She said she would go out to accomplish the things they had spoken of with her.
   • They ordered the young men to open the gate for her as she had said.
10. 10:10
    • The young men did as commanded.
    • Judith went out.
    • Her maid went out with her.
    • The men of the city watched her until she had gone down the mountain.
    • They watched her until she had crossed the valley.
    • They could see her no longer.
11. 10:11
    • They went straight forward in the valley.
    • An Assyrian advance guard met her.
12. 10:12
    • They seized her.
    • They asked her what people she belonged to.
    • They asked her where she was coming from.
    • They asked her where she was going.
    • She said she was a daughter of the Hebrews.
    • She said she was fleeing from them.
    • She said the Hebrews were about to be given to the Assyrians to be devoured.
13. 10:13
    • She said she was coming before Holofernes, the chief captain of their army.
    • She said she was coming to declare words of truth.
    • She said she would show him a route by which he could go.
    • She said he would gain mastery over all the hill country.
    • She said not one of his men would be lost, neither body nor breath of life.
14. 10:14
    • The men heard her words.
    • The men looked closely at her face.
    • They marvelled greatly at her beauty.
    • They spoke to her.
15. 10:15
    • They said she had saved her life by hurrying down to the presence of their lord.
    • They told her to come to his tent.
    • They said some of them would escort her.
    • They said the escort would continue until they handed her over into his hands.
16. 10:16
    • They told her not to be afraid in her heart when she stood before him.
    • They told her to report to him according to her words.
    • They said he would treat her well.
17. 10:17
    • They chose a hundred men from among themselves.
    • These men were assigned to accompany her and her maid.
    • They brought her to the tent of Holofernes.
18. 10:18
    • There was a running together of people throughout the camp.
    • Word of her arrival spread through the tents.
    • They came and surrounded her while she stood outside the tent of Holofernes.
    • This continued until they announced her to him.
19. 10:19
    • They marvelled at her beauty.
    • They marvelled at the children of Israel because of her.
    • Each man said to his neighbour that no one would despise a people that has such women among them.
    • They said it was not good to leave one man of them alive.
    • They said that those left go would be able to outwit the whole earth.
20. 10:20
    • Those who attended Holofernes came out.
    • All his servants came out.
    • They brought her into the tent.
21. 10:21
    • Holofernes was resting on his bed.
    • He was under a canopy.
    • The canopy was woven of purple, gold, emeralds, and precious stones.
22. 10:22
    • They reported her to him.
    • He came out to the space in front of his tent.
    • Silver lamps went before him.
23. 10:23
    • Judith came before him and his servants.
    • They all marvelled at the beauty of her face.
    • She fell down on her face.
    • She did obeisance to him.
    • His servants raised her up.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

10:1

Crying out here means praying out loud. She was not crying tears.

10:2

Earlier in the book Judith had made a shelter on the flat roof of her house and lived in it from the time her husband died, fasting and wearing widow's clothing. "Went down into the house" means she came down off the roof into the house proper, which she had been doing only on the Sabbath and on festival days, when fasting and mourning were set aside.

10:3

Sackcloth was coarse dark cloth woven from goat hair, worn next to the skin as a public sign of grief or distress. A widow also wore distinctive clothing that marked her status to everyone who saw her; Judith had worn hers for more than three years. Rubbing the skin and hair with olive oil blended with perfume was ordinary grooming, and people in mourning gave it up, so taking it up again was a visible signal that the mourning was over. Where the King James says she "put on a tire upon it," tire is an old word related to attire and means a headdress or turban; it has nothing to do with wheels.

10:4

The King James "decked herself bravely" uses brave in its 1611 sense of finely dressed, showy, splendid to look at, not courageous. Its "chains" are ankle chains, worn as anklets. The Greek behind "to allure the eyes" is stronger than mere attraction: it carries the sense of deceiving or entrapping the eye.

10:5

Wine was carried in a bag sewn from a whole animal skin, not in glass. A cruse is a small pottery jar. "Parched corn" is roasted grain, usually barley or wheat: corn in the King James means grain of any kind, never maize, which was unknown in Europe in 1611. Figs were pressed into solid cakes that kept for months. Judith brings her own food and her own dishes because she will be eating in a foreign camp, where the food and the vessels would not meet Jewish food laws.

10:6

Bethulia is known only from this book. It is described as a town on a height commanding the mountain pass that leads up from the plain toward Jerusalem, which is why the whole Assyrian army is stopped in front of it. The King James "ancients" simply means elders: the senior men who governed the town. Ozias, Chabris and Charmis are the three named in chapter 6 as its magistrates.

10:8

"The exaltation of Jerusalem" means raising Jerusalem back up in standing and honor among the nations, the opposite of being brought low or humiliated. The King James "enterprizes" means the things she has undertaken to do.

10:10

The city was built high on a hill. That made it hard for enemies to attack.

10:11

A watch is a body of sentries on duty for one fixed shift, and the phrase here means the forward line of guards, the first ones a traveler coming up the valley would run into.

10:12

"Hebrews" was another name for the people of Israel. It was the name outsiders most often used for them.

10:13

"Chief captain" is the King James term for a commander in chief, the officer over the whole army. The hill country is the high, broken limestone ridge running down the middle of the land, narrow passes and steep approaches, which is exactly what has stalled the Assyrians; a road through it without a fight is what she is offering.

10:15

"Our lord" here means their master and commanding officer, Holofernes. In the King James the word lord is used for any superior, human or divine, and the context decides which.

10:16

In 1611 English, to entreat someone meant to treat them, to deal with them in a certain way. "He will entreat thee well" means he will treat you well, not that he will beg you.

10:18

A concourse is a crowd running together from all directions. "Her coming was noised among the tents" means word of it was passed by mouth from tent to tent.

10:19

The Greek behind "deceive" means to outwit or get the better of. "The whole earth" means the whole inhabited world, all of humankind, not the planet as a piece of ground.

10:20

These are the men who slept in and around the commander's tent: his personal attendants and bodyguard, the closest ring of his household.

10:21

The Greek word here is konopion, a fine net hung on posts above a bed to keep insects out, from the word for mosquito; it is the source of the English word canopy. This one is a luxury version, woven through with purple thread, gold, and set with stones. It is mentioned in this much detail because it matters later in the story.

10:22

Having attendants walk ahead of you carrying lamps, silver ones at that, was a mark of high rank at court. It also tells the reader it is night.

10:23

Falling face down on the ground was the ordinary way of greeting a king or a great lord in this part of the world, an act of formal respect toward a superior. His servants lifting her up is the expected courtesy in reply.