Judith 9

Judith fell face down, put ashes on her head, and uncovered the rough mourning cloth she was wearing underneath. At about the time when the incense of that evening was being offered in Jerusalem in the house of the Lord, Judith cried out with a loud voice and said:

1Judith fell upon her face, and put ashes upon her head, and uncovered the sackcloth wherewith she was clothed; and about the time that the incense of that evening was offered in Jerusalem in the house of the Lord Judith cried with a loud voice, and said,

NoteAshes on the head and sackcloth, a coarse cloth of goat hair worn next to the skin, were the standard public signs of mourning or of an urgent appeal for help. Judith has the sackcloth on under her clothes and uncovers it as she begins to pray. In the Jerusalem temple incense was burned twice daily, at the morning and the evening sacrifice. Judith is far from Jerusalem, shut up in Bethulia, and times her prayer to match the hour of the offering there.

2"O Lord God of my father Simeon, you gave him a sword to take revenge on the foreigners who loosened a young woman's belt to defile her, uncovered her thigh to shame her, and defiled her womb to her disgrace. For you had said, 'It shall not be so,' and yet they did it.

2O Lord God of my father Simeon, to whom thou gavest a sword to take vengeance of the strangers, who loosened the girdle of a maid to defile her, and discovered the thigh to her shame, and polluted her virginity to her reproach; for thou saidst, It shall not be so; and yet they did so:

NoteSimeon was the second son of Jacob and the ancestor of Judith's own tribe. The story she recalls is Genesis 34: Shechem, a foreigner, raped Jacob's daughter Dinah, and her brothers Simeon and Levi took revenge by killing the men of his city. "Loosened the girdle" means untied the belt, and "discovered the thigh" means uncovered it; both are indirect ways of describing the stripping and rape. The KJV's "strangers" means foreigners, people outside Israel, not people she did not know.

3So you gave their rulers over to be killed, and their bed, which was put to shame for the woman who was tricked, was stained with blood. You struck down the servants along with their masters, and the masters on their thrones.

3Wherefore thou gavest their rulers to be slain, so that they dyed their bed in blood, being deceived, and smotest the servants with their lords, and the lords upon their thrones;

NoteWho exactly was deceived is unclear in the Greek, and translations divide over it. It can be read of Dinah, tricked by Shechem, or of the men of the city, who were talked into being circumcised by Jacob's sons and then attacked while they were still in pain from it (Genesis 34:13-29).

4You gave their wives away as plunder and their daughters to be taken prisoner, and all the goods taken from them were divided among your dear children. They were stirred up by their zeal for you, they hated the defiling of their own blood, and they called on you for help. O God, my God, hear me too, a widow.

4And hast given their wives for a prey, and their daughters to be captives, and all their spoils to be divided among thy dear children; which were moved with thy zeal, and abhorred the pollution of their blood, and called upon thee for aid: O God, O my God, hear me also a widow.

Note"Thy dear children" are the Israelites, here Jacob's sons. "The pollution of their blood" means the defiling of their own kin, the attack on a woman of their family line. Taking captives and dividing the goods of a defeated town was the normal outcome of ancient warfare, and the account in Genesis 34 describes it without comment.

5You did not only those things, but also the things that happened before them and the things that followed after. You have planned out the things that exist now and the things that are still to come.

5For thou hast wrought not only those things, but also the things which fell out before, and which ensued after; thou hast thought upon the things which are now, and which are to come.

6Yes, the things you decided on stood ready and said, 'Look, here we are.' For all your ways are prepared ahead of time, and you judge with full knowledge of what is coming.

6Yea, what things thou didst determine were ready at hand, and said, Lo, we are here: for all thy ways are prepared, and thy judgments are in thy foreknowledge.

NoteThe decisions God has made are pictured as servants standing ready and reporting for duty: "Lo, we are here." The point of the image is that what God has determined is already waiting to happen.

7Look now: the Assyrians have grown great in power. They are lifted up with horses and riders. They boast in the strength of their foot soldiers. They put their trust in shield and spear and bow and sling. They do not know that you are the Lord who shatters wars. The Lord is your name.

7For, behold, the Assyrians are multiplied in their power; they are exalted with horse and man; they glory in the strength of their footmen; they trust in shield, and spear, and bow, and sling; and know not that thou art the Lord that breakest the battles: the Lord is thy name.

NoteIn the book of Judith the "Assyrians" stand for the great empire of the east; the setting mixes Assyrian, Babylonian and Persian details and does not line up with any one period of history. Being "exalted with horse and man" refers to cavalry and chariots, the expensive arm of an ancient army, and "footmen" are the infantry. The sling was a serious military weapon, a leather strap that threw a stone hard enough to kill. "Thou art the Lord that breakest the battles" echoes the wording of the Greek version of Exodus 15:3, where the Lord is the one who shatters wars.

8Throw down their strength by your power, and bring down their force in your anger. For they have made a plan to defile your holy place, to pollute the tent where your glorious name rests, and to cut down the horn of your altar with the sword.

8Throw down their strength in thy power, and bring down their force in thy wrath: for they have purposed to defile thy sanctuary, and to pollute the tabernacle where thy glorious name resteth and to cast down with sword the horn of thy altar.

Note"Sanctuary" and "tabernacle" here both mean the one temple in Jerusalem; the tent language is inherited from the portable shrine Israel carried in the wilderness and stuck to the temple afterward. The altar had four projecting corners called horns. A person in danger of death could grab hold of them and claim protection there (1 Kings 1:50), so cutting them off with a sword stands for stripping the holy place of everything that made it a refuge.

9Look at their pride, and send your anger down on their heads. Put into my hand, the hand of a widow, the power I have conceived.

9Behold their pride, and send thy wrath upon their heads: give into mine hand, which am a widow, the power that I have conceived.

NoteA widow had no husband to speak or act for her, and that made her one of the legally weakest people in this society; Judith names her own status deliberately, and does so again in verse 10 when she asks to act "by the hand of a woman." "The power that I have conceived" uses the language of pregnancy for the plan she has already formed and is about to carry out.

10Strike down, by the deceit of my lips, the servant along with the ruler, and the ruler along with his servant. Break down their proud grandeur by the hand of a woman.

10Smite by the deceit of my lips the servant with the prince, and the prince with the servant: break down their stateliness by the hand of a woman.

Note"The servant with the prince, and the prince with the servant" is a way of saying everyone from the bottom to the top, the whole army together with its command. "By the hand of a woman" picks up the phrase used in Judges 4:9 of Jael, who killed the enemy commander Sisera in her own tent.

11For your power does not depend on large numbers, and your might does not depend on strong men. You are a God of the afflicted, a helper of the oppressed, a support of the weak, a protector of the abandoned, a savior of those who have no hope.

11For thy power standeth not in multitude nor thy might in strong men: for thou art a God of the afflicted, an helper of the oppressed, an upholder of the weak, a protector of the forlorn, a saviour of them that are without hope.

12I beg you, I beg you, O God of my father, and God of the land given to Israel, Lord of the heavens and the earth, Maker of the waters, king of every living thing: hear my prayer.

12I pray thee, I pray thee, O God of my father, and God of the inheritance of Israel, Lord of the heavens and earth, Creator of the waters, king of every creature, hear thou my prayer:

Note"The inheritance of Israel" is the land assigned to Israel. The word is the ordinary term for a portion of property handed down within a family, and it was used of the territory each tribe received.

13Make my speech and my deceit a wound and a bruise to them, to those who have planned cruel things against your covenant, and against your holy house, and against the top of Zion, and against the house that your children possess.

13And make my speech and deceit to be their wound and stripe, who have purposed cruel things against thy covenant, and thy hallowed house, and against the top of Sion, and against the house of the possession of thy children.

NoteA "stripe" in the KJV is the welt or bruise left by a blow. "Thy covenant" is the binding agreement between God and Israel, with obligations on both sides. "Thy hallowed house" is the temple, "the top of Sion" is the temple hill in Jerusalem (Sion is the older English spelling of Zion), and "the house of the possession of thy children" is the land Israel holds.

14Make every nation and tribe know that you are the God of all power and might, and that there is no one else who protects the people of Israel but you."

14And make every nation and tribe to acknowledge that thou art the God of all power and might, and that there is none other that protecteth the people of Israel but thou.