Context No. 3068 of 4322 · Judith

Judith 1:7-11: in context

7And Nebuchadnezzar king of the Assyrians sent to all who lived in Persia, and to all who lived westward, to those who lived in Cilicia, Damascus, Libanus, Antilibanus, and to all who lived along the sea coast, 8and to those among the nations that were of Carmel and Gilead, and to the higher Galilee and the great plain of Esdraelon, 9and to all who were in Samaria and its cities, and beyond Jordan to Jerusalem, Betane, Chellus, Kadesh, the river of Egypt, Tahpanhes, Rameses, and all the land of Goshen, 10until you come above Tanis and Memphis, and to all that lived in Egypt, until you come to the borders of Ethiopia. 11All those who lived in all the land made light of the commandment of Nebuchadnezzar king of the Assyrians, and didn’t go with him to the war; for they were not afraid of him, but he was before them as one man. They turned away his messengers from their presence without effect, and with disgrace.

The book of Judith opens with Nebuchadnezzar summoning all the western nations to join his war, from Persia to the sea coast, from Damascus to Egypt. But the nations refuse. They make light of his command, not afraid of him, treating him as merely one man, and they send his messengers back in disgrace.

This sets up the whole conflict of the book. The great king demands the nations' allegiance and their armies, and they refuse; to them he was as one man, not the god-like power he imagined himself to be. Their defiance enrages him and will set his campaign in motion. But the scene quietly punctures the tyrant's self-importance. For all his grand summons, he is, in the eyes of the nations, just one man. And the book's whole argument will be that this great king, who demands to be feared like a god, is nothing before the true God, who will bring him down through a widow's hand.

When earthly power demands the allegiance and fear that belong to God alone, do I remember that even the greatest tyrant is, before God, only one man?

Sources

Judith 1:11: "They were not afraid of him, but he was before them as one man."
Psalm 2:4: "He who sits in the heavens will laugh. The Lord will have them in derision."
Isaiah 40:15: "Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust."