Scripture Daily

Context No. 511 of 4322 · Judith

Context · Reflection

Judith 2:21-28: in context

21And they departed out of Nineveh three days’ journey toward the plain of Bectileth, and encamped from Bectileth near the mountain which is at the left hand of the Upper Cilicia. 22And he took all his army, his footmen, horsemen, and chariots, and went away from there into the hill country, 23and destroyed Put and Lud, and plundered all the children of Rasses and the children of Ishmael, which were along the wilderness to the south of the land of the Chellians. 24And he went over Euphrates, and went through Mesopotamia, and broke down all the high cities that were upon the river Arbonai, until you come to the sea. 25And he took possession of the borders of Cilicia, and killed all who resisted him, and came to the borders of Japheth, which were toward the south, opposite Arabia. 26He surrounded all the children of Midian, and set their tents on fire, and plundered their sheepfolds. 27He went down into the plain of Damascus in the days of wheat harvest, and set all their fields on fire, and utterly destroyed their flocks and herds, plundered their cities, laid their plains waste, and struck all their young men with the edge of the sword. 28And the fear and the dread of him fell upon those who lived on the sea coast, upon those who were in Sidon and Tyre, those who lived in Sur and Ocina, and all who lived in Jemnaan. Those who lived in Azotus and Ascalon feared him exceedingly.

This passage is a catalog of terror. Holofernes, the general of the great empire, marches out with a vast army and lays waste to everything in his path, burning fields at harvest time, slaughtering the young men, plundering flocks and cities, breaking down fortified towns, leaving whole regions in ruins. And the passage ends by describing the effect that ran ahead of him: the fear and dread of him fell upon all the people of the coast, on Sidon and Tyre and the rest, and they feared him exceedingly. That last note is the important one. Before Holofernes reached these coastal cities, before he had even come near them, the fear of him had already arrived and conquered their hearts.

That is how tyrants and threats do much of their work. The dread runs ahead of the actual danger and does the conquering in advance. By the time the army is at the gate, the people are already defeated inside, paralyzed by a fear that magnified the threat far beyond what stood in front of them. Fear was Holofernes' most effective weapon, and he had not even had to use his sword to wield it. Anyone reading the book of Judith knows how the story ends: this terrifying colossus, before whom whole nations trembled, is brought down not by a rival army but by a single widow with a courage that refused to be ruled by dread. The thing everyone feared as unstoppable was toppled by the one who would not let its fearsomeness rule her.

That names something the threats in my own life do to me constantly. A looming difficulty, a strong opponent, a frightening possibility, and long before it has actually done anything, the dread of it has already moved into my chest and defeated me, magnifying it far past its real size. Holofernes conquered the coast with fear alone, and was undone by one person who would not surrender to it. What threat has already conquered me through fear before it has struck a single blow, and what would change if I refused to let its fearsomeness rule me?

Sources