Scripture Daily

Context No. 761 of 4322 · Judith

Context · Reflection

Judith 11:1-16: in context

1Holofernes said to her, “Woman, take courage. Don’t be afraid in your heart; for I never hurt anyone who has chosen to serve Nebuchadnezzar, the king of all the earth. 2And now, if your people who dwell in the hill country had not slighted me, I would not have lifted up my spear against them; but they have done these things to themselves. 3And now tell me why you fled from them and came to us; for you have come to save yourself. Take courage! You will live tonight, and hereafter; 4for there is no one that will wrong you, but all will treat you well, as is done to the servants of King Nebuchadnezzar my lord.” 5And Judith said to him, “Receive the words of your servant, and let your handmaid speak in your presence, and I won’t lie to my lord tonight. 6If you will follow the words of your handmaid, God will bring the thing to pass perfectly with you; and my lord will not fail to accomplish his purposes. 7As Nebuchadnezzar king of all the earth lives, and as his power lives, who has sent you for the preservation of every living thing, not only do men serve him by you, but also the beasts of the field, the cattle, and the birds of the sky will live through your strength, in the time of Nebuchadnezzar and of all his house. 8For we have heard of your wisdom and the subtle plans of your soul. It has been reported in all the earth that you only are brave in all the kingdom, mighty in knowledge, and wonderful in feats of war. 9And now as concerning the matter which Achior spoke in your council, we have heard his words; for the men of Bethulia saved him, and he declared to them all that he had spoken before you. 10Therefore, O lord and master, don’t neglect his word, but lay it up in your heart, for it is true; for our race will not be punished, neither will the sword prevail against them, unless they sin against their God. 11And now, that my lord may not be defeated and frustrated in his purpose, and that death may fall upon them, their sin has overtaken them, wherewith they will provoke their God to anger, whenever they do wickedness. 12Since their food failed them, and all their water was scant, they took counsel to kill their livestock, and determined to consume all those things which God charged them by his laws that they should not eat. 13They are resolved to spend the first fruits of the grain and the tithes of the wine and the oil, which they had sanctified and reserved for the priests who stand before the face of our God in Jerusalem, which it is not fitting for any of the people so much as to touch with their hands. 14They have sent some to Jerusalem, because they also that dwell there have done this thing, to bring them permission from the council of elders. 15When these instructions come to them and they do it, they will be given to you to be destroyed the same day. 16Therefore I your servant, knowing all this, fled away from their presence. God sent me to work things with you, at which all the earth will be astonished, even as many as hear it.

Judith has walked, alone, into the camp of the general besieging her town, posing as a defector. Holofernes, taken with her, reassures her that she will not be harmed, and she answers with a long, carefully built speech. It is a marvel of double meaning. She flatters his power and wisdom, promises to tell no lie to her lord that night, and lays out a plan: the people of Bethulia, desperate and starving, are about to sin against their God by eating what the law forbids, and when they do, God will hand them over, and Holofernes can strike. She has even folded in the true thing Achior told him, that Israel cannot be beaten unless it first sins.

Every line is a trap with two floors. The lord she promises never to lie to is not Holofernes but God; the astonishing thing she says God has sent her to do is the very thing that will end the general, not save him. The book hands the deliverance of a whole people not to an army but to a widow with her wits, walking unarmed into the tent of the man who means to destroy them all. It does not pretend her weapon is anything but cunning against a killer. And it insists that God's rescue can come through the last person anyone in that camp would fear, a woman alone, chosen precisely because no one would see her coming.

God set the rescue of a nation on a lone widow whom the strong never thought to fear. Whom am I dismissing as too small to matter, and am I sure I am not the unlikely one being set to a task like that?

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