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Context No. 844 of 4322 · Judith

Context · Reflection

Judith 2:14-20: in context

14So Holofernes went out from the presence of his lord, and called all the governors, the captains, and officers of the army of Asshur. 15He counted chosen men for the battle, as his lord had commanded him, to one hundred twenty thousand, with twelve thousand archers on horseback. 16He arranged them as a great multitude is ordered for the war. 17He took camels, donkeys, and mules for their baggage, an exceedingly great multitude, and sheep, oxen, and goats without number for their provision, 18and a large supply of rations for every man, and a huge amount of gold and silver out of the king’s house. 19He went out, he and all his army, on their journey, to go before King Nebuchadnezzar, and to cover all the face of the earth westward with their chariots, horsemen, and chosen footmen. 20A great company of various nations went out with them like locusts and like the sand of the earth. For they could not be counted by reason of their multitude.

The book of Judith spends a whole passage simply counting up the enemy, and the counting is the point. Holofernes, the general of Nebuchadnezzar, musters his forces: a hundred and twenty thousand foot soldiers, twelve thousand mounted archers, and behind them a baggage train of camels and donkeys and mules beyond counting, flocks and herds without number for provisions, and gold and silver hauled out of the royal treasury. Then he marches out to do what the passage says in so many words, to cover all the face of the earth to the west. A great mixed multitude of nations goes with him, and the writer reaches for the biggest comparisons he has: they were like locusts, like the sand of the earth, and could not be counted for their multitude.

It is meant to overwhelm the reader, and it does. This is force on a scale that seems to settle every question before a blow is struck; who could stand against an army that covers the earth? But the writer is piling up the numbers on purpose, because he knows how the story ends. All of this uncountable might, all these horses and archers and nations like the sand, is being assembled so that it can be brought down by a single widow with a sword and a prayer. The larger the boast, the greater the reversal God is preparing. The Bible keeps insisting on this: a king is not saved by his great army, the war horse is a false hope, and the force that covers the earth at evening can be gone before morning. The uncountable multitude is not as decisive as it looks.

Holofernes gathered a force like the sand of the earth, and one woman would undo it. What overwhelming, uncountable power intimidates me into thinking the outcome is already decided, when God has humbled far larger before?

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