Judith — Chapter 14

Dixit autem Judith suspendite caput

She commands the head to be hung on the walls so that the Assyrians, seeing their leader slain, will be struck with panic and flee.

Et erit cum exierit sol accipiat

Go out with impetus — not as if descending below for a real and serious battle with the far more powerful Assyrians — but as if making an assault, that is, as if pressing against the nearest enemy post. As if to say: do not fight in full battle formation (too few against innumerable enemies), but simulate an attack, so that the Assyrians will run to Holofernes to form a battle line, and seeing him slain will be struck with panic and flee. Judith did not want the Assyrians to be attacked before the news of Holofernes's death had spread and rendered them confused and leaderless — for had she given them time, they could have chosen another leader to continue the siege of Bethulia. But she wisely planned that once the death of Holofernes was known, the Bethulians should instantly fall upon the terrified fleeing enemy with full force. Note Judith's military prudence: she was wiser than Hannibal, who having crushed the Romans at Cannae delayed pressing on to Rome, prompting his cavalry commander Maharbal to say: \"You know how to win, Hannibal, but you do not know how to use a victory\" (Livy, lib. XXII).

Tunc Achior videns virtutem quam

Seeing the mighty and prodigious divine victory, Achior left the rite of paganism, believed in God, and was circumcised by the hand of some Levite. Although Ammonites, Arabs, Phoenicians, Egyptians, and Ethiopians had long ago received circumcision from Abraham and the Jews, they had received it as a free, not obligatory practice (unlike the Hebrews who received it by God's command). Many thus did not circumcise themselves out of shame and pain. Achior, though Ammonite, was uncircumcised; but converted to Judaism by Judith's deed, he circumcised himself. Circumcision was the profession of Judaism and the Mosaic Law, just as baptism is now the profession of Christianity and the Evangelical Law. He was \"added to the people of Israel\" as a citizen with full civic rights to all their privileges, rights, dignities, and even magistracies. A dispensation was permitted from the law of Deut 23:3 (forbidding Ammonites and Moabites from entering the assembly of Israel) on account of his eminent merits toward Israel — as Ruth the Moabitess was admitted to Israel and marrying Boaz became the grandmother of David and thus of Christ.

Nullus enim audebat cubiculum virtutis

The strength of the Assyrians — they called their leader and commander Holofernes by this title of power and majesty, just as we call a king \"Royal Majesty,\" \"His Highness,\" \"His Excellency.\"

Egressi mures de cavernis in

They call the Jews \"mice\" contemptuously, as unarmed and weak — but they soon found that these mice had become lions who would prostrate their elephants.

Tunc ingressus Vagao cubiculum stetit

The princes of the Assyrians and Persians maintained their gravity and majesty to such a degree that they spoke and gave responses only through a curtain, as the kings of China still do today. Athenaeus (lib. IV, ch. 6) from Heraclides reports that princes invited by the Persian king to a banquet dined in the same room as him, but with a veil between them, so that they could not see him though he could easily see them.

Cadaver jacere super terram

The Greek says \"on the bed\" — or the bed was on the floor near the couch, as the Greek of verse 16 has it.

Una mulier Hebraea fecit confusionem

She brought confusion into the king's house by killing the commander and throwing the whole camp into consternation, alarm, and panic. See Judith's prudence in going for the commander's head: by removing him she removed the whole camp. A camp without a commander is like a people without a king, sheep without a shepherd, disciples without a master, sons without a father, citizens without a consul. Hence the Roman king Tarquin, cutting the heads of poppies in his garden, thus signified to his son by a secret messenger that the heads of the leading men of Gabii must be removed — whereupon the Gabinians, leaderless (as if headless), surrendered to Tarquin (Livy). The Fathers apply this mystically to the Blessed Virgin, who by crushing the head of the infernal Dragon laid low all his legions of hellish spirits.