Judith — Chapter 16

Tunc cantavit canticum hoc Domino

Judith sang this canticle to the Lord. This hymn of Judith is one of the most celebrated canticles in Scripture, parallel to the Song of Moses (Exod 15) and the Song of Deborah (Judg 5).

Dominus conterens bella Dominus

This alludes to the name Jehovah, derived from the root \"hava\" meaning \"crushing/overthrowing.\" It is cited from Moses's victory canticle (Exod 15:3): \"The Lord is as a man of war; Almighty is his name.\"

Venit Assur ex montibus ab aquilone

Assur means the Assyrian army sent by Nebuchadnezzar king of the Assyrians under the command of Holofernes. \"Assyria is situated partly to the east of Judea, partly and more to the north.\" \"Whose multitude stopped up the torrents, and his horses covered the valleys.\" Sanchez, who understands Nebuchadnezzar (who sent Holofernes) to be Xerxes, aptly applies this to him: Xerxes brought so many troops into Greece that rivers are said to have barely sufficed for drinking, the land for passage, and the seas for navigation (Paulus Orosius, lib. II, ch. 9; Herodotus, lib. VII; Justinus, lib. II). But Xerxes was a Persian, not an Assyrian.

Nocuit eum id est laesit eum

Nocuit here takes the accusative, as in classical Latin (Plautus and others).

Nec filii Titan id est excelsi

Sons of Titan — who are the children of Titan (or Titanus in the Greek)? Titan is invented by the poets as a son of Heaven and Earth (i.e., Vesta), and the Titans are his children (Virgil, Aeneid VI: \"Here the ancient race of Earth, Titanic progeny, hurled by lightning, roll in the lowest depths\"). Three interpretations: (1) The Titans are the ancient giants — this is the commonest and most fitting; the Septuagint translates \"Raphaim\" (giants) as \"Titans\" (1 Sam 5). (2) Some understand the \"sons of Titan\" as Phaeton with his progeny, the Sun's son who nearly burned the earth. (3) Others take Titans as spirits and winds from the word \"teinein\" (to extend), since winds extending their force cause destruction and earthquakes. The common understanding: \"Titans\" = giants of immense strength, proverbially fearsome. Hence the commentary says: not giant warriors slew Holofernes, but the woman Judith. Note (per St. Jerome and St. Gregory): interpreters sometimes transfer Hebrew names into the vocabulary of Greco-Latin fable, not because they accept the myths, but because such vocabulary is better understood by those educated in that tradition; and these fables often have their origin in Sacred Scripture (e.g., the myth of the Titans arose from the history of the giants in Gen 6:4 and 11:4).

Horruerunt Persae constantiam ejus

From this it is clear that among Holofernes's camp Assyrians were mixed with Persians and Medes: especially because the commander Holofernes himself was Persian (Cedrenus), and the Medes, their prince Arphaxad having been defeated, were already subjugated by Nebuchadnezzar; many Persians had gone over to him due to the sloth and shameful defeat and flight of their king Xerxes from Greece, as noted in the preface.

Tunc ululaverunt castra Assyriorum

When my humble citizens of Bethulia appeared, parched with thirst — when, after I had slain Holofernes, they invaded his camp and pursued the fleeing Assyrians.

Filii puellarum compunxerunt eos

Sons of girls — that is, young boys and lads: for those whose mothers are still girls and young women cannot be older. Hence it is clear that both young men and boys rushed along with the men against the fleeing Assyrians. \"They stabbed them\" with their small swords and daggers.

Misisti spiritum tuum et creata

Spirit here means the spirit of the mouth — that is, the word and command by which God in Gen 1 said and commanded \"Let there be sun, moon, birds, fish, etc.\" and they were made at once. This alludes to Ps 32:6: \"By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the spirit of his mouth all their host.\"

Montes a fundamentis movebuntur

When God commands it. That is: God's power is so great that with a single breath He can move mountains and melt rocks; just so He has now, through me a woman, overcome the Assyrian camp which seemed as invincible as high mountains and hard rocks, and scattered it like melting wax.

Dabit enim ignem et vermes in

Hence St. Jerome, Chrysostom, Augustine, Theophylact, Haymo, Lyranus, Abulensis, Dionysius, Glossa, Ribera, Maldonatus, Serarius, and others are of the probable opinion that in hell there are bodily worms gnawing the flesh of the damned, just as a true fire burns them — see the commentary on Sir 7:19, 10:13, and Isa 66:24.

Mox ut purificati sunt ab immunditia

Purified from the legal uncleanness and irregularity contracted through the killing of the Assyrians and contact with the dead, by washing their bodies and garments according to the law of Num 31:24.

Anathema oblivionis Hebraice cherem

Cherem in Hebrew signifies \"anathema\" — a gift separated from profane uses and entirely set apart and consecrated to God. \"Oblivionis\" (of oblivion) is not in the Greek. Some propose reading \"oblationis\" (of offering), but all Latin manuscripts read \"oblivionis.\" It is aptly described as an \"anathema of oblivion\" because it was dedicated to God to ward off forgetfulness of so great a benefit and victory among posterity (Serarius); or because it brought oblivion of the past famine, thirst, and thousand miseries which the Hebrews had previously suffered from the Assyrians (Sanchez). So Joseph called his son \"Manasses\" (oblivion): \"God has made me to forget all my labors\" (Gen 41:51).

Secundum faciem sanctorum id est

Before the face of the holy things — that is, before the temple or the synagogue; for this served as a substitute for the temple to those outside Jerusalem. There they prayed together and heard the law of God.

Mansit autem in domo viri sui

She grew old (Greek: \"consenuit\"). That is, until the one hundred and fifth year of her age. By a similar Hebraism the Hebrews are said to have dwelt in Egypt for 430 years — that is, until year 430 from the departure of Abraham from Chaldea; for otherwise the Hebrews dwelt in Egypt only 215 years (Exod 12:40). Hence it is wrong to think Judith lived 105 years after becoming a widow; if so she would have died at 140 or more years of age, which was unusual in that era. The Greek adds that before dying Judith distributed her estate to the kinsmen of herself and her husband. Hence it is clear she was childless — which makes her chastity all the more admirable. Let Christians — even princes who change their resolve (or even vow) of celibacy lest a family die out — imitate Judith, who preferred celibacy to all children and the perpetuation of a line.

Luxitque illam omnis populus diebus

Judith is regarded as holy by the Fathers. The day of her death is not assigned in the Martyrology because it is unknown. However, the Ethiopian Church celebrates a feast of Judith on the fourth day of the sixth month called Ebul, says Serarius.

Dies autem victoriae hujus festivitatis

In the Hebrew Calendar Judith is assigned to the 25th of the ninth month called Casleu, on which day likewise the memory of the gift of fire and the Encenia of the Maccabees is commemorated (Genebrardus, Torniellus, Signonius, Salianus). The epitaph composed for Judith: \"This is that Judith who converted the honeyed eloquence of her tongue, the angelic dignity of her face, her flashing eyes, the cheerfulness of her brow, the crimson of her cheeks, her coral lips, and the majesty of all the world into weapons and arrows with which barbarian fury would be captured and vain power overthrown. This is that Judith who, though a prodigy of beauty, was nonetheless a miracle of chastity, which she so cultivated and loved by fasting, prayers, and every affliction of the body that, flourishing in youth, lacking children, abounding in wealth and glory, she shone celibate and unspotted for seventy-five years. She lived from the overthrow of Holofernes's pride and the shattering of the Babylonian empire seventy-two years, and reached in all one hundred and five years.\" Allegorically Judith is the Blessed Virgin, who liberates cities and the faithful devoted to her from the siege of enemies, as she liberated Constantinople (dedicated and devoted to her) from the three-year siege of the Saracens in 717 AD.