Judith — Chapter 8

Judith vidua nomen commune

Some consider \"Judith\" a common name like \"Abra,\" adapted to this heroine. More correctly it is a proper name whose etymology aptly fits her. \"Judith\" in Hebrew means \"confessing, praising, glorifying\" — namely God (from the root \"hodah\" = to confess, praise, celebrate). For this purpose Judith withdrew from the crowd to her oratory to pray and praise God continually. St. Fulgentius (epist. 2, ch. 24) describes her: \"Behold a widow illustrious in birth, rich in means, young in age, admirable in beauty, despising riches, rejecting delights, trampling the incitements of the flesh, and clothed with virtue from on high.\"

Vir ejus Manasses ex eadem

The Greek adds that Manasses was of the same tribe and homeland as Judith.

Mensibus sex relicta ejus

The Greek reads \"four months.\"

In superioribus domus suae fecit

She made herself a secluded chamber in the upper story (attic or solar) of her house, remaining shut in there with her maids — both to flee men and the crowds of visitors, and thereby to safeguard her chastity and reputation, and also to give herself wholly to prayer and God. This is the first virtue of the widow Judith: love of silence and solitude. St. Jerome (epist. to Furia the widow) counsels: \"Flee the company of young men; do not go out in public surrounded by an escort of eunuchs, ranging about with the liberty of widows; seek the society of holy virgins and widows.\"

Et habens super lumbos suos

She continually stimulated and pricked her flesh with the sackcloth's bristles like needles, suppressing and extinguishing with this pain the aroused impulses of youthful blood. Sackcloth subdues the flesh more than passing scourges because it is continuous. Young people, especially widowed women, should arm themselves with sackcloth as the strongest defense for dominating the flesh and preserving chastity (see Gretser, De disciplinis). St. Jerome (epist. 2 to Ageruchia the widow): \"Certainly it is far more toilsome not to enjoy what you possess than to desire what you have lost. Hence virginity is easier in that it does not know the incitements of the flesh; and widowhood is more anxious in that the mind recalls past pleasures.\"

Cui vir suus reliquerat divitias

Wealth which she distributed not for her own use but for the use of the needy. St. Bernard (serm. on All Saints): \"What is more admirable, or what martyrdom more grievous, than to hunger at feasts, to be cold amid many precious garments, to be pressed by poverty amid the riches which the world offers, which the enemy displays, which our own desire covets?\"

Et erat haec in omnibus famosissima

Famous in every way, of most proven reputation for goodness and holiness, because she greatly feared the Lord. This fear was not servile but filial, whereby Judith honored and revered God as Lord and indeed as her Father, striving in all things to please Him and guarding against offending Him even in the smallest matter. By this holiness she prepared herself for this great deed, worthy to be chosen by God to overthrow the enemy camp and liberate the people. Allegorically, Judith was a type of the Blessed Virgin, as St. Bonaventure notes (In Speculo, ch. 8): \"Mary is signified by that most famous Judith, of whom it is written that there was none who spoke an evil word about her.\"

Et qui estis vos qui tentatis

You tempt means you exacerbate, provoke, and irritate God to wrath, by prescribing laws to Him — saying that unless He helps within five days you will surrender the city to the enemy — when you ought rather to invoke Him with suppliant prayer that He take pity on you, and that He Himself prescribe for you the day and manner of your deliverance.

Non enim quasi homo sic Deus

That is: let us not fear the threats of Holofernes but those of God; for the threats of Holofernes are proud, empty, and vain, as are the threats of all men; but the threats of God are certain, fixed, and efficacious. An angered God certainly and inevitably inflicts what He threatens.

Et ideo humiliemus illi animas

Through humble penance, fasting, prayer, and supplication, that He may pardon our sins and deliver us from Holofernes.

Ad eloquium vestrum corda eorum

By your speech raise their hearts — to magnanimity and firm confidence in God the Liberator.

Abraham tentatus est et per multas

Especially when commanded by God to sacrifice his only son Isaac, and he was willing to do so (Gen 22). See the commentary on that passage.

Omnes qui placuerunt Deo per

Faithfully adhering to God and asking and expecting deliverance from tribulation. See James 1:4 and Sir 2:1 and following.

Et nos ergo non ulciscamur nos

That is, let us not indignantly murmur against God after the manner of those seeking vengeance, as if wishing to take revenge on Him for the calamities and fears He sends upon us.

Et dixit illis Judith sicut quod

As what I was able to say you acknowledge to be from God — that is, suggested and inspired by God.

Ita quod facere disposui probate

Prove whether it is from God — \"if\" here is not the \"if\" of doubt but of affirmation; as if saying: just as you judged my words to have come from God, so also judge my plan, which by God's impulse I have decided to carry out — namely to go to Holofernes and kill him. She speaks in general terms, not explaining her secret plan, which she intended to keep secret until carried out. She knew many would denounce her plan as reckless. The Greek reads: \"I will do a deed that will be remembered through all generations of our people.\"

Stabitis vos ad portam nocte

That is: open for me the gates locked for fear of the enemy, and allow me to go out with my maidservant. She requests the gates be opened for her by night.

Vos autem nolo ut scrutemini

She prudently conceals her secret, for the whole efficacy of this action rested on secrecy. \"And until I report back to you, let nothing be done except prayer for me to the Lord our God.\" Here learn in a great public cause to demand public and continuous prayers, that God may direct and prosper the affair. The weapons of Judith with which she beheaded Holofernes were the public litanies and prayers of all the people. St. Augustine (serm. 228 De Tempore, on Judith): \"Most holy Judith, whose prayers opened heaven, fashioned victorious weapons by the art of prayer... Judith came forth the hope of all the people, after prayer and sackcloth, after ashes, returning to her girlish adornments.\"