Commentaria in Judith
8. “AND SHE WAS GREATLY RENOWNED AMONG ALL (that is, most approved in repute, or most celebrated for her reputation of probity and holiness), BECAUSE SHE FEARED THE LORD VERY MUCH.”—This fear was not servile but filial, by which Judith supremely worshipped and reverenced God as her Lord, indeed as her Father; and therefore she strove to please Him in all things, and took care lest in any matter, however small, she should offend Him. And by this holiness she prepared herself for so great a deed, that she might be worthy to be chosen by God to overthrow the camp of the enemies and to deliver the people.
Allegorically, Judith was a type of the Blessed Virgin, of whom St. Bonaventure says in the *Mirror*, chapter 8: “The Lord,” he says, “most renowned and most famous, is most famously with thee; therefore thou also art most famous and renowned, etc.: Mary therefore was signified by that Judith of most famous name, of whom it is written that there was none that spoke an ill word of her.”
11. “AND WHO ARE YOU THAT TEMPT THE LORD?”—“You tempt,” that is, you embitter, irritate, and provoke to anger, while you prescribe laws to Him, that unless He help you within five days you are willing to deliver the city to the enemy, when you ought rather to invoke Him with suppliant prayer, that He have mercy on you, and Himself prescribe to you the day and manner of your deliverance.
15. “FOR GOD WILL NOT THREATEN LIKE MAN,”—as if to say: Let us not fear the threats of Holofernes, but of God; for his threats are proud, empty and vain, like those of other men; but God’s are sure, fixed and effectual. For God when angry surely and unavoidably inflicts what He threatens.
16. “AND THEREFORE LET US HUMBLE OUR SOULS BEFORE HIM,”—by humble penance, fasting, prayer and supplication, that He may forgive us our sins and deliver us from Holofernes.
21. “COMFORT THEIR HEARTS BY YOUR SPEECH (that is, by your eloquence),”—to magnanimity and firm confidence in God their deliverer.
22. “ABRAHAM WAS TEMPTED, AND BEING PROVED BY MANY TRIBULATIONS WAS MADE THE FRIEND OF GOD,”—especially when, commanded by God to sacrifice his only-begotten Isaac, he was willing to sacrifice him, Genesis 22. See what is said there.
23. “ALL THAT HAVE PLEASED GOD PASSED THROUGH MANY TRIBULATIONS, REMAINING FAITHFUL.”—Faithfully, that is, clinging to God, and asking and awaiting from Him deliverance from tribulation. See what is said there.
26. “LET US NOT THEREFORE REVENGE OURSELVES,”—that is, let us not be indignant and murmur against God after the manner of the revengeful, as though wishing to avenge ourselves on Him for the disasters and fears He sends us.
which you know to be of God (that is, suggested and inspired to me by God):
31. “SO PROVE YE IF THAT WHICH I DESIGN TO DO (namely to kill Holofernes by cunning) BE OF GOD:”—the “if” is not that of one doubting but of one affirming; it is the same as “that”: as if to say: As you have approved my words as proceeding from God, so also approve my purpose, which I have resolved to carry out from God, or with God impelling, namely that I go to Holofernes and kill him. She says “if,” however, as though doubting, out of modesty, because the thing was not yet done but to be done, even though she herself was sure of the happy outcome from God’s instinct. As if to say: “Prove,” that is, see and attend to what I am about to do, and from the outcome approve and judge “if it be of God”; as if to say: Surely when you see the thing happily accomplished, you will approve it, and judge that it was undertaken with God as author. She speaks in general, but does not explain in particular what she has resolved in her mind: for she knew that if she did it, the matter would not remain secret, but would be carried to Holofernes. She knew likewise that many would condemn this purpose of hers as rash. Hence the Greek has: I will do a thing which shall come down to the generations of the children of our race, from generation to generation.
32. “YOU SHALL STAND AT THE GATE THIS NIGHT, AND I WILL GO FORTH WITH MY MAID,”—as if to say: Open to me by night the gates closed for fear of the enemy, and suffer me to go out with my maid. For she asks that the gates be opened to her by night.
“WITH MY MAID.”—Many think that *abra* is the proper name of Judith’s handmaid; but they err, for it is a common noun signifying a maid. Hence in chapter 10, verse 2 and following, where our version has “maid,” the Greek has *abra*; it is therefore said as if *chabra*, that is, companion, or rather as if *abra*, that is, passing, attendant: for *habar* signifies “he passed.” So Pagninus. Moreover this was not an ordinary maid of Judith, but one set over all her property, as the Greek has. Hence the Greeks call honoured maids (whom the Italians call *cameriere*) *abrai*, as is plain from Menander in the *False Hercules*. So in Genesis chapter 24, verse 61, the maids of Rebecca are called *abrai*, as also the maid of the daughter of Pharao, Exodus chapter 2, verse 5. Some add that an *abra* is properly called a maid who is a table-companion and secretary, and is set over the chamber; for this is what *abra* signifies among the Spartans.
33. “BUT I DESIRE THAT YOU SEARCH NOT INTO WHAT I AM DOING.”—as being approved and decreed by God. She prudently conceals her secret; for the whole force of this action consisted in secrecy.
“AND TILL I BRING YOU WORD, LET NOTHING ELSE BE DONE BUT TO PRAY FOR ME TO THE LORD.”—Learn here, in a public and weighty cause, to ask for public and continual prayers, that God may direct and prosper the matter. The arms of Judith, then, with which she cut down Holofernes, were the public litanies and prayers of the whole people. Note this place for litanies. Hear St. Augustine, sermon 228 *On the Season*, which is on Judith: “Most holy Judith, at whose prayers heaven was opened, fashioned by the art of prayer victorious arms, with which she might fight against adversaries and, a woman, avenge frightened men. The city was squalid with the siege of barbarian ferocity. For all so languished that they judged it better to be handed over into the hands of the enemy than to be vexed by the ruinous ravaging of famine. Behold Judith, after prayer and sackcloth, after ashes, after the dress of maidens, returns; the hope of all the peoples comes forth; she is to render anxious peoples secure, and consoles them by her wisdom, and promising a victory at which every nation would marvel, she asks the gate to be opened for her, the bars being a little removed. She went forth secure, content with the company of one maid, and with secure steps hastened into the camp of the enemy. Within the walls she was anxious; she becomes secure when she comes to the things to be feared.” And near the end: “By the favour of prayer chastity kept its own modesty untouched and quiet, and deceived another’s, etc. For where heaven is knocked at by assiduous prayers, the power of arms is always trodden down. Prayer preserved the chastity of a glorious woman, and a multitude could not preserve the enemy. One woman was able to avenge a mourning city, and so great an army could not guard the king.” And sermon 229: “The warlike spirit of Judith besieged another’s breast. She, casting off the fear of women, seeking victory in dangers, neither feared death in dangers nor dreads uncertainty.”