Commentaria in Judith
Chapter 10
Judith adorns herself, and thus adorned goes to Holofernes; she is seized by scouts and led to him, who is captivated by her beauty.
1. And it came to pass, when she had ceased to cry to the Lord, she arose from the place wherein she had lain prostrate before the Lord. 2. And she called her maid, and going down into her house, she took off her haircloth, and put off the garments of her widowhood, 3. And she washed her body, and anointed herself with the best ointment, and plaited the hair of her head, and put a bonnet upon her head, and clothed herself with the garments of her gladness, and put sandals on her feet, and took her bracelets, and lilies, and earlocks, and rings, and adorned herself with all her ornaments. 4. And the Lord also gave her more brightness: because all this dressing up did not proceed from sensuality, but from virtue: and therefore the Lord increased this her beauty, so that she appeared to all men’s eyes incomparably lovely. 5. She gave her maid therefore a bottle of wine to carry, and a vessel of oil, and parched corn, and a lump of dried figs, and bread and cheese, and went out. 6. And when they came to the gate of the city, they found Ozias and the ancients of the city waiting. 7. And when they saw her, they were astonished, and wondered exceedingly at her beauty. 8. Yet they asked her no question, but let her pass, saying: The God of our fathers give thee favour, and strengthen all the counsel of thy heart with his power, that Jerusalem may glory in thee, and thy name may be in the number of the holy and just. 9. And they that were there said all with one voice: So be it, so be it. 10. And Judith praying to the Lord passed through the gates, she and her maid. 11. And it came to pass, when she went down the hill about the break of day, the watchmen of the Assyrians met her, and stopped her, saying: Whence comest thou? or whither goest thou? 12. And she answered: I am a daughter of the Hebrews, and I am fled from them, because I knew that they would be given you for a prey, because they despised you, and would not of their own accord yield themselves, that they might find mercy in your sight. 13. For this reason I thought within myself, saying: I will go to the presence of the prince Holofernes, that I may tell him their secrets, and show him by what way he may take them, so that there shall not fall one man of his army. 14. And when those men heard the words of her, they beheld her face, and their eyes were amazed, for they wondered exceedingly at her beauty. 15. And they said to her: Thou hast saved thy life, in that thou hast found out this plan, to come down to our lord. 16. And be assured of this, that when thou shalt stand before him, he will treat thee well, and thou shalt be most acceptable to his heart. And they brought her to the tent of Holofernes, and told of her. 17. And when she was come into his presence, forthwith Holofernes was caught by his eyes. 18. And his officers said to him: Who can despise the people of the Hebrews, who have such beautiful women, that we should not think it worth our while to fight against them for their sake? 19. Judith therefore seeing Holofernes sitting under a canopy, which was woven of purple, and gold, and emeralds, and precious stones, 20. And when she had looked on his face, she fell down at his feet, prostrating herself to the earth: and the servants of Holofernes raised her up, by the command of
2. “HER MAID (that is, handmaid),” as I said in chapter 8,
3. “AND ANOINTED HERSELF WITH THE BEST OINTMENT (some wrongly read myrtle), that is, ointment (for this is what the Greeks call *myron*),”—that it might spread of itself a wonderful fragrance, and that it might strike the nostrils of Holofernes, as her form struck his eyes, and her fair words his ears. Hear St. Augustine, or rather St. Ambrose, for it savours of his style, as the Parisian Doctors have observed, sermon 229 *On the Season*, which is on Judith: “The avenger of her nation took up the arms of ornaments, not to enter on a marriage out of war, but as a warrior she went forth from the city a bride. This was not levity of adornment, which was fitted to the slaying of a head. She goes on, led by the divine spirit, and content with the singular solace of one maid. Her beauty guards what it allures, and, lest her chastity, guarded, be violently injured, she addresses Holofernes, that a desire may be conceived,” namely of the marriage union, which Judith was conceiving in her mind, and which she would easily have persuaded Holofernes of by her beauty and her persuasive speech, had she wished to strive for it.
“AND PUT A BONNET UPON HER HEAD.”—The bonnet (mitra) is a fillet of fine linen, shining with gems and little golden spangles, and trembling. For this is what [the Hebrew word] signifies, as I said on Isaias 3.
“Mitra” alludes to *mithra*, which word in Persian signifies the sun; for the sun is crowned, as it were, with a mitre by its purest and shining rays. Virgins likewise and chaste persons, such as Judith, are as it were suns mitred with the splendours of their chastity, radiating all round.
“AND LILIES,”—that is, bracelets in the shape and form of lilies. The Greek is *chlidonas*, that is, bracelets, armlets, namely ornaments of the hands and arms.
4. “AND THE LORD ALSO GAVE HER MORE BRIGHTNESS,”—both by causing her adornment to appear more beautiful and splendid to men, and in truth by breathing upon her countenance a certain heavenly light and radiance, such as He breathed upon Moses, Exodus 34:29, and upon St. Anthony, St. Ignatius and other eminent Saints, into whom He breathed rays of light that their holiness might shine in their face. See here a new art of fighting, by which Judith, by adorning herself, defended her chastity and the life of her fellow citizens; for other virgins are accustomed to guard their modesty by disfiguring themselves. In the year of the Lord 870, when the Danes invading England came to the monastery of Collingham, Ebba the Abbess, to guard her own chastity and that of her nuns, cut off her own nose and upper lip, and persuaded her nuns to do the same. Wherefore the Danes, bursting in, burned the monastery with the virgins. So Matthew of Westminster reports in his annals, in the year already mentioned. Doubtless they followed by instinct the saying and deed of St. Pelagia the virgin, who, constrained by a like necessity, lest she should suffer the loss of virginity, said: “Let us die, or if they are unwilling, let us die. God is not offended by the remedy, and faith washes away the deed,” and so threw herself from the roof, as St. Ambrose reports, book III *On Virgins*, and St. Chrysostom in his homily in her praise.
“BECAUSE ALL THIS DRESSING UP DID NOT PROCEED FROM SENSUALITY, BUT FROM VIRTUE.”—Because it proceeded from zeal to deliver her country from the ruin and destruction of the tyrant. Hear St. Ambrose, book *On Widows*: “And well did she, about to fight, resume the conjugal adornments, because the monuments of marriage are the arms of chastity. For a widow could neither please nor conquer others. Why should we go on to relate that among so many thousands of enemies she remained chaste? Why should we proclaim her wisdom, that she devised such a plan that, while she lured the powerful man by his intemperance, she might keep the lesser men away from herself, prepare an occasion of victory, and reserve the merit of abstinence and the grace of chastity?”
5. “SHE GAVE HER MAID THEREFORE A BOTTLE OF WINE,”—that is, a wineskin. For *ascopera* is a Greek word compounded from *askos*, that is, a skin, a bag, and *pera*, that is, a wallet, and signifies a purse, or little bag, in which travellers put their clothes, provisions and other utensils, and carry with them. Suidas uses this word, and Suetonius in *Nero*, saying: “Round the neck of another is tied a wallet, and with it a label. What could I do? but you deserved the sack.” Others read *askon*, or *askopyton*, that is, a skin of wine.
“AND PARCHED CORN.”—Polenta is barley meal, that is, barley moistened, then dried and roasted, and ground in a mill into flour, of which I spoke on I Kings 17.
“AND A LUMP OF DRIED FIGS,”—that is, masses of figs, or dried figs, of which Pliny, book XIII, chapter 7. Some wrongly read, for “palathas,” by metathesis, “lapathas.”
Moreover Judith carried this provision with her that she might not be compelled to eat the food of Holofernes. For the Jews, being rather religious, so shrank from association with the Gentiles that they would not endure to eat their food, especially since the Gentiles often offered their foods to their idols, so that they became meat offered to idols, of which I spoke on I Corinthians 8. So Daniel with his companions, chapter 1, verse 8, would not eat the royal food, but lived on pulse.
12. “THEREFORE I AM FLED FROM THEM.”—Many judge that Judith here and in what follows lies, but dutifully, for the liberation of her people, and did not sin, because she thought that in such a case, in so great a necessity, to lie was lawful, indeed honourable and pious, as Plato thought, indeed Origen, Cassian and other Fathers, whom I cited on Exodus 1. So Lyra, Abulensis. But Rabanus, the Gloss, Hugh, Dionysius, Serarius, Salianus, Sanchez and St. Augustine, book *On Lying*, excuse Judith from lying, because God directed her in this whole work and preserved her from sin, as she herself says in chapter 12, verse 16. Judith therefore conceals the truth and speaks ambiguously to the Assyrians, her enemies unjustly attacking her, that she may destroy them, but does not lie. She says, then, “I am fled,” that is, I have quickly gone away; for to flee is often the same as to depart quickly and to snatch oneself away from someone; I have taken the appearance of a fugitive, or deserter, and as a fugitive have fallen by night into your hands and surrender myself to you. So Serarius, Sanchez, Salianus and others.
“BECAUSE I KNEW THAT THEY WOULD BE GIVEN YOU FOR A PREY;”—for so in truth it was going to be, if you look to human reason and foresight; for humanly and by human strength the Hebrews could not resist the Assyrians; but Judith, relying on a higher counsel and oracle, knew that this would not happen except through the heavenly providence and correction of God.
13. “I WILL GO TO THE PRESENCE OF THE PRINCE HOLOFERNES, THAT I MAY TELL HIM THEIR SECRETS.”—Namely that the besieged citizens were suffering extreme thirst and hunger, and therefore murmured against their rulers and urged them to surrender to Holofernes, etc. She speaks the truth: yet this end was not the last, but an intermediate one. For she was thinking of binding Holofernes to herself, that, bound to her and secure, she might slay him when occasion was given. For, as Salianus rightly observes, it is to be noted here that in a just war, such as that of the Jews against the Assyrians, not only open force but also hidden and covered force is lawful and just; and that those may rightly be led into a snare whom it is lawful to put to death. Guile and stratagem are of their nature indifferent, and from the end to which they are referred take malice or goodness. Since, then, the end of Judith is good, the guile itself will also be praiseworthy; and the same is to be thought of the adornment and care of her body.