Commentaria in Judith
14. “And Their Eyes Were Amazed, Because
“Some,” says St. Thomas in the place cited above, “are commended in the Scriptures not on account of perfect virtue, but on account of a certain disposition toward virtue, namely because there appeared in them some praiseworthy affection, from which they were moved to do certain things not rightly done. In this way Judith is praised, not because she lied to Holofernes, but on account of the affection she had for the safety of the people, for which she exposed herself to dangers. Although it can also be said that her words have truth according to some mystical sense.”
“FOR THEY WONDERED EXCEEDINGLY AT HER BEAUTY.”—The whole attention of their minds, then, was carried away and absorbed in beholding and admiring her extraordinary beauty, so that they could see or think of nothing else. Judith knew this, and therefore assumed so great an adornment, that she might captivate their eyes and minds, and, having captivated, deceive them, and kill Holofernes, and so scatter his camp.
Hear St. Augustine (or rather St. Ambrose, or certainly St. Maximus; for many sermons of St. Ambrose are found word for word in St. Maximus, Bishop of Turin, for the style of both is very similar), sermon 228 *On the Season*, which is on Judith: “In this woman, the hostile army was greatly terrified at the novelty of her insidious beauty, so that in her service they lost their strength, cast away their arms, and bowed their necks. The guile of Holofernes is brought down in order to the praetorium, and the victory of the mourning city.
Morally, learn here how perilous and pernicious is the sight of women: of which Samson, David, Solomon and a thousand others are examples. Truly Ecclesiasticus 42:14: “Better,” he says, “is the iniquity of a man than a woman doing a good turn, and a woman bringing shame and reproach.” See what is said there.
16. “AND THEY BROUGHT HER TO THE TENT OF HOLOFERNES.”—The Greek adds: with her maid, and a yoked chariot and a guard of a hundred men. And soon after: And he (Holofernes) came out into the proscenium, that is, the vestibule of the tent, and silver lamps went before him; both because it was night, namely the twilight of dawn, as is plain from verse 11; and because fire used to be carried before the kings and princes of the Assyrians, as I said on Jeremias 1, verse 13.
Hear St. Augustine, sermon 228, already cited: “When Holofernes saw her, he was loosed in his senses, about to lose his soul with his head. The shame of the young men lay captive to the face of a woman; it was permitted to a woman to disarm young men and to subdue conquerors; to defend an anxious city and to overthrow a barbarian warrior. The sincere deceived the corrupt, the chaste beguiled the polluted, the modest destroys the adulterer, the sober cuts the throat of the drunkard. For she had so confounded the barbarous minds by the deceit of her treacherous countenance that she bound him by the art of many tales, and made him, amid armies, conquered, and amid arms, captive.” And a little below: “Although that warrior of arms in his frenzy beheld the face of so chaste a woman, she nevertheless thought of that for which she had come, his head, by the removal of which she might come to the help of her failing citizens, and protect, defend and avenge many heads.”
18. “THAT WE SHOULD NOT THINK IT WORTH OUR WHILE TO FIGHT AGAINST THEM FOR THEIR SAKE.”—The Greek adds: For it is not good to leave a man of them, who, if let go, could deceive the whole earth, through women so beautiful as is Judith. Behold, they speak the truth, but unwittingly; for they themselves were deceived, and were routed and put to flight by the Hebrews through Judith.
19. “SITTING UNDER A CANOPY”: so is called a curtain tapering upward to a sharp cone and spread out round below, to keep off gnats. So Lyra; for *kônôps* is a gnat, and such curtains are accustomed to be set round camp and portable beds. Hence the Greek has that Holofernes sat upon his bed under a canopy. The Italians and the French call it *padiglione*.