Commentaria in Judith
Chapter 11
Synopsis of the chapter
Judith declares to Holofernes the cause of her coming, and promises victory. Holofernes, praising her for beauty and wisdom, promises her immense rewards.
1. Then Holofernes said to her: Be of good cheer, and fear not in thy heart: for I have never hurt any man that was willing to serve Nabuchodonosor the king. 2. But thy people, if they had not despised me, I had never lifted up my spear against them. 3. But now tell me for what reason thou art fled from them, and why it hath pleased thee to come to us? 4. And Judith said to him: Receive the words of thy servant, because if thou wilt follow the words of thy handmaid, the Lord will do a perfect thing with thee. 5. For Nabuchodonosor the king of the earth liveth, and his power liveth in thee, to the chastisement of all that go astray from the right path: for not only do men serve him by thee, but also the beasts of the field obey him. 6. For the industry of thy mind is spoken of among all nations, and it is told in all the world that thou only art excellent and mighty in all his kingdom, and thy discipline is spoken of in all provinces. 7. Neither is it unknown what Achior said, nor is it unknown what thou hast ordered to be done to him. 8. For it is known that our God is so offended with sin that he hath sent word by his prophets to the people, that he will deliver them up for their sins. 9. And because the children of Israel know that they have offended their God, thy dread is upon them. 10. Moreover a famine hath also seized upon them, and for want of water they are already reckoned among the dead. 11. Yea they are designing to kill their cattle, and to drink the blood of them: 12. And the holy things of the Lord their God, which God forbade to be touched, in corn, wine, and oil, these they have a design to use, and they intend to consume the things which they ought not to touch with their hands: therefore because they do these things, it is certain they will be given up to destruction. 13. And I thy handmaid knowing this, am fled from them, and the Lord hath sent me to tell thee these very things. 14. For I thy handmaid worship God even now with thee: and thy handmaid will go out, and I will pray to God, 15. And he will tell me when he will repay them for their sin, and I will come and tell thee, so that I will bring thee through the midst of Jerusalem, and thou shalt have all the people of Israel as sheep that have no shepherd, and there shall not so much as a dog bark against thee: 16. Because these things are told me by the providence of God. 17. And because God is angry with them, I am sent to tell thee these very things. 18. And all these words pleased Holofernes and his servants, and they wondered at her wisdom, and they said one to another: 19. There is not such another woman upon earth in look, in beauty, and in sense of words. 20. And Holofernes said to her: God hath done well who hath sent thee before the people, that thou mightest give them into our hands: 21. And because thy promise is good, if thy God shall do this for me, he shall be my God also, and thou shalt be great in the house of Nabuchodonosor, and thy name shall be renowned through the whole earth.
1. “THEN HOLOFERNES SAID TO HER: BE OF GOOD CHEER.”—Holofernes noticed that Judith was timid and afraid, both because a woman accustomed to solitude stood among so many thousands of armed men and enemies, and because the consciousness of so great a deed smote her mind with fear, lest perhaps it should not succeed but the matter be betrayed and she herself incur danger of her life. For even if, God animating her, her spirit were intrepid, yet the flesh was weak, and weakened the lower part of the mind. What wonder? since Christ, the strongest, about to enter on His passion, said of Himself: “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak,” Matthew 26:41.
“I HAVE NEVER HURT ANY MAN,”—much less a woman. He lies: for, as was said in chapter 3, he destroyed the cities of those who offered themselves to him as servants, and cut down the groves.
4. “THE LORD WILL DO A PERFECT THING WITH THEE,”—namely God will give perfect victory, not to thee, as thou thinkest, O Holofernes, but to me and the Jews over thee. It is a military stratagem by which Judith plays upon and mocks Holofernes by ambiguity of words, and so leads him into the snare and net of death. For, as the Poet says: “Whether guile or valour, who would ask in an enemy?” So Apollo of Delphi mocked Pyrrhus, when he consulted him about victory against the Romans, saying:
I say that you, descendant of Aeacus, can conquer the Romans.
Which Pyrrhus wrongly applied to himself, as though he himself were to conquer the Romans, whereas Apollo meant of the Romans that they would conquer Pyrrhus, as in fact they did conquer him.
5. “FOR NABUCHODONOSOR THE KING OF THE EARTH LIVETH, AND HIS POWER (strength, fortitude) LIVETH IN THEE.”—Judith swears by the life and power of Nabuchodonosor, as Joseph swears by the safety of Pharao, Genesis 42:15.
“BUT ALSO THE BEASTS OF THE FIELD (namely horses, camels, oxen, asses, sheep, etc.) OBEY HIM.”
6. “IT IS TOLD IN ALL THE WORLD,”—the present age, that is, to the whole world. So the Greek.
“THAT THOU ONLY ART EXCELLENT,”—kind and beneficent, according to that of Christ, Luke 22:25: “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and they that have power over them are called beneficent (Princes).” Hence the epithet of governors was “best,” as in “most excellent Felix,” “most excellent Festus.” See what is said on Acts chapter 24, verse 3.
The sense, therefore, is as if to say: Thou alone art a true and great prince in the kingdom of Nabuchodonosor, as kind and liberal as powerful, and therefore Nabuchodonosor has committed all his affairs to thee. Some explain “good” as brave.
8. “THAT HE HATH SENT WORD BY HIS PROPHETS.” For God sent Elias, Eliseus, Isaias, Osee, Jeremias and the other Prophets, to chastise the idols and crimes of Israel, and to threaten and foretell to them destruction by the Assyrians, Chaldeans and other enemies.
10. “A FAMINE HATH SEIZED UPON THEM,”—because where there is suffering from thirst there is also from hunger; for food cannot be moistened and eaten by one who is thirsty without drink.
11. “AND TO DRINK THE BLOOD OF THEM,”—instead of water, which they lack, to quench their extreme thirst; but the eating and drinking of blood was forbidden to the Jews by God under pain of death, as is plain from Leviticus 17.
12. “AND THE HOLY THINGS OF THE LORD (those which have been sanctified to God, that is, devoted and consecrated) THEY HAVE A DESIGN TO USE,”—to relieve their extreme thirst and hunger.
“THEREFORE BECAUSE THEY DO THESE THINGS, IT IS CERTAIN THEY WILL BE GIVEN UP TO DESTRUCTION.”—It is certain, if you look at natural causes and the ordinary course of things: for famine and thirst will force them to ruin. Their sins will do the same, by which they have deserved the wrath and vengeance of God, unless some holy person appease the wrath of God, as I hope to appease it by my prayers.
13. “THE LORD HATH SENT ME TO TELL THEE THESE VERY THINGS.”—For God had sent Judith to Holofernes, that by announcing these things to him she might win his favour, which being obtained she might kill him off his guard by a pious guile.
14 and 15. “AND I WILL PRAY TO GOD, AND HE WILL TELL ME WHEN HE WILL REPAY THEM FOR THEIR SIN, AND I WILL COME AND TELL THEE, SO THAT I WILL BRING THEE THROUGH THE MIDST OF JERUSALEM, AND THOU SHALT HAVE ALL THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL AS SHEEP THAT HAVE NO SHEPHERD, AND THERE SHALL NOT SO MUCH AS A DOG BARK AGAINST THEE.”—Many judge that Judith cannot here be excused from lies. But I excuse her in two ways and on two titles. The first is that she speaks according to natural causes, and the common course of nature, by which the Jews, reduced to extremities and placed in the offence and wrath of God, must necessarily perish unless God should succour them in some supernatural or extraordinary way. So Eliseus, when Hazael asked about the recovery of the sick king Benadad, answered that he would be healed, but yet would die; because, namely, so far as the force of the disease was concerned, it was not mortal; wherefore from it he was to be healed, but yet to die, because he was to be suffocated by Hazael, IV Kings 8:10.
So here Judith asserts that the Hebrews are to be destroyed by Holofernes on account of their sins, because by human strength they could not escape his hand; yet they were to escape through the prayers of Judith and of the priests, by which they asked and obtained the heavenly help of God.
The sense, therefore, is as if to say: The Hebrews, if you look to natural causes, are plainly to be destroyed and subjugated by you on account of their sins. Wherefore I shall pray to God about this business, and if indeed He wills to destroy them altogether, and, as is His custom, makes it known to me, and wills that I tell this very thing to you, as it seems will be if you look to the common course of the providing God; I shall announce this very thing to you from the mind of God, so that I shall bring you through the midst of Jerusalem and subject the whole people to you. For I ought to obey God altogether when He so wills and ordains, even with the loss and ruin of my people; for if He wills to use me as a rod to chastise them, I ought and wish to serve Him as a rod in this chastisement. For in like manner God chastised Roboam and the Jews, by raising up through the Prophet Ahias king Jeroboam, and giving him the kingdom of the ten tribes of Israel. So God through Isaias, chapter 45, summoned Cyrus to chastise the crimes of many nations. So through Jeremias He summoned Nabuchodonosor and the Chaldeans to the destruction of Jerusalem; which Jeremias therefore frequently and continually threatened to the Jews, and so urged them to surrender to Nabuchodonosor besieging them, for they could not escape his hands, because this was the just will of God and chastisement of their crimes. Hence Nabuchodonosor, knowing these oracles of Jeremias, besieged Jerusalem for 44 months until he took it; and having taken it, he ordered Jeremias to be kindly treated, and, on account of these oracles of his about him, to be given his liberty, as is plain from Jeremias 39:11; indeed Abulensis, on book IV of Kings, chapter 24, Question VII, and on Isaias chapter 5, verse 25, and chapter 10, verse 5, judges it probable that Nabuchodonosor, Salmanasar and the like subjugated the Jews by the revelation and command of God, on which matter I said more in the Preface to Isaias, canons 36 and 37. So St. Lupus, when Attila king of the Huns was besieging the city of Troyes (of which he himself was Bishop), asking what he was and what he wanted, and hearing: “I am Attila, King of the Huns, the scourge of God”; “Come, then,” he said, “scourge of my God, and use it as God grants you”; and so he led him through the midst of the city, but as though seized in eyes and mind, so that he harmed none of the inhabitants, as Baronius relates from the life of St. Lupus and others, volume VI, in the year of Christ 451. The same, therefore, Judith could do to Holofernes, indeed ought, if God had commanded it. But Judith knew that God would not command her this, indeed would do the contrary, that by this pretence she might betray Holofernes. But this she neither wished nor ought to indicate to him.
The second way of excusing Judith from lying is by saying that she used ambiguous words, which Holofernes attributed to himself, while Judith ascribed them to herself and the Jews. She says then: “I WILL PRAY TO GOD, AND HE WILL TELL ME WHEN HE WILL REPAY THEM FOR THEIR SIN,” (if, namely, He has decreed to punish them according to their deserts, as seems likely. But I know from God’s revelation that at this time He will not punish them; but this I must now keep silent, nor can I indicate it to you; soon, however, coming, I shall announce to you the will and decree of God concerning the deferring of the chastisement of the sin of the Jews, and the hastening of the chastisement of your tyranny, unjustly attacking the Jews; for this I shall announce to you not by word but by deed, when I inflict a mortal wound on you, says St. Augustine) “AND I WILL BRING THEE (not conquering and triumphing, as you think, but conquered, slain and triumphed over, when I shall bring your head cut off into Bethulia, and thence) THROUGH THE MIDST OF JERUSALEM;”—and I shall lead round the rest of Judea, a conqueror, with triumph, to the common joy of the Jews.
“AND THOU SHALT HAVE ALL THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL AS SHEEP THAT HAVE NO SHEPHERD,” (when, you being slain, the men of Bethulia, keeping no order, without shepherd and leader, will burst out to pursue the Assyrians and plunder the camp. Wherefore) “THEN THERE SHALL NOT SO MUCH AS A DOG BARK AGAINST THEE,”—because dogs do not bark at the dead (such as you will be), but at the living. Thus, then, the words of Judith, taken partly ironically, partly ambiguously, partly prophetically, are free of lying, having both senses. So Serarius, Sanchez, Salianus and others.
So Agathocles, besieging Syracuse, threatening the besieged that on the next day he would dine in the city, was a true prophet, but against his own intention; for the citizens bursting out, he was led into the city, and dined in it not as a victor, but as a vanquished man and a captive. This is what St. Augustine says, sermon 229 *On the Season*, which is on Judith: “It did not befit a chaste woman to lie; to those who did not understand, she spoke; by deeds she did what she promised.”
16. “BECAUSE THESE THINGS ARE TOLD ME BY THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD.”—This, then, ruled and directed Judith, to say and do all that she said and did. Wherefore she did not lie: for God cannot lie.
19. “THERE IS NOT SUCH ANOTHER WOMAN UPON EARTH.”—Hear St. Augustine, sermon 229 already cited: “While the warrior flatters the king in lofty speech with imaginary words, his mind is loosed by wantonness in love of arms, the innumerable strength of the soldiers grows torpid in kingly luxury, the pomp of a wedding is built up with no one marrying, all are loosed by drunkenness. It was not a delicate matron who fought, but the sleep which she prepared for you whom she struck.”
21. “IF THY GOD SHALL DO THIS FOR ME (that he subdue to me Jerusalem and the Jews), HE SHALL BE MY GOD ALSO,”—as if to say: I shall become a proselyte and a Jew, and shall worship the true God of Israel. Behold how powerful and effective was the speech of Judith before Holofernes.