Commentaria in Judith
Chapter 12
Synopsis of the chapter
Holofernes permits Judith for four days to give herself to prayer and fasting, and to go out by night as often as she wishes; at length on the fourth evening Holofernes feasts with Judith, and intoxicates himself with love of her.
1. Then he commanded them to bring her in where his treasures were kept, and bade her tarry there, and he appointed what should be given her from his own table. 2. And Judith answered him, and said: I cannot now eat of those things which thou commandest to be given me, lest it become an offence unto me: but I will eat of the things I have brought with me. 3. And Holofernes said to her: But if the things thou hast with thee fail thee, what shall we do for thee? 4. And Judith said: As thy soul liveth, my lord, thy servant shall not spend all these things, till God do by my hand what I have purposed. And his servants brought her into the tent which he had appointed. 5. And she asked of him that she might have liberty to go out by night, and before day, to prayer, and to beseech the Lord. 6. And he commanded his chamberlains that she might go out and in, to adore her God, as she pleased, for three days. 7. And she went out in the nights into the valley of Bethulia, and washed herself in a fountain of water. 8. And as she came up, she prayed the Lord God of Israel to direct her way to the deliverance of his people. 9. And going in, she remained pure in the tent, until she took her food in the evening. 10. And it came to pass on the fourth day, Holofernes made a supper for his servants, and said to Vagao his eunuch: Go, and persuade that Hebrew woman, to consent of herself to dwell with me. 11. For it is shameful among the Assyrians, if a woman mock a man, by doing so as to pass free from him. 12. Then Vagao went in to Judith, and said: Let not the good maid be afraid to come in to my lord, that she may be honoured before his face, that she may eat with him, and drink wine and be merry. 13. And Judith answered him: Who am I that should gainsay my lord? 14. Whatsoever shall be good and best before his eyes, that I will do: and whatsoever shall please him, that shall be best for me all the days of my life. 15. And she arose, and adorned herself with her apparel, and going in she stood before his face. 16. Now the heart of Holofernes was struck, for he was burning with the desire of her. 17. And Holofernes said to her: Drink now, and sit down to feast in joy, for thou hast found favour before me. 18. And Judith said: I will drink, my lord, because my life is magnified in me this day above all my days. 19. And she took and ate and drank before him what her maid had prepared for her. 20. And Holofernes was ravished with her, and drank exceeding much wine, so much as he never drank in his life.
2. “LEST IT BECOME AN OFFENCE UNTO ME.”—The Greek has *skandalon*, as if to say: Lest, if I eat the forbidden foods of the Gentiles, I offend God; and so incur punishment and scandal, that is, a stumbling-block and hindrance, that God through me may not accomplish what He has decreed to do for the common good.
5. “AND SHE ASKED OF HIM THAT SHE MIGHT HAVE LIBERTY TO GO OUT BY NIGHT, AND BEFORE DAY (when she wished), TO PRAYER.”—Judith asked this, both that by prayer and fasting she might prepare and arm herself with heroic fortitude to undertake so great a deed, which she had resolved in her mind; and that she might draw from God the courage, manner and means of carrying it out; and finally that, the deed done, she might have free return to Bethulia, because the guards would think she was going out as usual to prayer.
7. “AND WASHED HERSELF (washed hands and feet) IN A FOUNTAIN OF WATER.”—It was the custom of the Jews before prayer to wash hands, feet and sometimes the whole body, that they might approach God with pure body and mind; for purity of body reminded them of purity of mind. The Christians of old did the same, and also so that, if they had touched anything unclean and incurred legal irregularity, they might expiate it by washing.
Moreover this fountain near Bethulia still exists, and is visited by pilgrims, as Adrichomius attests in his article on Bethulia.
9. “UNTIL SHE TOOK HER FOOD IN THE EVENING.”—Judith fasted, then, from morning to evening; in the evening she took food, and after it went out by night to prayer, passing the night in it. With these arms she armed herself for her heroic work. Hear St. Ambrose, book *On Widows*: “Why should I speak of sobriety? For temperance is the virtue of women. From men buried in wine and sleep the widow took the sword, drew her hand, cut off the warrior’s head, and passed unviolated through the midst of the ranks of the enemy. You see, then, how much drunkenness can harm women, when wine so looses men that they are conquered by females? Be, then, a temperate widow; first chaste from wine, that you may be chaste from the adulterer: he will in no way tempt you if wines do not tempt you. For if Judith had drunk, she would have slept with the adulterer. But because she did not drink, the sobriety of one woman was able without difficulty both to conquer and to mock drunken armies.”
10. “AND SAID TO VAGAO HIS EUNUCH.”—Vagao, or Bagao, is not so much a proper name, as Serarius holds, as a common word among the Persians signifying a Eunuch. Hence Pagninus in *Hebrew Names* says: Vagao is the same as “inner” or “innermost,” namely a eunuch or chamberlain; for *ghava* among the Chaldeans is inner or intestinal, or Vagao is the same as “lofty” or “elevated,” from the root *gaa*, to elevate. For eunuchs were the first at court with kings, indeed their chamberlains and sharers of their secrets, and agents in the procuring of mistresses; for, pandering to their lust, they brought beautiful women to them, as did this Vagao.
That it is so Pliny teaches, book XIII, chapter 4, where he says that eunuchs among the Persians are called Bagoi. And Ovid, book II of the *Amores*, Elegy:
He to whom is entrusted the care of guarding the mistress, Bagoas, while I say a few things to you, but apt ones, be at leisure.
And Esther chapter 2, verse 3: Egeus (or Vagao) was eunuch of king Assuerus, prefect of the women’s quarters. So, as Curtius attests, book X, Bagoas, a most wicked eunuch of Alexander the Great, by false accusations delivered Orsines, satrap of the Persians, to be put to death by Alexander. Bagoas was also a eunuch of Herod. Moreover Severus Sulpicius errs, who refers the history of Judith to the times of Artaxerxes Ochus, because he had a eunuch named Bagoas.
11. “FOR IT IS SHAMEFUL AMONG THE ASSYRIANS, IF A WOMAN MOCK A MAN, BY DOING SO AS TO PASS FREE FROM HIM.”—See here the most corrupt and impure morals of the Assyrians and Persians, among whom lust was so reckoned honourable that it ranged through all women, so that among them it was held shameful for any woman to be left untouched. O the times! Hear Ammianus Marcellinus, book XXIII, on the Persians: “Most of them,” he says, “being accustomed to indulge more freely in Venus, and hardly content with a multitude of concubines, though free from the debauchery of boys, each, according to his means, takes several wives, or few. Hence among them charity, scattered through various lusts, grows torpid.” Strabo, book XV near the end, and Cicero, action V against Verres, say the same. Hear still fouler crimes. Theodoret, Question 24 on Leviticus: “The Persians,” he says, “to this very day, are joined in marriage by law not only with sisters, but even with mothers and daughters.” St. Jerome says the same of the Medes, Indians and Ethiopians, book II *Against Jovinian*. Hence Euripides in the *Andromache*:
Such, he says, is the whole race of barbarians: father is mingled with daughter, son with mother, sister with brother.
It is no wonder, then, that the Persians had several wives, and that Judith held out to Holofernes this bait of a beautiful marriage, by which she might catch and kill him like a fish on her hook.
14. “AND WHATSOEVER SHALL PLEASE HIM (understand, if it be lawful for him, and not forbidden by my God) THAT SHALL BE BEST FOR ME,”—so that if he wishes me for a wife, I do not refuse him as husband, whom I know to be so great a prince that from his bridal chamber I shall be raised to be a Duchess and Princess; she gives hope of marriage, to deceive one who loves her, and kill him as an enemy of her people.
18. “I WILL DRINK, MY LORD,”—of wine not thine, but mine, which I brought with me from Bethulia for this reason, lest I be polluted by the wine and food of the Gentiles. Whence follows: “SHE ATE AND DRANK BEFORE HIM WHAT HER MAID HAD PREPARED FOR HER.”—Whence Judith seems to have reclined at another table, which was near the table of Holofernes, so that she ate and drank before him; for it was not fitting that she should recline at table with so great a prince. Hence the Greek has: And her maid came, and spread for her before Holofernes the fleeces which she had received from Bagoas for her daily use, that she might eat reclining upon them. So even now some nations, and lately Muleasses king of Tunis in the presence of Charles V, dined sitting on the ground. Judith therefore drank before Holofernes, to remove from Holofernes every suspicion of slaughter and hatred, and to provoke him to drink more freely, and so slay him lulled to sleep by drink, and that from the wine she might draw spirit, courage and strength to undertake so arduous a deed. For she was fasting, and from fasting weak and faint. “AND HE DRANK EXCEEDING MUCH WINE, SO MUCH AS HE NEVER DRANK IN HIS LIFE.”—In the Greek, since he was born. This was done by the providence of God, that, lulled by wine, he might not touch Judith, but she, remaining sober and chaste, might destroy him. See here how near to joys are sorrows, and how banquets and drunkenness end in funeral and death, and “grief takes hold of the end of joy.” Behold Holofernes, fattened with delights, steeped in wine, exulting in the harmony of musicians, drunk with loves, soon cut down by Judith, and thrust down to hell, where he must digest his drunkenness in eternal thirst in everlasting flames. Hear St. Ambrose, book *On Elias and Fasting*: “They drank wine in drunkenness, the mighty, who were eager to deliver themselves to Holofernes, the general of the king of the Assyrians; but the woman Judith did not drink, fasting all the days of her widowhood, except the solemnities of feast days. Armed with these arms she went forth, and circumvented the whole army of the Assyrians. By the vigour of sober counsel she took off the head of Holofernes, kept her chastity, brought back victory. For she, girded with fasting, held out in a strange camp; he lay buried in wine so that he could not feel the stroke of a wound. Thus the fast of one woman laid low innumerable armies of the Assyrians.”
Admirably St. Basil, homily 14 *On Drunkenness*: “Drunkenness,” he says, “is a demon voluntarily set in our souls by pleasure. Drunkenness is the mother of wickedness, the enemy of virtue; it makes a brave man cowardly, turns the temperate into the wanton, knows not justice, extinguishes prudence.”