Commentaria in Judith
Chapter 2
Nabuchodonosor, with the approval of his war council, sends Holofernes to subject the western nations to himself by arms.
1. In the thirteenth year of the reign of Nabuchodonosor, the two and twentieth day of the first month, the word was given out in the house of Nabuchodonosor king of the Assyrians that he would revenge himself. 2. And he called all the ancients, and all the governors, and his soldiers, and communicated to them the secret of his counsel: 3. And he said that it was his thought to bring all the earth under his empire. 4. And when this saying had pleased them all, Nabuchodonosor the king called Holofernes the general of his armies, 5. And said to him: Go out against all the kingdoms of the west, and against them especially that despised my commandment. 6. Thy eye shall not spare any kingdom, and all the strong cities thou shalt bring under my yoke. 7. Then Holofernes called the captains and the officers of the power of the Assyrians: and he mustered men for the expedition, as the king commanded him, a hundred and twenty thousand fighting men on foot, and twelve thousand archers on horseback. 8. And he made all his army to go before him in a multitude innumerable, and a great number of camels, with provisions sufficient for the armies in abundance, and herds of oxen, and flocks of sheep without number. 9. He appointed corn to be prepared out of all Syria in his passage. 10. And he took a great deal of gold and silver out of the king’s house. 11. And he set forth, he and all the army with the chariots, and horsemen, and archers, who covered the face of the earth like locusts. 12. And when he had passed the borders of Assyria, he came to the great mountains of Ange, which are on the left of Cilicia: and he went up into all their castles, and made himself master of every strong place. 13. And he broke into the renowned city Melothi, and plundered all the children of Tharsis, and the children of Ismael, that were over against the face of the desert, and on the south of the land of Cellon. 14. And he passed over the Euphrates, and came into Mesopotamia: and he broke down all the high cities that were there, from the torrent of Mambre, till one comes to the sea: 15. And he took the borders thereof, from Cilicia to the coasts of Japheth, which are towards the south. 16. And he carried away all the children of Madian, and plundered all their wealth, and all that resisted him he slew with the edge of the sword. 17. And after this he went down into the plains of Damascus in the days of the harvest, and he set on fire all the corn, and he caused all the trees and vineyards to be cut down: 18. And the fear of him fell upon all the inhabitants of the land.
(or secret) “OF HIS COUNSEL.”—For the counsels of kings, especially about subjugating other kings and nations, are secret and hidden.
4. “HOLOFERNES THE GENERAL OF HIS ARMIES.”—Who, of what sort and how great was Holofernes? I answer first: Cedrenus says he was a Persian. For the name seems Persian, just as Tisaphernes, Artaphernes, Intaphernes are Persian names, although among the Assyrians, Armenians and Cappadocians, as Serarius attests on chapter 1, Question IV, and on chapter 3, Question 1, men are found who were named Holofernes. If he was a Persian, Nabuchodonosor chose a Persian leader in order to attract to himself the Persians, who had been made contemptible to Xerxes by the defeat received from the Greeks, as he did. Hence in the last chapter, verse 12, it is said: “The Persians quailed at her constancy, and the Medes at her boldness,” namely Judith’s: for Arphaxad and the Medes having now been subdued by Nabuchodonosor, many Medes, and Persians neighbouring the Medes, had given their names to his army.
Second, Holofernes was the general of the army of Nabuchodonosor and next to him in rank, as the Greek has: as Joseph was second to Pharao, Aman to Assuerus, Hephaestion to Alexander; hence Zonaras calls Holofernes the Archsatrap. But Tertullian, book I *Against Marcion*, chapter 7, and St. Augustine, in the Appendix, sermon 66, call him king, because he had the most ample power and almost royal wealth. In like manner Joseph, next to Pharao, is called by Josephus and Philo in Eusebius, book IX *Preparation for the Gospel*, “sceptre-bearer,” that is, king: for the sceptre is the badge of a king.
Third, Francis Mayronis asserts that Holofernes was the son of Assuerus and Esther; but all refute this as new and unheard of.
Fourth, Pagninus in *Hebrew Names* says: Holofernes is so called according to the Greek etymology as if “whole gift”: for *holos* is whole, *dôron* is gift; and there are those who think it compounded of Hebrew and Chaldean, and interpret it “strong leader,” for *parnas* among the Chaldeans is prefect, or leader. So Pagninus. Hence the names of illustrious leaders of the Persians are Pharnaspes, Pharnuches, Pharnabazus.
Fifth, as to character, Holofernes was like Nabuchodonosor in pride and haughtiness, as well as in dissoluteness and luxury, and therefore was conquered and slain by Judith, as will appear from what follows. The Greek adds that Nabuchodonosor said to Holofernes that he would follow after with all his forces: I will go forth, he says, in my fury against them, and will cover the whole earth with the feet of my power, etc.
5. “AND HE SAID TO HIM: GO OUT AGAINST ALL THE KINGDOMS OF THE WEST.”—The Greek relates this command of the king more fully, and says: “Thus saith the great King, the Lord of all the earth: Behold, thou shalt go out from my face, and shalt take with thee men who trust in their own strength, of footmen to a hundred and twenty thousand, and a multitude of horses with their riders, a multitude, I say, of twelve myriads, or a hundred and twenty thousand, and thou shalt go forth to meet, or to battle, against all the land that is to the west, because they obeyed not the word of my mouth, and thou shalt declare to them that they prepare earth and water, for I will go forth in my fury against them, and will cover the whole face of the earth with the feet of my army, and I will give them over to them for plunder, and their wounded shall fill their valleys and torrents. The river also, overflowing with their dead, shall be filled: and finally I will lead their captivity, or drive it, to the ends of all the earth. But thou, going forth, shalt take beforehand for me all their borders, and they shall give themselves up to thee, and thou shalt reserve them for me for the day of their reproof. But against those who are rebellious and disobedient, thine eye shall not spare, so as not to give them in all thy land to slaughter and plunder; for as I live, and by the strength of my kingdom, what I have spoken that also I will do by my hand. But thou shalt not transgress one of the words of thy lord, but shalt perfectly accomplish as I have commanded thee: and thou shalt not delay to do them.”
Note in these words of the King, “and thou shalt declare to them that they prepare earth and water for me,” the ancient custom of the Persians is signified: when they wished to subjugate some nation to themselves, and demanded of it that it should surrender to them, they asked of it earth and water, as a symbol, as it were, of servitude. For these are necessary to human life. Hence Aristotle, *Rhetoric* book II: “To give earth and water,” he says, “is to serve.” Hence when Darius Hystaspis demanded of the Spartans earth and water as a sign of surrender, the Spartans cast his ambassadors into a well, telling them to draw from it earth and water to carry to Darius, as Herodotus narrates, book VII. Hence Xerxes the son of Darius did not dare to send ambassadors to the Spartans to demand earth and water of them, says St. Jerome, book VIII, and Diodorus, book XI. Hence Alexander the Great in Curtius, book III, about to engage with Darius Codomanus and the Persians, in his speech to the soldiers charges them with this arrogance of Darius Hystaspis and Xerxes, that they should remember they were fighting with Persians who were accustomed to demand earth and water: and so to those who submitted to them they would leave neither a draught from the springs nor food, the fruits of the earth. Again Herodotus, book IV, narrates that Darius Hystaspis demanded earth and water from Indathyrsus, leader of the Scythians. And when he sent “a bird, a mouse, a frog and five arrows,” Darius’ opinion was that “the Scythians were surrendering themselves to him, and earth and water,” because the “mouse” is born in the earth and lives on the same fruit as men; the “frog” is born in the waters; the “bird” is like a horse; and by giving “arrows” they were handing over their own strength.
7. “AND TWELVE THOUSAND ARCHERS ON HORSEBACK.”—The Greek has 190 thousand, as we have already heard: where there seems to be a mistake in the number, and the cipher 0 is to be deleted, so that 12 thousand remain, as ours has. For who has led so many thousands of horsemen into the line?
Certainly Darius led out against Alexander only 44 thousand horsemen, and 200 thousand foot, says Curtius, book IV, unless someone says that of horsemen there were here 12 thousand archers, and that of the other horsemen, armed with lances, sarissas, double axes, etc., there were 108 thousand, so that both added together made 120 thousand. Perhaps in the Greek, with the hundred taken away, one should read 20, of whom 12 thousand were archers, as the Greek also has; the rest of another armament.
12. “HE CAME TO THE GREAT MOUNTAINS OF ANGE, WHICH ARE ON THE
(he plundered) “ALL THE CHILDREN OF THARSIS.”—These are they of whom it is said, 2 Machabees 4:30: “It happened that the Tharsians and Mallotes raised a sedition, because they had been given as a gift to Antiochis, the king’s concubine.” For Tharsis was the grandson of Japheth, Genesis 10, from whom the Mediterranean sea, and Cilicia its boundary, and thence any sea, was called Tharsis, as I said on Isaias 2:16. 14. “MAMBRE.”—The Greek has Arbonai. 15. “TO THE COASTS OF JAPHETH,”—Joppe is signified.
16. “AND HE CARRIED AWAY.”—In Greek, he went about, that is, surrounded, encircled.
13. “AND HE BROKE INTO (took by storm) THE RENOWNED CITY (most famous, and renowned for wealth and strength) MELOTHI” 17. “AND HE SET ON FIRE ALL THE CORN.”—The Greek has:
(“Melothi” in Hebrew is the same as fullness, namely of wealth and men: for such was Melothi) “AND PLUNDERED”—He consumed flocks and herds, plundered cities, laid waste fields, and struck all their young men with the edge of the sword.