Song of Judith

¹Judith said:

Begin to praise my God with drums;

sing to the Lord with cymbals.

Adapt a psalm for him;

lift up your praise,

and call upon his name.

²The Lord is a God who crushes wars.

He rescued me

from the hand of my oppressors,

and brought me into his camp

in the midst of his people.

³The Assyrian came from the mountains in the north;

he came with tens of thousands

of his warriors;

their crowd of people

blocked the ravines,

and their cavalry covered the hills.

⁴He bragged that he would

burn my territory,

kill my young men with the sword,

throw my infants to the ground,

take my children as slaves,

and rape my virgins.

⁵But the Lord Almighty overthrew them by the hand of a woman.[#16.5 Other sources add and brought them to shame.]

⁶Their leader didn’t fall to his knees because of young men,

nor did the sons of the Titans

strike him down,

nor did the tall giants assault him.

But Judith, Merari’s daughter,

paralyzed him with her beauty.

⁷She took off her widow’s clothing

She put perfume on her face,

⁸tied a headband around her hair,

and put on a linen gown to trick him.

⁹Her sandal captured his eyes;

her beauty captured his heart,

¹⁰The Persians trembled at her daring,

and the Medes were troubled

by her boldness.

¹¹Then my humbled ones shouted loudly;

my weak ones cried out,

¹²Sons of mere girls stabbed them

and wounded them

like the children of deserters.

¹³I will sing to my God a new song.

Lord, you are great and glorious, marvelous in strength

never to be outdone.

¹⁴May all of your creation serve you;

you spoke,

and they came into being.

You sent forth your spirit

and it shaped them;

there is no one

who can resist your voice.

¹⁵The mountains will be shaken from their foundations with the waters;

rocks will melt like wax before you.

Yet you will show mercy

to those who fear you.

¹⁶The pleasant fragrance of all offerings

is a small thing to you,

and the fat of all entirely burned offerings means even less to you.

But those who fear the Lord

are great forever.

¹⁷How terrible it will be for those nations

who rise up against my people.

The Lord Almighty will take vengeance upon them on the Judgment Day.

He will send fire and worms

into their flesh,

and they will weep forever with the pain.

End of Judith’s life

¹⁸When they arrived in Jerusalem, they worshipped God. Once the people were purified, they offered their entirely burned offerings and spontaneous gifts.

¹⁹Judith dedicated all of Holofernes’ belongings that the people had given her. The canopy that she herself had taken from his bedroom, she dedicated as an offering to God.

²⁰The people continued to celebrate in Jerusalem for three months in front of the sanctuary. And Judith remained with them.

²¹At the end of these days, everyone returned to their homes. Judith went back to Bethulia and lived on her estate. She was honored for the rest of her life all throughout the land.

²²There were many men who desired her, but no man had relations with her all the rest of her life after her husband Manasseh died and was buried with his people.

²³She became increasingly famous and grew old in her husband’s house, reaching the advanced age of 105. She set her trusted servant free and died in Bethulia. They buried her in her husband Manasseh’s cave,

²⁴and the house of Israel mourned her for seven days. Before she died, she divided her property among all the relatives of Manasseh her husband, and among her own relatives.

²⁵No one terrified the Israelites again during Judith’s lifetime or for a long time after her death.