Judith Rebukes City Elders For Their Lack Of Faith



Woman’s Indispensable Role in Salvation History

H.H. Pope John Paul II
General Audience
March 27, 1996

1. The Old Testament holds up for our admiration some extraordinary women who, impelled by the Spirit of God, share in the struggles and triumphs of Israel or contribute to its salvation. Their presence in the history of the people is neither marginal nor passive: they appear as true protagonists of salvation history. Here are the most significant examples.

After the crossing of the Red Sea, the sacred text emphasizes the initiative of a woman inspired to make this decisive event a festive celebration: “Then Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and dancing. And Miriam sang to them: ‘Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea’” (Ex 15:20-21).

This mention of feminine enterprise in the context of a celebration stresses not only the importance of woman’s role, but also her particular ability for praising and thanking God.

 

Positive contribution of women to salvation history

 

2. The action of the prophetess Deborah, at the time of the Judges, is even more important. After ordering the commander of the army to go and gather his men, she guarantees by her presence the success of Israel’s army, predicting that another woman, Jael, will kill their enemy’s general.

To celebrate the great victory, Deborah also sings a long canticle praising Jael’s action: “Most blessed of women be Jael, … of tent-dwelling women most blessed” (Jgs 5:24). In the New Testament this praise is echoed in the words Elizabeth addresses to Mary on the day of the Visitation: “Blessed are you among women …” (Lk 1:42).

The significant role of women in the salvation of their people, highlighted by the figures of Deborah and Jael, is presented again in the story of another prophetess named Huldah, who lived at the time of King Josiah.

Questioned by the priest Hilkiah, she made prophecies announcing that forgiveness would be shown to the king who feared the divine wrath. Huldah thus becomes a messenger of mercy and peace (cf. 2 Kgs 22:14-20).

3. The Books of Judith and Esther, whose purpose is to idealize the positive contribution of woman to the history of the chosen people, present—in a violent cultural context—two women who win victory and salvation for the Israelites.

The Book of Judith, in particular, tells of a fearsome army sent by Nebuchadnezzar to conquer Israel. Led by Holofernes, the enemy army is ready to seize the city of Bethulia, amid the desperation of its inhabitants, who, considering any resistance to be useless, ask their rulers to surrender. But the city’s elders, who in the absence of immediate aid declare themselves ready to hand Bethulia over to the enemy, are rebuked by Judith for their lack of faith as she professes her complete trust in the salvation that comes from the Lord.

After a long invocation to God, she who is a symbol of fidelity to the Lord, of humble prayer and of the intention to remain chaste goes to Holofernes, the proud, idolatrous and dissolute enemy general.

Left alone with him and before striking him, Judith prays to Yahweh, saying: “Give me strength this day, O Lord God of Israel!” (Jdt 13:7). Then, taking Holofernes’ sword, she cuts off his head.

Here too, as in the case of David and Goliath, the Lord used weakness to triumph over strength. On this occasion, however, it was a woman who brought victory: Judith, without being held back by the cowardice and unbelief of the people’s rulers, goes to Holofernes and kills him, earning the gratitude and praise of the High Priest and the elders of Jerusalem. The latter exclaimed to the woman who had defeated the enemy: “You are the exaltation of Jerusalem, you are the great glory of Israel, you are the great pride of our nation! You have done all this single-handed; you have done great good to Israel, and God is well pleased with it. May the Almighty Lord bless you for ever!” (Jdt 15:9-10).

4. The events narrated in the Book of Esther occurred in another very difficult situation for the Jews. In the kingdom of Persia, Haman, the king’s superintendent, decrees the extermination of the Jews. To remove the danger, Mardocai, a Jew living in the citadel of Susa, turns to his niece Esther, who lives in the king’s palace where she has attained the rank of queen. Contrary to the law in force, she presents herself to the king without being summoned, thus risking the death penalty, and she obtains the revocation of the extermination decree. Haman is executed, Mordocai comes to power and the Jews delivered from menace, thus get the better of their enemies.

Judith and Esther both risk their lives to win the salvation of their people. The two interventions, however, are quite different: Esther does not kill the enemy but, by playing the role of mediator, intercedes for those who are threatened with destruction.

 

Holy Spirit sketches Mary’s role in human salvation

 

5. This intercessory role is later attributed to another female figure, Abigail, the wife of Nabal, by the First Book of Samuel. Here too, it is due to her intervention that salvation is once again achieved.

She goes to meet David, who has decided to destroy Nabal’s family, and asks forgiveness for her husband’s sins. Thus she delivers his house from certain destruction (1 Sm 25).

As can be easily noted, the Old Testament tradition frequently emphasizes the decisive action of women in the salvation of Israel, especially in the writings closest to the coming of Christ. In this way the Holy Spirit, through the events connected with Old Testament women, sketches with ever greater precision the characteristics of Mary’s mission in the work of salvation for the entire human race.
 

Taken from:
L’Osservatore Romano
Weekly Edition in English
3 April 1996


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http://www.piercedhearts.org/jpii/general_audiences/gen_aud_1996/mar_27_1996.htm

"In the tradition of Moses, Miriam, and Deborah, Judith leads the children of Israel in praise and worship of God through a “new psalm".”

 

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Judith’s Psalm

Prayer is an integral part of the story of Judith just as we discovered of Tobit [7]. In the tradition of Moses, Miriam, and Deborah, Judith leads the children of Israel in praise and worship of God through a “new psalm.” What else can be done when God has delivered us and through the most unexpected means, but praise him. Judith continues the long line of piety in the Hebrew Bible especially in the Psalter. As with other biblical literature there is the rich use of previous biblical literature to nourish the Spiritual well being of God’s people in a new day and situation.

“And Judith said,
Begin a song to my God with tambourines,
and sing to my Lord with cymbals.
Raise to him a new psalm;
exalt him, and call upon his name.
For the Lord is a God who crushes wars;
he sets up his camp among his people;
he delivered me from the hands of
my pursuers.
(Judith 16. 1-2b)

Judith, like the Prophet Miriam (Ex 15.20) and the young ladies in procession in the temple (Ps 68.25) grabs a tambourine and assumes the role of worship leader. In the Bible, God’s fresh act of grace demanded fresh praise. We do not just sing the old song but now in light of God’s new act we sing our own song of worship and praise.
The call to a psalm of praise is grounded in what God has done and is doing. God “crushes” war. Those drunk on the liquor of combat will be disappointed because the Lord simply will put an end to all war. The vision or dream of the prayer is for a world without any more Holoferneses. What a day that would be.
But not only does Judith call to praise because God destroys war but because “he sets up his camp among his people.” Following the destruction of God’s enemies (i.e. war, etc) Judith praises God for one of the great blessings attested to throughout the Hebrew Bible, God lives with his people. It is a vivid image that God “camps” with us. God himself is the desire of the redeemed.
After narrating magnitude of Israel’s dire straits from the Assyrian threat in verses 3 and 4, Judith gives God glory for the unbelievable way in which salvation was granted. Only God could have accomplished salvation through a woman!

“But the Lord Almighty has foiled them
by the hand of a woman.
For their mighty one did not fall by the
hands of the young men,
nor did the sons of the Titans strike
him down,
nor did tall giants set upon him;
but Judith daughter of Merari
with the beauty of her countenance
undid him.” (vv. 5-6)

The Lord God is given total credit for the unusual means of deliverance from the tyrannical Assyrians. Judith does not even give God’s enemy, Holofernes, the honor of being named he is just the “mighty one” who suffers the unbelievable (in that culture) of being done in by a woman, a widow no less! The irony drips form this portion of the psalm. God did not use the demi-gods known as the “sons of the Titans,” nor the legendary “giants” of the land. God used a weapon fit for the occasion that undid the arrogance of an insatiable oppressor. .... Should God not be praised?

 

Judith continues to narrate in the psalm how the God inspired actions of a widow had cosmic consequences. The Persians and the Medes “tremble” with the news of what God has accomplished through one regarded so helpless (v.10). Kicking into high gear Judith continues her “new song” of praise to the Lord.

“I will sing to my god a new song;
O Lord, you are great and glorious,
wonderful in strength, invincible.
Let all your creatures serve you,
for you spoke and they were made.
You sent forth your Spirit, and it
formed them;
there is none that can resist your
voice.
For the mountains shall be shaken to
their foundations with the waters;
before your glance the rocks shall
melt like wax.
But to those who fear you
you show mercy.
For every sacrifice as a fragrant offering
is a small thing,
and the fat of all whole burnt
offerings to you is a very little thing;
but whoever fears the Lord is great forever.

Woe to the nations that rise up against
my people!
The Lord Almighty will take
vengeance on them in the day of
judgement;
he will send fire and worms into their
flesh;
they shall weep in pain forever.”
(vv. 13-17).

Judith has unwavering faith in the majesty and uniqueness of our God. He is the Creator of all things. Through the instrumentality of the Spirit life is given and the world is made. God’s all powerful word (voice) cannot be resisted by his creation. Those in rebellion against his lordship (like Holofernes) will find themselves missing their head but mercy is the lot of those who walk the dangerous road of faith.

....

Taken from: http://stonedcampbelldisciple.com/2013/08/21/prayer-in-the-apocrypha-3-judiths-psalm-of-praise/

Judith of Bethulia not a Stereotypical Jewish Heroine

"Judith the character is usually identified as a representation of or a metaphor for the community of faith. Although her name, widowhood, chastity, beauty, and righteousness suggest the traditional representation of Israel, the text's association of these traits with an independant woman and with sexuality subverts the metaphoric connection between character and androcentrically determined community... Judith appears at first to be a classic metaphor both for the nation and for all women. Not only does her name mean 'the Jewess' but also she 'is a widow,' for the Jewish nation is living at the time of grave danger and affliction, like a forlorn widow... While Judith's widowhood conforms to the traditional representation of of Israel as a woman in mourning and, while both she and Bethulia are draped in sackcloth, Judith's particular representation-- her status, rhetoric, wealth, beauty and even her geneaology--aborts the metaphor. This widow is hardly the forlorn female in need of male protection."-- Amy-Jill Levine, "Sacrifice and Salvation: Otherness and Domestication in the Book of Judith" in Feminist Companion to the Bible7 (Sheffield University Press, 1995)"Jael is very much a truncated version of Judith. Her role is brief -- two verses -- because the national heroine here is Deborah, and the military hero Barak. Between them, they divide the functions that Judith performs entirely by herself... Deborah is not morally ambivelent like Judith, because Jael does the dirty work for her... Esther is a domesticated type of the queen of heaven, yet politically -- both in the public sphere and in sexual politics -- anodyne by comparision to the private citizen Judith. Judith's particularity is the more striking and definitive because only this biblical heroine is so ambiguous, and therefore resistent to stereotype... Feminists have often complained, and rightly, of the supports to patriarchy and misogyny that have been provided by the Bible. With one hand, it gave us the Eves and Delilahs who demonize women, but with the other it gave us a woman of independant mind, clever, rational, ingenious, resourceful, persuasive, courageous, self-reliant, and indominable."-- Margarita Stocker, Judith, Sexual Warrior: Women and Power in Western Culture(New Haven: Yale University Press)"Because of the forty days framework in chs. 7-13 one is inclined to compare the Assyrian threat to the Jews in Judith with Israel's forty years in the desert after the flight from Egypt. Several details support the association. The situation of the starving Jews of Bethulia, who blame their leaders for not giving in to Holofernesm is similar to that of Israel complaining against Moses and Aaron and hankering after the fleshpots of Egypt. In 7.25 the inhabitants of Bethulia, lacking in faith, say: 'For now we have no one to help us, God has sold us into their hands to be strewn befor them in thirst and exhaustion'... There is only one episode in the Hebrew Bible where a situation of lack of water is found together with the testing motif. This is the scene in the desert at Massah and Meribah (Exodus 17:1-7; Num 20:2-13; cf. Deut. 33.8-11)."-- J. van Henten, "Judith as Alternative Leader," in Feminist Companion to the Bible 7 (Sheffield University Press, 1995) .... Taken from: http://www.annettereed.com/roshchodesh/symbolism.htm Daniel and Judith: Gender and Jewish Identity in Second Temple Judaism SYMBOLISM IN THE BOOK OF JUDITH

Yahweh Says Regarding King Sennacherib of Assyria

 “Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of my anger,
    in whose hand is the club of my wrath!
⁶ I send him against a godless nation,
    I dispatch him against a people who anger me,
to seize loot and snatch plunder,
    and to trample them down like mud in the streets.
⁷ But this is not what he intends,
    this is not what he has in mind;
his purpose is to destroy,
    to put an end to many nations.
⁸ ‘Are not my commanders all kings?’ he says.
⁹     ‘Has not Kalno fared like Carchemish?
Is not Hamath like Arpad,
    and Samaria like Damascus?
¹⁰ As my hand seized the kingdoms of the idols,
    kingdoms whose images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria—
¹¹ shall I not deal with Jerusalem and her images
    as I dealt with Samaria and her idols?’”

 

(Isaiah 10:5-11)

Vulgate Book of Tobit Anchors Judith of Bethulia to Era of Sennacherib



 

No need any longer for biblical commentators to seek for the era of the Book of Judith drama - whether considered fully or only partially historical - late, during the Maccabean era. For one of the main characters in the Book of Judith, Achior, re-appears in the Vulgate version of the Book of Tobit as Tobit’s own nephew, otherwise known as Ahikar (Tobit 1:21-22 GNT). Achior and his own nephew, Nabath, will attend the joyous wedding of Tobit’s son, Tobias (= holy Job, see our site: http://bookofjob-amaic.blogspot.com.au/), at Nineveh (Tobit 11:20): “…. veneruntque Achior et Nabath consobrini Tobiae gaudentes …”. (“And Achior and Nabath the kinsmen of Tobias came, rejoicing”).

 

Now the era of the Book of Tobit spans the neo-Assyrian period of “Shalmaneser” (V), “Sennacherib” and “Esarhaddon”, with the latter two kings only being relevant for Achior/ Ahikar (1:21-22):

 

[The Assyrian king] Esarhaddon … put Ahikar, my brother Anael’s son, in charge of all the financial affairs of the empire. This was actually the second time Ahikar was appointed to this position, for when Sennacherib was emperor of Assyria, Ahikar had been wine steward, treasurer, and accountant, and had been in charge of the official seal. Since Ahikar was my nephew, he put in a good word for me with the emperor ….

 

The defeat of the massive Assyrian army, the central drama of the Book of Judith, occurred during the reign of Sennacherib, not Esarhaddon.

 

For more on all of this, see our:

 

Ahikar Part One: As a Young Officer for Assyria

http://www.academia.edu/7048703/Ahikar_or_Achior._Part_One

 

Ahikar Part Two: As a Convert to Yahwism

http://www.academia.edu/7067422/Ahikar_Part_Two_As_a_Convert_to_Yahwism