Judith 8

1 In those days the news came to Judith daughter of Merari, son of Ox, son of Joseph, son of Oziel, son of Elkia, son of Hananiah, son of Gedeon, son of Raphain, son of Achitob, son of Eliu, son of Chelkias, son of Eliab, son of Nathanael, son of Salamiel, son of Sarasadai, son of Israel. [a] 2 Her husband was Manasseh, of her own tribe and her own family, and he had died in the days of the barley harvest. 3 He was standing over the men who were binding the sheaves in the field when the burning heat came down on his head; and he fell on his bed and died in Bethulia his city, and they buried him with his fathers in the field between Dothan and Balamon. [b] 4 Judith had been in her house as a widow three years and four months.

5 She had made herself a tent on the roof of her house, and she wore sackcloth around her waist, and the clothes of her widowhood were on her. 6 She fasted every day of her widowhood, except the days before the sabbaths and the sabbaths themselves, the days before the new moons and the new moons themselves, and the feasts and the glad days of the house of Israel. 7 She was beautiful in form and very lovely to look at. Manasseh her husband had left her gold and silver, male and female servants, cattle and fields, and she had stayed on the property. 8 And there was no one who spoke an evil word against her, because she feared God greatly.

9 Now she heard the evil words the people were speaking against the ruler, because they had lost heart for lack of water; and Judith heard all the words that Uzziah had spoken to them, and how he had sworn to them that he would hand the city over to the Assyrians after five days. 10 So she sent her attendant, the woman who was set over everything she owned, and called Chabris and Charmis, the elders of her city. [c]

11 They came to her, and she said to them, “Listen to me, you rulers of the people living in Bethulia. What you said before the people today is not right. You have set up this oath, spoken between God and yourselves, and you have said that you will give the city over to our enemies unless within those days the Lord turns and helps you. 12 And now, who are you, that you have put God to the test today and set yourselves in God’s place among the sons of men? 13 Now you are examining the Lord Almighty — and you will never understand anything at all. 14 You cannot find the depth of a man’s heart, and you cannot take hold of what he is thinking. How then will you search out God, who made all these things, and know his mind, and understand his reasoning? No, my brothers — do not provoke the Lord our God to anger.

15 For if he does not choose to help us within these five days, he has the power to shelter us on whatever days he wishes, or to destroy us in front of our enemies. 16 But you must not hold the plans of the Lord our God in pledge. God is not a man, to be threatened, nor a son of man, to be argued into a decision. [e] 17 So let us wait for the rescue that comes from him, and call on him to help us; and he will hear our voice, if it pleases him. 18 For there has not risen in our generations, and there is not today, tribe or family or people or city among us that bows down to gods made with hands, as there was in the days before us. 19 That is why our fathers were handed over to the sword and to plunder, and fell in a great fall before our enemies. 20 But we know no other god but him, and so we hope that he will not overlook us, or anyone of our people.

21 For if we are taken, all Judah will be taken with us, and our holy place will be plundered, and God will require it of us that it was treated as common, at the price of our blood. [f] 22 The murder of our brothers, the carrying off of the land, the desolation of our inheritance — he will turn them all back on our own heads among the nations, wherever we are enslaved; and we will be a thing to stumble over and a reproach to those who own us. 23 For our slavery will not be set on a path to favor; the Lord our God will turn it to dishonor.

24 And now, brothers, let us show our brothers that their lives hang on us, and that the holy place and the house and the altar rest upon us. 25 Beyond all this, let us give thanks to the Lord our God, who is testing us, as he tested our fathers. 26 Remember what he did with Abraham, and how he tested Isaac, and what happened to Jacob in Mesopotamia of Syria, while he was keeping the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother. 27 He has not put us in the fire, as he put them, to search out their hearts, and he has not taken vengeance on us; but the Lord takes the whip to those who come near him, to correct them.”

28 Then Uzziah said to her, “Everything you have said, you have said with a good heart, and there is no one who will stand against your words. 29 It is not today that your wisdom has become plain: from the beginning of your days all the people have known your understanding, because the frame of your heart is good. 30 But the people are terribly thirsty, and they forced us to do what we told them, and to bring on ourselves an oath that we will not break. 31 So now, pray for us, since you are a devout woman, and the Lord will send the rain to fill our cisterns, and we will not give out.”

32 Then Judith said to them, “Listen to me. I am going to do a thing that will reach down to the sons of our people, generation after generation. † 33 You are to stand at the gate tonight, and I will go out with my attendant; and within the days after which you said you would hand the city over to our enemies, the Lord will visit Israel by my hand. 34 But you are not to search out what I am doing, for I will not tell you until the things I am doing are finished.”

35 And Uzziah and the rulers said to her, “Go in peace, and may the Lord God go before you, to take vengeance on our enemies.” † 36 And they turned back from the tent and went to their posts.