Judith and Holofernes

This became known to Judith, who was then in the camp. She was a widow of great wealth and remarkable beauty, but she was still more distinguished for her virtue than for her beauty. She decided that, with her people in such distress, she ought to make some bold attempt, even if it led to her own death. So she adorned her head and made her face beautiful, and then, with a single maidservant to attend her, she went into the enemy’s camp. She was taken at once to Holofernes. She told him that her countrymen’s situation was hopeless, and that she had therefore fled to save her life. Then she asked the general for leave to go freely out of the camp at night to say her prayers. The order was given to the sentries and the keepers of the gates. [a]

For three days she went out and came back, until it had become her habit and the barbarians had come to trust her. Then Holofernes was seized by the desire to violate his captive, for her surpassing beauty had easily captivated the Persian. So the eunuch Bagoas brought her to the general’s tent. A banquet began, and the barbarian dulled his senses with a great deal of wine. When the servants had withdrawn, he fell asleep before he could force himself on the woman. Judith seized the opportunity. She cut off the enemy’s head and carried it away with her. Since everyone took her to be simply going out of the camp as usual, she got back to her own people safely.

The next day the Hebrews held up the head of Holofernes on the heights for all to see, and they came down in a sortie and marched on the enemy camp. The barbarians gathered in crowds at their general’s tent, waiting for the signal for battle. When his headless body was found, they were seized by a shameful panic, turned, and fled before the enemy. The Jews for their part pursued the fugitives, killed many thousands, and took the camp and the plunder in it. Judith was praised in the highest terms, and she is said to have lived a hundred and five years.

If these things took place, as we believe, under King Ochus, in the twelfth year of his reign, then twenty-two years passed from the restoration of Jerusalem to that war. Ochus reigned twenty-three years in all. He was crueler than any other king, and more savage than a barbarian. The eunuch Bagoas did away with him by poison when he was ill. After him his son Arses held the government for three years, and Darius for four.