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Judith: A Paradigm of Faith and Steadfastness

Hope S. Antone

 

This biblical reflection is based on the story of a woman recorded in the apocryphal writings, and bearing the woman's name, Judith. Although for many of us the book of Judith and all the apocryphal writings are not in our protestant canon, I trust that we are ecumenical enough to learn from other traditions or other denominations' sources of teaching. The story of Judith has struck me the very first time I read it. And because of its significance and relevance to our situation and time, I think it is worth reflecting on.

 

Judith: the Story

Sometime during the reign of Assyrian King Nebuchadnez­zar shortly after the Israelite exile in Babylon, war was waged against King Arphaxad of the Medes. Nebuchadnezzar issued an order to all people in the West (including the Jewish territories) to rally with him against Arphaxad. Many nations heeded his call but not those in the West. Learning this, Nebuchadnezzar swore by his throne that he would avenge himself on all the territories that did not come to his support. After some years of fighting, he won the war and so he planned to carry out his revenge against the West.

He assigned Holofernes, general in chief of his forces, to go ahead of him with 120,000 infantry and 12,000 cavalry and to take possession of all the Western territories. Those who surrendered were to be kept guarded until their "day of punishment" but

 

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those who resisted were to be slaughtered right away. News of the devastation and plunder of Chaldea, Mesopotamia, Cilicia, Midian and Damascus reached the other areas and brought them great fear. Some of the other places quickly sent word of surrender. However, although the people of these territories received Holofernes with garlands and dancing, their homes were still destroyed, their sacred groves devastated. For after all, Nebuchadnezzar had commissioned him to destroy all gods so that every nation might worship him alone.

Hearing this, the Israelites were greatly alarmed for Jerusa­lem and the temple. They had just returned from exile, re-gathered themselves and purified the temple from profanation. They, there­fore, decided to prepare for defense. All of Israel cried to God with great fervor, did penance, and fasted for many days.

Word reached Holofernes that the Israelites were ready for battle and had blocked the mountain passes, fortified the summits, placed roadblocks in the plains. He inquired from the rulers of the Moabites and Ammonites about what kind of people the Israelites were and why they refused to surrender.

Achior, the leader of the Ammonites, narrated to Holo­fernes the history of the Israelites – how they fled from Mesopota­mia to Canaan, then to Egypt and the long years of slavery there. Achior emphasized to Holofernes that this people strongly believed in one God who was always with them and who delivered them always. He told him that although this God did punish them each time they sinned; this same God always listened to them when they repented. "As long as the Israelites did not sin in the sight of their God, they prospered, for their God, who hates wickedness, was with them," Achior pointed out.

"So now, my lord and master, if these people are at fault, and are sinning against their God, and if we verify this offense of

 

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theirs, then we shall be able to go up and conquer them. But if they are not a guilty nation, then your lordship should keep his distance; otherwise their Lord and God will shield them, and we shall become the laughing stock of the world," Achior warned Holofernes.

But that warning must have been taken as an insult by Holofernes. He said, "Who are you, Achior, to prophesy among us ...and to tell us not to fight against the Israelites because their God protects them? What God is there beside Nebuchadnezzar?" And Holofernes had Achior severely punished and brought to the mountain region half-dead. The Israelites found him in that state, brought him to their elders who questioned him. When they heard Achior's account, the people fell prostrate, worshipped God and cried out: "Lord, God of heavens, behold their arrogance! Have pity on the lowliness of our people, and look with favor this day on those who are consecrated to you."

The following day, Holofernes began his attack on Israel by moving their camp closer to the city of Bethulia. On the second day, he seized the water sources of the Israelites thinking that thirst would carry them off to surrender.

With the enemies surrounding them and their cisterns dry, the people called upon their elders saying: "God judge between you and us! You have done us grave injustice in not making peace with the Assyrians. Instead, God has sold us into their power by laying us prostrate before them in thirst and utter exhaustion. Therefore, summon them and deliver the whole city as booty to the troops of Holofernes... we would be better off to become their prey. We should indeed be made slaves, but at least we should live...."

Uzziah, one of the elders, pleaded with them to wait for five days more for the Lord to show mercy believing that the Lord would not forsake them. If however, five days would be over without help, then he would give in to the people's clamor.

 

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Learning about this compromise agreement, Judith (a pious widow of three years and four months), asked to see the elders and challenged them, saying:

Listen to me, you rulers of Bethulia. What you said to the people today is not proper. When you promised to hand over the city to our enemies at the end of five days unless the Lord comes to our aid, you interposed between God and yourselves this oath which you took. Who are you, then, that you should have put God to the test this day, setting yourselves in the place of God in human affairs? It is the Lord Almighty for whom you are laying down conditions.

No, my brothers, do not anger the Lord our God. For if God does not come to our aid within the five days. God has equally within God's power to protect us at such time as God pleases, or to destroy us in the face of our enemies.

Therefore, let us set an example for our people. Their lives depend on us, and the defense of the sanctuary, the temple, and the altar rests with us. Besides all this, we should be grateful to the Lord our God for putting us to the test, as God did to our ancestors....Not for vengeance did the Lord put them in the crucible to try their hearts, nor has the Lord done so with us. It is by way of admonition that God chas­tises those who are close to God. (Jud 8:11 ff.)

Uzziah explained to Judith that it was because of the people's clamor, being tortured with thirst, that the elders bound themselves by an oath they could no longer break. He then asked her to pray for rain to fill up their cisterns and so hopefully pacify the people. But Judith told them of her secret plan, to let the Lord rescue Israel by her hand. The elders then blessed her for that.

 

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Judith prostrated herself with ashes on her head and sack­cloth as her dress. She prayed hard to God for the plan she was to carry out. In her prayer, she recalled how God always protected them in their weakness:

Your strength is not in numbers, nor does your power depend upon stalwart men; but you are the God of the lowly, the helper of the oppressed, the supporter of the weak, the protector of the forsaken, and the savior of those without hope. Please, please God of my ancestors... hear my prayer! Let my guileful speech bring wound and wale on those who have planned dire things against your cove­nant, your holy temple and the homes your children have inherited. Let your whole nation and all the tribes know clearly that you are the God of all power and might, and that there is no other who protects the people of Israel but you alone. (Judith 9)

Having concluded her prayer, she went to her house and changed from her garments of widowhood. She arranged her hair and put on festive attire she had worn when her husband was alive. She made herself very beautiful to captivate the eyes of all men who should see her. (By the way, Judith was not only God-fearing, "she was beautifully formed and lovely to behold"– Judith 8:7.) She asked her maid to carry enough provisions. The elders of Israel saw her off at the gate of the city and gave her their blessings.

Soon Judith and her maid encountered the Assyrian outpost where guards immediately captured them. Judith told them she was Hebrew and had fled from her people as they were about to be delivered up as prey. She said she had a trustworthy report for Holofernes that would show the route by which to ascend and take possession of the whole area without loss of their life. The men happily led her to Holofernes' tent. Looking at her, the men at the

 

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camp marveled at her beauty and regarded the Israelites with wonder.

Now meeting with Holofernes, Judith threw herself down prostrate before him but his servants raised her up. Holofernes assured her that anyone who chose to serve Nebuchadnezzar would not be harmed. Judith then told him she had come to wish him success. She told a similar story as the one Achior had nar­rated about her people being punished by their God each time they sinned. She said this time her people had sinned against God because in their hunger and thirst they had resolved to eat even the forbidden food and drink and now were just waiting for word from Jerusalem for authorization on it. She said she immediately came to report this to Holofernes and to update him on the Israelites' situation. She said she'd stay in the camp but each night must go to the ravine to pray to God and to learn when the Israelites had committed their crimes. By then, she said, she would right away lead Holofernes' army through Judea to set up his judgment seat there. Holofernes was so pleased by her speech, wisdom and beauty that he assured her she'd live in Nebuchadnezzar's palace and be known widely. He invited her to a feast but she refused saying she had her own provisions. She stayed there for three days; each night going to the ravine with her maid to pray.

On the fourth day, Holofernes gave a banquet for his servants and asked Judith to be invited as well. Judith did go after putting on her festive garments and feminine adornments. Holofernes was burning with desire to possess her. He asked her to drink but Judith drank her own wine. Holofernes, so charmed by her, drank so much than he used to in one day. When it was late, the servants withdrew and Judith was left alone in the tent with Holofernes who lay prostrate on his bed, all sodden with wine. She ordered her maid to stand outside the bedroom and wait for her. Judith then stood by Holofernes' head and said within herself:

 

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Lord God of all might, in this hour look graciously on my undertaking for the exaltation of Jerusalem; now is the time for aiding your heritage and for carrying out my design to shatter the enemies who have risen against us.

She went closer to the head of Holofernes, and taking his sword from the bedpost, grasped the hair of his head, saying, "Strengthen me this day 0 God of Israel." Then with all her might, she struck him twice in the neck and cut off his head. She gave it to the maid who put it in her food pouch and they went off together as accustomed, towards the ravine. This time, however, they just skirt­ed the ravine and went straight to Bethulia where the people welcomed them. Judith showed them the head of Holofernes, the people, greatly astonished, bowed down, and worshipped God saying, "Blessed are you, our God, who today have brought to nought the enemies of your people." The elders blessed Judith and glorified God as well. Achior who was told all that happened blessed Judith and seeing all that the God of Israel had done, be­lieved firmly in God and asked to be united with the house of Israel.

At daybreak, the Israelites prepared for an offensive as Judith suggested. Seeing this preparation, the Assyrians notified their leaders who then went to Holofernes' tent to awaken him. Discovering a headless corpse, and the Hebrew women gone, the army was overcome with fear and trembling. They scattered in all directions. But the Israelite warriors overtook them. Gathering again in victory, Judith led all Israel in a song of thanksgiving. The people went to Jerusalem to worship God and for three months continued their celebration. When this was over, they all returned home. Judith remained a widow although many wished to marry her. Before she died, she distributed her goods among her and her husband's relatives and gave her maid her freedom. It was noted that in her lifetime and for sometime after her death, no one dared disturb Israel again.

 

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Courtesy: Chandralekha

 

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Judith: Woman of Faith and Steadfastness

For many Christians, there will be no end to the debate on the "morality" of Judith's action. Some will find the act too horrible and gruesome to be "Christian" while others may justify it as the "lesser evil" or the "best thing under the circumstances." And for as long as we do not empathize with her and the Israelites, it will be difficult to try to understand what really happened.

Judith was a widow who had been in mourning for at least three years. In the Jewish society, widowhood, especially before old age, was considered an unfortunate state. In Hebrew belief, death before old age was a calamity, a judgment for some sin which was extended to the wife who was left behind. Thus, a widow was often subjected to harsh treatment. The Hebrews, how­ever, had several laws which considered the plight of the widows. The law of levirate marriage was to ensure her security. The child­less widow could return to her father's house to wait for a younger brother or the closest kin of the late husband to marry her. If there were no brothers at all or if they were all too poor to support her, .there was no other recourse for her. She therefore became an object of public concern, often grouped with the orphans or fatherless. Indeed, to be a widow was to be the embodiment of poverty and indigence.

Judith, however, was an exception. Her ancestry could be traced to Joseph and even all the way to Israel. Her husband, a certain Manasseh who had died of sunstroke, had left her gold and silver, servants and slaves, livestock and fields, which she continued to supervise. And being a very religious woman, no one said any­thing bad about her. In her grief over the untimely death of her husband, she built a little shelter on the roof of her house and lived there wearing a sackcloth, fasting during the entire period of her mourning except when fasting was forbidden.

 

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But what makes Judith a paradigm of steadfastness? I can cite three characteristics that Judith displayed as a woman of stead­fastness. First, her piety as a woman. Her devotion as a Jew was displayed in her faithful following of the rituals of widowhood. (I do not know if there is such a similar ritual for widower-hood and if men could ever faithfully follow it anyway.) More than that, her piety was not something bound to such outward forms of rituals alone. Neither was it something detached from life's realities in her time. Her knowledge about the history of her ancestors in their faith and life journey with God, her faith in the liberating acts of God, and her conscious awareness of the historical events of her own time all indicate to us the kind of piety that was so grounded in historical events and not in mere abstract creeds or handed down dogmas. It was with such kind of piety that she could bravely challenge the elders of her nation and even preach to them the theology of steadfastness. It was with such kind of piety that she could offer herself in utter dependence on God as God's partner in a risky act of redemption.

Even in our time, I believe women are the more pious than men are. In many churches I've been to, I always see more women than men actively participating in the church's programs. But I think we have to learn something more from Judith. We have to check our piety, our devotion, our observance of religious rituals, our beliefs. Are they the abstract, out-of-this-world kind of beliefs and practices that are so detached from present life situations of our times? Are they the kind that do not even connect to the rich heritage of our faith, the history of our ancestors in their life and faith journey with God in God's liberating action in our nation's life?

The rise of religious fundamentalist groups is a phenome­non not only in Asia but worldwide. While we wonder at the wealth of money and workers, they can just send around, we do notice how

 

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effective they are in attracting our people as well as in dividing our churches. While their theology is that of the other kind, the pacifying kind (e.g. never mind if you suffer here now, for somewhere out there in the next life there will be suffering no more), they do make us realize that something is also missing in our Church’s life. The songs, the prayers, the readings have been the same old ones that have already lost their meaning and relevance. Even the tall, beautifully western styled church buildings seem to lose meaning and significance today.

 

Courtesy: Kim Yong Im

 

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Piety and all its accompanying forms/elements must be truly alive and relevant to the people's situation right where they are. It must provide for the recollection of the memory of the rich heritage of the faith, the faith of the ancestors in their life journey with God. That way we can also check how faithful we are to being steadfast as our ancestors were, or whether our faith now has simply become a matter of routine or habit or convenience. The rise of the grassroots churches in some urban-industrial areas of Korea is a hopeful sign of this kind of piety. May the women's contribution be more felt in their liturgies and leadership.

 

Second, her decisiveness in the time of crisis. Judith did not allow her personal crisis – loss of a husband – to overcome her. While facing her own crisis of widowhood, she was not deterred from deciding to do something about another crisis, a bigger crisis that affected the whole of her nation. She was even willing to leave behind, at least for a while, her personal and domestic duties to attend to the bigger duty to her people. The impulse to be decisive at the call of the moment is indeed a mark of her steadfastness.

 

In our crisis, deciding can be a most difficult task. We do not even know where and how to start as the crises are usually intertwined with each other. But maybe what we can learn from Judith is the power of discernment, the power to discern God's will in spite of the crisis, and so discerning it, to actualize it. Women, usually burdened with household work or family duties on top of having to work hard for so little pay in order to augment the meager family income, may have their set priorities which will affect their decisions. But in the process they also have been trained to be decisive, probably instinc­tively decisive. Women would on impulse respond to a child's cry; cry (whether in pity or anger) over a touching story or news; re­spond to a campaign against consumerism, etc. It is usually attrib­uted to the female's so-called "mother instinct" that women do seem to be more impulsive in decision-making. May such gift indeed be

 

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so utilized that like Judith, it will be useful to meet a crisis.

Third, Judith's concern for the general good over that of her personal good even to the point of risking her own life. Apart from thinking about not putting God to the test, Judith offered herself for the welfare of her people. She knew she was risking her life and that of her maid. She could just have been raped or killed before she could carry out her plan. Something about her could have led the enemies to suspect her for a spy and therefore watch her moves very closely and that would have been the end of her life and of her people. But still she risked her life for the sake of her people.

In our time, it can be difficult to follow the steps of Judith. Of course we know of some widows who have come out into public service like our own president Corazon Aquino. Unfor­tunately, she cannot even be so decisive on her own as there are always the so-called "advisers" around her. Unfortunately, too, we cannot just equate Nebuchadnezzar or Holofernes to any one person now who, if only we can be rid of him, will mean a stop to all our troubles. The Nebuchadnezzar and the Holofernes of our time is a complex system, a network that is controlling not only our individual countries but the whole of the world. Who can dare put an end to the "head" of this symbolic enemy?

Judith alone will not be able to do it. But the many Judith’s together can become a power to challenge the enemy. Together they can plan better strategies and carry these out to crush the enemy and so be God's partner in a new liberation act so needed in our time.

Let me end with a modem day parable, which was translated to a group of women meeting in June 1990 in Seoul. The story was told in Korean at a sermon delivered by the Rev. Park Hyung Kyu in a church service on a street in Seoul.

 

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There was a tiger in the forest that was feared by all the other animals. No one knew when its turn was to be eaten by the tiger. One day, all the little animals had a meeting to discuss what to do with the tiger. They decided that they would all take turns in attracting the tiger so that before the tiger could catch anyone to devour, another animal would get into the chase and so spare the exhausted one. This they would do until the tiger would himself be exhausted and then they would offer him their food. And so the time came for the tiger to look for his food. But just as he was about to catch a rabbit, the deer came in the way; when he was about to get hold of the deer, another animal came. In his long chase for any one animal, he became very tired. At this time the other animals would bring him the fruits of the trees, the edible leaves and barks which were their kind of food. He was too hungry he ate them all. Each time he longed for meat, the same kind of chase would happen until he would end up being exhausted and being fed with the food the other animals had prepared for him. Finally one day he said to the other animals, "Now I have learned to like your food. I will no longer chase animals for my food."

If the tiger represents to us now what Holofernes and Nebuchadnezzar represented in Judith's time, then the little animals represent the Judith’s of our time. And as the story goes, there is strength in collective consciousness and action – even to change the heart of the tiger.

 

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Suggested Procedures

1.   Do a character-reading of the story by picking a narrator, a female as Judith, a male as Achior, a male as Holofernes, other voices as people, to read their respective parts. You may use the biblical excerpts quoted in the presentation here.

2.   Do these characters represent some of the personalities in your situation and time? Is there any similarity/semblance of the situations then and now?  (Identify these characters/ personalities.)

3.   What lessons can we learn from Judith? As SCMers, how can we appropriate her way of solving a crisis to our own situation?