Judith 12 – Holofernes invites Judith to have dinner with him. She says she cannot eat his food – she might “incur some fault” if the food involves anything the Law considers unclean. She has brought her own food. Holofernes asks how they could get more of the foods she can eat if she runs out. She says, “Never fear, my lord, the Lord will have used me to accomplish his plan before your servant has finished these provisions” (12:4).

She goes out each night to pray.…

Judith 10 – Judith removes her sackcloth, washes and dresses herself up in all her best clothes, jewelry and perfumes. She looks beautiful. She goes to the town gates and there finds the town leaders, Uzziah, Chabris and Charmis. She tells them they should leave the town gate open so she can come and go. And then she takes off toward enemy lines.

As she comes down through the valley, a unit of the Assyrian army seizes her and asks her which side she is on and where she…

Judith 9 – Judith throws herself to the ground, scatters ashes on her head and cries out to the Lord. This is her prayer:

“[Y]ou have made the past, and what is happening now, and what will follow. What is, what will be, you have planned; what has been, you designed” (9:5).

“See the Assyrians, boasting in their army, glorying in their horses and their riders, exulting in the strength of their infantry. Trust as they may in shield and spear, in bow and…

Judith 8 - Judith, model of all things Jewish, is a widow. Her husband, Manasseh died some years ago of sunstroke. She is beautiful, virtuous and quite wealthy. When she hears of what the elders told the people about waiting five days, she calls them in and rebukes them, saying that God cannot be manipulated or coerced in this way. We must trust that God will not desert his nation. We must give thanks to God and allow him to test us as he tested Abraham and all our…

Judith 6 – Holofernes turns on Achior and tells him Nebuchadnezzar “is their God” and he will “display his power and wipe them off the face of the earth, and their God will certainly not save them” (6:2). As for Achior, when they are wiped off the face of the early, he too will die for trying to play the prophet.

He is ordered taken and turned over to the Israelites. Because of their tight defenses, they cannot take Achior to the Israelites, but he is bound at the foot…

Judith 5 – Holofernes hears of all the preparations the people of Judaea are making for war and he becomes furious. He summons all the princes, satraps and generals he can and asks about the Israelites – what towns they inhabit, the size of their army and the “sources of [their] power and strength” (5:3).

A man named Achior, a virtuous pagan sage, tells him a brief version of their history: Descended from “Chaldeans,” they “abandoned the way of their ancestors to…