Carlo Francesco Nuvolone: Judith with the head of Holofernes
Monday, September 22, 2025
The story of Judith is one of my favorites and it seems that we visit it about once a year. Perhaps I like it so much because a woman takes matters into her own hands and is able to not only defeat a nation but to also bring Judah to atonement. And she does this through prayer, penance, and action. You may want to fast forward through these chapters to discover Holofernes’ fate at the hands this Jewish widow and her handmaiden; or you may want to rest in this part of the story before you move on. In any case, the story is a wonderful one.
The ritual performed by the inhabitants of Jerusalem is a rite of entreaty. The recommended precautions in the mountain passes were typical of a people making a defensive stance. The generals and priests prepare for war; the woman prepares to listen to God’s instructions.
In my mother’s Douay version, the high priest reminds the people that it was through holy prayerthat Moses overcame Amalek – a man who trusted in his own power and army, his shields, chariots, horsemen, and swords. So that all of the people might hear, he intones: So shall all the enemies of Israel be, if you persevere in this work which you have begun. The people follow the priest’s advice. And they all begged of God with all their heart, that he would visit his people Israel.
God visits us daily and constantly – whether we realize it or not.
God hears our cries of joy and distress – whether we feel it or not.
God answers prayers and brings miracles – whether we see it or not.
Let Judith be an example of faithful and faith-filled perseverance.
Let Judith remind us that prayer and penance will open clear communication with God so that our actions will be – like Judith’s – an answer to God’s call.
Gentileschi: Judith Beheading HolofernesWe have visited the story of Judith frequently this year and there is much to be learned from the narrative as she enacts sublime fidelity and heroic love. A favorite Noontime reflection on the Book of Judith may interest you. It is linked to the Favorites page above, or through the Pages tab in this blog.
Just yesterday we reflected on the concept of fasting. Today we see Judith set aside her sackcloth and ashes to break her mourning; she goes out to face the enemy, armed with her woman’s weapons of beauty and speech. Judith will save a nation – and she will do this by first seeking and then living inGod. She will receive God’s favor – and she will become the vehicle of a people’s salvation.
We notice that God is central in every decision Judith makes and in every act she performs. Judith is able to escape the enemy’s revenge by walking past the sentries with her maid – and with the head of Holofernes hidden in their food pouch – precisely because she and her companion have walked out each night to pray at the ravine of Bethulia. The guards are accustomed to seeing this regular ritual and so do not intercept the two women; they do not even search the food pouch. After bathing each evening, Judith seeks God’s help – and she receives it.
We watch Judith as she leaves the city of Bethulia – a city which has provided her people safety and is now threatened by the Assyrian enemy: Order the gate of the city opened for me, that I might go to carry out the business we discussed” . . . Judith and her maid went out . . .
When we are called to go out of our comfort zone we are frightened. We tell God that he has chosen the wrong emissary. We say that we are too consumed with all the many other tasks he has assigned to us. We find reasoning and excuses for not doing God’s will and yet, when we pray as Judith does, when we develop steadfastness as Judith has, when we trust God and take each step as it comes to us rather than worry about the distant future, we are able to rejoice – as Judith does – in the favor God bestows on her.
And so we pray . . .
Good and holy God, we are both fear-filled and awestruck at your power. We watch as Judith goes into the very heart of the enemy camp – for this is where you need her – and we worry that we will not be able to slay the enemy in your name as Judith does. We watch Holofernes and his soldiers set Judith in a place of honor – knowing that these acts come from lust – and we worry that we may not be as clever as Judith is. Give us the courage to remain faithful to you. Give us the endurance to wait on your plan. Give us the prudence and patience to allow you to unfold before us, through us, and in us so that we, like Judith, may rejoice in you. Amen.
In these opening days of a new year, we look for ways to better see God’s yardstick in our lives, and for ways to leave the world’s yardstick behind.
When we explore different versions of Judith 13 we find these quiet clues that will lead us to a deeper understanding of these verses.
They were all overcharged with wine.Douay-Rheims 1899
Judith stood by Holofernes’ bed and prayed silently, O Lord, God Almighty, help me with what I am about to do for the glory of Jerusalem.Good News Translation
O Lord, God of all might, in this hour look graciously on the work of my hands 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. New American Bible Revised Edition
Judith was left alone in the tent, with Holofernes stretched out on his bed, for he was dead drunk.New Revised Standard Version
Judith’s victory will represent a contradiction of the gentle, persistent love of Mary, Hannah, Anne and Elizabeth; it is a stark contrast to the New Testament Law of Love that Jesus brings to us. So how do we make sense of Judith’s story? Is the violence we find here the foundational reason that this book is considered by some a parable in which Judith is a metaphor for Israel? Do the anachronisms we find in this story mean that is it an ancient historical novel rather than an inspired text? Has Judith been laid aside by many with a disdain for women figuring as powerful and clever? Read this chapter along with Judith’s victory in Chapter 15 and decide how to best consider Judith. Decide how or if she represents God’s yardstick. What does her fidelity to God through prayer and deed mean for us today?
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio: Judith beheading Holofernes
For more reflections on this woman’s life, enter her name into the blog search bar and explore.
The story of Judith is full of danger and violence counterpointed by fidelity and great rejoicing. Today we discover that despite grave danger, joy is present. If today’s story calls you to search formore surprises, click on the word Joy in the categories cloud in the blog’s right hand sidebar and choose a reflection, or enter the word Joy in the blog search bar. You may also want to visit the Joy for the Journey blog atwww.joyforthee.blogspot.comto see how joy surprises you there. Today we find joy in miraculous deliverance.
Judith’s story is not included in all versions of the Bible because it is regarded by some to be an historical novel rather than sacred word. Others see is as a kind of allegory in that the name Judithis the feminine form of the word Judah. Still others point to anachronisms and decline to regard these words as inspired. In any case, the story holds is one of consequence, and one in which we see God’s deliverance of the faithful from the most extreme of circumstances. It is a story to which we will want to attend.
Artemisia Gentilischi: Judith and the Maid-servant with the head of Holofernes
If you did not have time to read the introductory chapters, move through them today – if even only quickly. The opening pages of the book prepare us for the dreadful middle and the joyful end. They put us in a time and place we will recognize as much like our own. They will give us a firmer footing from which to view this story, a stronger reason to hope as Judith does, and a clearer image of the desperation and joy she experiences.
Verse 14:9: When she had finished her story, the people cheered so loudly that the whole town echoed with sounds of joy.
Is there a Judith among us who quietly moves forward through God’s plan and surprises us with an outrageous act of hope? Are we the unobtrusive Judith or almost unseen handmaiden who turns history on its head in a surprising way? And when God intervenes withand inus in such startling ways, do we recognize the presence of the Spirit in our hour of desperation?
Verse 15:9: When they arrived, they all praised her, “You are Jerusalem’s crowning glory, the heroine of Israel, the pride and joy of our people!”
Do we recognize the Judiths among us and if so, do we value their quiet persistence and determination? Do we perhaps see ourselves in the gritty and resolute actions of these women? And when God intervenes with and in us in such surprising ways, do we give thanks and honor to the Living God who is in and with all who find joy in great peril and outrageous deliverance?
For more details and insights about the encounters between Judith and Holofernes, visit other Noontime reflections by entering the wordJudithinto the blog search bar.
As we continue our series of reflections on the nature of schemers and their plots, how to avoid them and how to rebuke those who lie on couches to conspire, we return to the story of Judith.
Holofernesis a man accustomed to using power and he also knows how to bide his time, lay traps, and bring others into his schemes. What he has never encountered in his powerful life is a woman who is as beautiful, God-centered, and determined as Judith. And Holofernes’ lust is no match for Judith’s constant, prayerful attendance on God. This story is worth reading from beginning to end but if there is time for only one verse, it is 12:16 for it teaches us how to deal with schemers, seducers and plot-builders.
“The story of Judith is full of unexpected turns. The first and most obvious . . . was that a woman – and not a man – saved Judah in its time of severe distress. Judith is more faithful and resourceful thanany of the men ofBethulia. She is more eloquent than the king and more courageous than any of the leading citizens of the city, yet Judith is a very unlikely heroine”. (Senior RG 213)
The story of Judith is full of the detail which we might overlook if we rush through the reading; and it is the kind of detail that a good writer uses to describe the depth of one’s personality, the reason for one’s perversion, the cause of one’s sociopathy. It is the kind of writing which brings us up sharply when we experience the shuddering reality that human beings often spend more time trying to lure others into a personal agenda than they do honestly working at the task God assigned to them. The image of this man “burning with desire . . . yet biding his time” is one that haunts me. I cannot shake it. And it returns in the written word on a day like most others . . . packed with activity . . . with so little time for reflection about what is real and not real.
This story tells of how God delivers the faithful through a crushing crisis . . . and how God does this through a woman. The Reader’s Guide of the CATHOLIC STUDY BIBLE tells us that Judith destroys the enemy not through might but by “her beguiling charm and disarming beauty. The Bible sometimes portrays a woman’s beauty negatively as a snare, but here it is the means of deliverance”. (Senior RG 213)
And so we hear this story which has been retold so many times through history and in so many ways. It is a story that teaches us how to combat the lavish allure of the banquets staged by those who plot against innocents and of a woman who answers God’s call with the only tools left to her. It is a story rife with irony and inversion. It is a story of how God moves in our lives if we but allow God to enter.
Judith teaches us about courage, fidelity, and divine providence. She shows us clearly the strength of women, the power of faithfulness through duress, the results of steady, enduring, immutability . . . and the gift of God’s abiding presence. Judith instructs us on the results of constancy and the privilege of discipleship.
In this particular chapter, we see Judith carry out the final stages of her plan . . . and I am always intrigued by the fact that none of Holofernes’soldiers see anything suspicious about two women leaving the camp and the reason for this is that from the first night of her stay Judith makes it clear that she and her maid will go out to pray each evening. For this reason their escape route is made through their accustomed daily commitment to God (12:5-9).
It is also clear that Holofernes’ principle error is seeing women as sexual objects. The heart of Holofernes was in rapture over her, and his spirit was shaken. He was burning with the desire to possess her, for he had been biding his time to seduce her from the day he saw her. (12:16)Neither this man – nor anyone in his inner circle – sees the true significance of the presence of this quiet, beautiful, spiritual woman in their midst. And they pay for this blindness with the loss of life and the loss of the campaign they have planned against the people of Bethulia.
What can we learn from this today? How can we take this lesson into our own lives and honor it? What is it about Judith’s conduct that speaks of her so well?
This story – when read from beginning to end – is full of unexpected twists. And so is life. This story – when we take the time to examine it more fully – can startle us and even repel us with its stark reality and violence. And so can life. This story – when reflected upon in the context of the coming of Christ – brings us the expectation of restoration, justice and joy. And so does life. This story brings us the gift of constancy, a gift we receive through our own discipleship.
Tower of David Museum, Jerusalem: Reconstruction Model of Ancient Jerusalem
What do we do against life’s twists and turns and ironies? We remain constant, we abide with God, we fear less and we pray endlessly. We empty ourselves of ego and pride . . . and we allow God to complete and fill us. We act – just as Judith did – from a custom of constantly walking and praying with God.
Good, merciful and just Creator, we place ourselves in your hands each day at our rising. We carry you with us throughout each day. We return to you each evening just as we return to family, home and hearth. Abide with us this day and all days, just as you accompanied Judith and her maid into the enemy’s camp. Abide with us each evening as we walk out to the ravine to pray with you, just as Judith and her maid were accustomed to doing. We seek you, just as Judith sought you. We bring to you our worries and fears, just as these women did. May we too remain constant to you in our prayers and in our actions. May we too know the triumph and the peace which comes from abiding with you. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
If you have time to read more about Judith’s story and reflect on her importance in our lives today, enter her name in the search box on this blog and spend time with her. Or open your Bible to this book and begin her story in Judith 8. For background, and to better understand the context, begin reading from Chapter 1. For an online commentary, click on the model of ancient Jerusalem above.
Titian: Judith and the Head of HolofernesThis is one of my favorite stories – perhaps because the protagonist is a woman. A good commentary will let us know that there were Hebrew, Latin and Greek versions of this story and that while no one knows the actual events which this narrative describes, it is meant as a text that will bolster the peoples’ faith in the presence of God among them. It is “a tract for difficult times; the reader, it is hoped, would take to heart the lesson that God was still the Master of history, who would save Israel from her enemies. Note the parallel with the time of Exodus: as God had delivered his people by the hands of Moses, so he could deliver them by the hand of the pious widow Judith”. (Senior 520)
Chapter 7 tells of the siege of the town Bethuliaby the Assyrian troops of King Nebuchadnezzar under the military leadership of Holofernestogether with local tribes; and it sets the story. If you have time today or this evening, read the entire story. I promise you will not be disappointed.
It is fascinating to read about these two groups of men who take into account both the small details and the broad strategies in order to lay out the best plans. They reconnoiter approaches, locate water sources, assess troop strength, close off escape routes, and store up resources. Meanwhile, the Israelites watch and pray. Their leader tells them: Let us wait five days more for the Lord our God, to show his mercy toward us; he will not utterly forsake us. Still, because the odds were so stacked against them, the Hebrew people of Bethulia mourned. They saw no hope of deliverance and believed they would all be killed or enslaved.
They were in a desperate place with desperate circumstances, yet they hoped. And a woman acts to save them. As we have observed, it is a great story.
As we reflect on this story we arrive at this thought: If we always turned to God at the first moment an army amassed itself against us, and if we would be willing to trust an unlikely agent – such as the widow Judith – we might find ourselves less anxious and more joyful.
Today’s Psalm at Mass is 112 with the repeated antiphon: The heart of the just one is firm, trusting in the Lord. One of the stanzas reads: An evil report he shall not fear; his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is steadfast; he shall not fear till he looks down upon his foes.
If we might trust as Judith trusts, if we might steady our hearts to make them steadfast and focused on Christ – the rescuer who rescues all who turn to him – we might find more success and less war. When we hear evil reports as we do each day when we tune into the news, we would tremble less. When we hear rumors about family, friends and colleagues, we might wait five days or so and petition God for advice in the meantime. When we fear that we have gone wrong and have lost our way, we might rely on God’s mercy, knowing that he will not forsake us.
If you have time today to spend with some ancient people who thought they faced extinction and yet were saved, you will be rewarded with a story about a pious widow who saves a town . . . and your heart may move closer to firmness, to justice, to trust in the Lord.
Senior, Donald, ed. THE CATHOLIC STUDY BIBLE. New York, Oxford University Press, 1990.520. Print.
Written on June 2, 2009 and posted today as a Favorite.
The Noontimes 