Глава 14

1–4. Advice from Judith about going against enemies. 5–10. Scene with Achior. 11–13. The performance of the Jews and the preparations of the Assyrians. 14–19. The discovery of the death of Holofernes and the impression this event made on the Assyrian army. Judith 14:1 Judith said to them: Listen to me, brothers, take this head and hang it on the battlements of your wall. Judith.14:2 When the morning comes and the sun rises over the earth, take every man his weapon of war, go all the mighty out of the city and give them a leader, as if intending to go down into the plain against the advanced guard of the sons of Assyria, but do not go down. Judith.14:3 Then they, taking all their weapons, will go to their camp, wake up the leaders of the Assyrian army, and run to the tent of Holofernes, but will not find him; therefore fear will come upon them, and they will flee from you. Judith 14:4 But you and all those who live in all the borders of Israel, pursue them and smite them along the way. 1–4. Judith does not yet recognize her work as finished. The success of her feat and its brilliant completion should have been greatly facilitated by the future, and now she continues to act with the same confidence and prophetically correct accuracy, prudence and conviction as before. Having given advice - to hang the head of Holofernes on the battlements of the city wall, she invites all the strong to arm themselves, early in the morning to leave the city in battle formation and, without going further onto the plain, show the appearance that they are out for a decisive offensive. This will force the enemies to discover the death of their leader at the most favorable moment for the Jews, the moment of consciousness of the highest need for a leader, which will strengthen the impression of the discovery of his death to such an extreme degree that they will flee from fear alone, and the Jews will only have to pursue them in complete confusion until complete defeat. Judith.14:5 But before you do this, invite Achior the Ammonite to me: let him see and recognize the one who humiliated the house of Israel and sent him to us as if to death. 5. Judith orders Achior to be called, so that - on the one hand - the ownership of the head is better confirmed to Holofernes, on the other - so that he can calm down regarding his fate and in general, so that what Judith is convinced - and should have happened and actually did happen immediately - Achior's final faith in the power and greatness of the God of Israel and joining "the house of Israel." Judith 14:6 And they called Achior from the house of Uzziah. When he came and saw the head of Holofernes in the hand of one man in the midst of the assembly of the people, he fell on his face and became weak in spirit. 6. The sight of Holofernes’ head makes a strong impression on Achior: he “fell on his face and fainted in spirit” so that others “lifted him up” (v. 7). He is not pleased with the death of a man who acted so unfairly and inhumane towards him, who sentenced him to death, but is struck by the greatness of the event, in which his expressed faith in the special protection of the God of Israel for his people and in the special power and greatness of this God, who accomplished such a terrible and hardly probable deed by the hand of a weak woman, was so clearly justified. Proud and arrogant speeches against the God of Israel and against His people should still have clearly sounded in Achior’s ears, and the comparison of bitter reality with these speeches and the defiant appearance of the recent blasphemer, naturally, could not help but produce a decisive and complete revolution in the spirit of him, preceded by a strong mental shock. Judith.14:7 And when they lifted him up, he fell at the feet of Judith, bowed down to her, and said, Blessed art thou in every village of Judah, and in every nation, which, when they hear of thy name, will be amazed. Judith 14:8 Tell me now, what have you been doing these days? And Judith among the people told him all that she had done from the day she went out until the day on which she spoke to them. 8. “Tell me now, what have you been doing these days?” – Ahioru Judith’s story about his feat was also a story for the whole people (“among the people”), who had not yet heard a thorough and detailed message about it. Judith 14:9 When she had ceased speaking, the people shouted loudly, and their cry of joy rang out throughout the city. Judith 14:10 And when Achior saw all that the God of Israel had done, he sincerely believed in God, circumcised his foreskin, and joined himself to the house of Israel, even unto this day. 9–10. Judith's detailed report about her amazing feat once again brought joyful cries of delight from the relieved chests of the people, spreading throughout the city. As for Achior, he “sincerely believed in God, circumcised his foreskin and joined the house of Israel even to this day.” Comparing this message with the parallel passage of Deut. 23:3 (“An Ammonite and a Moabite cannot enter into the congregation of the Lord, and the tenth generation of them cannot enter into the congregation of the Lord forever”) - it is apparently necessary to reconcile them in their apparent contradiction: the limitation indicated by Deuteronomy to the tenth generation concerns, apparently, only the descendants of those Ammonites who once immediately caused this limitation of their enmity against the people of God who were going to the promised land. Beyond the tenth generation from these Ammonites, contemporary to the era of the Exodus, the said restriction and prohibition could naturally lose its force; This is what we see in this case in Achior in his joining the house of Israel. The consideration that the Jews, who had become especially sensitive to all such precepts of the law at that particular time, would not have given up this law in favor of at least Achior, if the said restriction and prohibition regarding the Ammonites had the same force for all times and generations, does not allow us to present the matter differently. “Achior joined himself to the house of Israel even to this day.” This last expression could mean not that Achior himself was alive at the time the author wrote these lines, but also, for example, that he was alive in his descendants, who continued to consider themselves members of the society of Israel, no different from the real descendants of Abraham. Judith 14:11 When the morning came, they hung the head of Holofernes on the wall; each husband took his weapon, and went out in detachments to the sunrises of the mountain. Judith 14:12 When the children of Assyria saw them, they sent them to their commanders, and they went to the captains, to the commanders of thousands, and to every leader of theirs. Judith.14:13 When they came to the tent of Holofernes, they said to the steward of all his property: Awake our master, because these slaves dared to go out to battle with us in order to be completely destroyed. 13. “They told the manager of all his property.” Some manuscripts directly call the very name of this manager – Vagay. This is confirmed by the further verse 14, where it is Vagoy, fulfilling the demands of his superiors, who goes to wake up his master. “These slaves dared...” According to some of the researchers, the word slaves (oi δούλοι) appeared here as a result of the translator’s confusion in the Hebrew original of the words “Jews” and “slaves.” The confusion of these words, differing in style in just one letter, so similar in both cases to one another, is indeed quite possible, and it is not without reason that in the list, for example, the ancient Latin (Vet. Lat.) in the indicated place, instead of the expression “slaves” we actually find the expression: “sons of Israel” (filii Israel), although this was done - as it is believed - not because the translator wanted to be more accurate in the translation, but simply due to an unauthorized change, wanting to be more clear. Be that as it may, only the expression “slaves” is quite appropriate and no less suitable here than any other. It especially well highlights the arrogant and contemptuous, arrogant feeling of the Assyrians towards the Jews, whom they considered as if already betrayed to the power of Nebuchadnezzar, and they wanted to look at their warlike fervor only as the most insignificant recklessness. Against the confusion, which is why “slaves” appeared instead of “Jews” - apparently, the fact that in the further verse 18 the translator could not help but notice and correct his oversight, translating next to the dubious, and already quite correctly, a similar expression of Vagoy about the “Jewish woman who disgraced the house of Nebuchadnezzar by killing Holofernes”: των ᾿Εβραίων. “They dared to go out to battle with us in order to be completely exterminated” is a new example of the highest arrogance and contemptuous attitude of the Assyrians towards the offensive movement of the Jews. Judith.14:14 Wahoi came in and knocked on the door of the tent, for he thought that he was sleeping with Judith. 14. “Vagoi... thought that he (Holofernes) was sleeping with Judith.” See comment above. to Judith. 13:9–10. Vagoi was the last to leave the tent of Holofernes, shutting him in it with Judith, and, like others, tired by the duration of the feast, he probably just as soon fell into deep sleep on his bed (Judith. 13:1 v.). It is quite possible that neither he nor any of the other participants and witnesses to the incident noticed the suspiciously quick exit of Judith from the tent. Those who could see her already far from the tent could not find anything suspicious in this at all, having been accustomed to such excursions for several nights in a row (see above, Judith 13:9-10 vv.). Judith.14:15 When no one answered him, he opened the door and entered the bedroom and found Holofernes lying dead at the threshold and his head taken from him. Judith 14:16 And he cried aloud, with weeping and groaning and loud crying, and tore his clothes. Judith 14:17 Then he entered the tent where Judith was, and did not find her. Then he jumped out to the people and shouted: Judith 14:18 The servants acted treacherously; One Jewish wife disgraced the house of King Nebuchadnezzar, for behold, Holofernes is on the floor and his head is not on him. 16–18. From the tent of Holofernes, upon discovering the murder, Vagoy goes to the tent of Judith, whose absence in the tent of the murdered man directly led the thought to her as the culprit of the crime. The absence of Judith in her tent did not leave the slightest doubt about this, which Vagoi immediately announced - “with weeping, groaning and a strong cry,” tearing his clothes as a sign of great grief. "The slaves acted treacherously." Vagoy here either really represents the feat of Judith as the implementation of a treacherous and cunning plan of all the Jews, or is simply expressed generally, considering Judith alone to be the real culprit of the murder, but blaming along with her all the Jews, as those who needed and enjoyed such an unfortunate and shameful event for the Assyrians. “A Jewish wife disgraced the house of King Nebuchadnezzar.” It would not be as shameful to fall in an open, fair battle as to be outwitted and destroyed by a simple woman, under such inglorious circumstances and conditions. The shame fell as a darker stain on the entire “house of King Nebuchadnezzar”, the more trust and authority from this house Holofernes was endowed, as the most experienced and main leader of the Assyrian army, “second” according to Nebuchadnezzar (Judith. 2:4). Judith 14:19 When the leaders of the Assyrian army heard these words, they tore their clothes, and their souls were greatly troubled, and there was a cry and a very great cry in the midst of the camp. 19. The impression made by the terrible revelation of the death of Holofernes - to the point that they could no longer offer energetic resistance to the Jews - is not entirely explainable by psychological laws alone. Undoubtedly, Judith, who correctly predicted this confusion, was not based solely on psychological considerations. Her confident predestination of events (Judith. 14:3-4) was much more firmly established on the inspired faith in the assistance of God, which many times before, in similar critical circumstances to the extreme, led Jehovah’s faithful to an equally victorious and glorious resolution of difficulties. And indeed, with the loss of Holofernes, in essence, everything was not lost for the enemy. His death, it seems, should have only embittered the Assyrians even more, and, while still remaining immeasurably superior in strength and numbers and the advantages of their position, they still had every means to inflict a terrible, evil blow on the treacherous city. Obviously, if instead of all this they flee in complete confusion from a comparatively insignificant handful of Jews, falling in masses from their blows, then they are fleeing, persecuted and defeated by another higher power, which does not need a large number of soldiers for its victory. Thus, once again, such a brilliantly great Divine truth was justified: “the wicked does not persecute a single one” (Prov. 28:1) - a truth that was especially clearly expressed in a number of glorious victories of Israel in the era of the Exodus, during the conquest of the Promised Land, during the time of Joshua, Judges, Kings and throughout the entire history of Israel.