Judith 16

How to read these pages: the text itself comes first, verse by verse, in the volume's own translation. Beneath each verse stands its Meaning — a rendering of what the passage's terms name in the inner life, drawn from the correspondences the text itself uses. The text is never altered; the meaning is offered, not imposed.

King James Version

1Then Judith began to sing this thanksgiving in all Israel, and all the people sang after her this song of praise.

Then Judith began to sing this thanksgiving in all Israel, and all the people sang after her this song of praise — the widow composing, the nation repeating: her voice first, as her hand was first, and the people's after, as their Amen was after.

2And Judith said, Begin unto my God with timbrels, sing unto my Lord with cymbals: tune unto him a new psalm: exalt him, and call upon his name.

And Judith said: Begin unto my God with timbrels, sing unto my Lord with cymbals: tune unto Him a new psalm: exalt Him, and call upon His name — instruction and song in one breath: begin, she says, and begins.

3For God breaketh the battles: for among the camps in the midst of the people he hath delivered me out of the hands of them that persecuted me.

For God breaks the battles: for among the camps in the midst of the people He has delivered me out of the hands of them that persecuted me — the sentence of Holofernes' tent returned as doctrine: they knew not that You are the Lord that breaks the battles. Now the breaker is named from inside the delivered camp.

4Assur came out of the mountains from the north, he came with ten thousands of his army, the multitude whereof stopped the torrents, and their horsemen have covered the hills.

Assur came out of the mountains from the north, he came with ten thousands of his army, the multitude whereof stopped the torrents, and their horsemen have covered the hills — the enemy's numbers sung without diminishing: the song honours the deliverance by honouring the multitude it broke.

5He bragged that he would burn up my borders, and kill my young men with the sword, and dash the sucking children against the ground, and make mine infants as a prey, and my virgins as a spoil.

He bragged that he would burn up my borders, and kill my young men with the sword, and dash the sucking children against the ground, and make my infants as a prey, and my virgins as a spoil — the brag recited in full, that the disappointment may be measured against it clause by clause.

6But the Almighty Lord hath disappointed them by the hand of a woman.

But the Almighty Lord has disappointed them by the hand of a woman — the song's hinge, and the book's: disappointed — the empire's whole expectation turned aside — by the hand of a woman.

7For the mighty one did not fall by the young men, neither did the sons of the Titans smite him, nor high giants set upon him: but Judith the daughter of Merari weakened him with the beauty of her countenance.

For the mighty one did not fall by the young men, neither did the sons of the Titans smite him, nor high giants set upon him: but Judith the daughter of Merari weakened him with the beauty of her countenance — the candidates for the deed dismissed in ascending order — young men, Titans' sons, giants — and the true instrument named without apology: a countenance.

8For she put off the garment of her widowhood for the exaltation of those that were oppressed in Israel, and anointed her face with ointment, and bound her hair in a tire, and took a linen garment to deceive him.

For she put off the garment of her widowhood for the exaltation of those that were oppressed in Israel, and anointed her face with ointment, and bound her hair in a tire, and took a linen garment to deceive him — the song narrating its singer in the third person, act by act: the putting off, the anointing with oil — the Spirit's substance turned to service — and the purpose stated in the psalm itself: to deceive him.

9Her sandals ravished his eyes, her beauty took his mind prisoner, and the fauchion passed through his neck.

Her sandals ravished his eyes, her beauty took his mind prisoner, and the fauchion passed through his neck — three clauses for the whole campaign: eyes ravished, mind imprisoned, sword through the neck. The conqueror's progress reversed into his capture, item by item.

10The Persians quaked at her boldness, and the Medes were daunted at her hardiness.

The Persians quaked at her boldness, and the Medes were daunted at her hardiness — the nations that would not march for Nabuchodonosor in chapter one now quaking at a widow: the song measuring her report against the empire's.

11Then my afflicted shouted for joy, and my weak ones cried aloud; but they were astonished: these lifted up their voices, but they were overthrown.

Then my afflicted shouted for joy, and my weak ones cried aloud; but they were astonished: these lifted up their voices, but they were overthrown — two choruses set against each other: the afflicted shouting, the astonished falling; voices lifted on both sides, and only one side standing.

12The sons of the damsels have pierced them through, and wounded them as fugatives’ children: they perished by the battle of the Lord.

The sons of the damsels have pierced them through, and wounded them as fugitives' children: they perished by the battle of the Lord — the pursuit sung in its smallest figures: even the damsels' sons in the rout, because the battle was the LORD's and not the pursuers'.

13I will sing unto the Lord a new song: O Lord, thou art great and glorious, wonderful in strength, and invincible.

I will sing unto the Lord a new song: O Lord, You are great and glorious, wonderful in strength, and invincible — the song restarting inside itself, as praise does when it reaches the Person: great, glorious, wonderful, invincible.

14Let all creatures serve thee: for thou spakest, and they were made, thou didst send forth thy spirit, and it created them, and there is none that can resist thy voice.

Let all creatures serve You: for You spoke, and they were made, You did send forth Your Spirit — Your Breath, divine life in motion — and it created them, and there is none that can resist Your voice — creation itself summoned as the choir's warrant: the voice no creature can resist, against the voice that swore none of its words should be in vain.

15For the mountains shall be moved from their foundations with the waters, the rocks shall melt as wax at thy presence: yet thou art merciful to them that fear thee.

For the mountains shall be moved from their foundations with the waters, the rocks shall melt as wax at Your presence: yet You are merciful to them that fear You — the exalted states shaken and the rocks melting like wax before the flame of the Presence, as in the visions of judgment; and inside the same verse, mercy: the terror and the tenderness predicated of one Presence.

16For all sacrifice is too little for a sweet savour unto thee, and all the fat is not sufficient for thy burnt offering: but he that feareth the Lord is great at all times.

For all sacrifice — the yielding of a faculty — is too little for a sweet savour unto You, and all the fat is not sufficient for Your burnt offering — the whole state yielded up: but he that fears the Lord is great at all times — the offering redefined at the song's climax: not fat nor savour, but the fearing state itself, great at all times.

17Woe to the nations that rise up against my kindred! the Lord Almighty will take vengeance of them in the day of judgment, in putting fire and worms in their flesh; and they shall feel them, and weep for ever.

Woe to the nations that rise up against my kindred! The Lord Almighty will take vengeance of them in the day of judgment — the crisis-moment when the divine order confronts a state all at once — in putting fire and worms in their flesh; and they shall feel them, and weep for ever: the consequence lasting as long as the state that chose it endures — the duration of the disorder, never endless torment as a purpose of God, who authors no evil: the risen-against nation given over, in its flesh, to the corruption it rose in.

18Now as soon as they entered into Jerusalem, they worshipped the Lord; and as soon as the people were purified, they offered their burnt offerings, and their free offerings, and their gifts.

Now as soon as they entered into Jerusalem, they worshipped the Lord; and as soon as the people were purified, they offered their burnt offerings, and their free offerings, and their gifts — the procession ending where the prayer began: at the center, in worship, the whole state yielded and the free gifts beside the vows.

19Judith also dedicated all the stuff of Holofernes, which the people had given her, and gave the canopy, which she had taken out of his bedchamber, for a gift unto the Lord.

Judith also dedicated all the stuff of Holofernes, which the people had given her, and gave the canopy, which she had taken out of his bedchamber, for a gift unto the Lord — the spoils returned upward: tent and plate given back, and the canopy — the woven splendour she pulled down with the body — hung now as an offering in the sanctuary, the trophy converted to a memorial.

20So the people continued feasting in Jerusalem before the sanctuary for the space of three months and Judith remained with them.

So the people continued feasting in Jerusalem before the sanctuary for the space of three months and Judith remained with them — three months of feasting answering a hundred and twenty days of the empire's banqueting in chapter one: joy keeping the longer calendar.

21After this time every one returned to his own inheritance, and Judith went to Bethulia, and remained in her own possession, and was in her time honourable in all the country.

After this time every one returned to his own inheritance, and Judith went to Bethulia, and remained in her own possession, and was in her time honourable in all the country — the dispersal gentle and complete: each state to its inheritance, and the widow home to her own house, honourable not in the capital but in the country.

22And many desired her, but none knew her all the days of her life, after that Manasses her husband was dead, and was gathered to his people.

And many desired her, but none knew her all the days of her life, after that Manasses her husband was dead, and was gathered to his people — the widowhood resumed as it was kept: desired by many, given to none; the gladness-garments laid away for good.

23But she increased more and more in honour, and waxed old in her husband’s house, being an hundred and five years old, and made her maid free; so she died in Bethulia: and they buried her in the cave of her husband Manasses.

But she increased more and more in honour, and waxed old in her husband's house, being an hundred and five years old, and made her maid free; so she died in Bethulia: and they buried her in the cave of her husband Manasses — honour increasing to the end of a hundred and five years; the maid — who carried the bag, who stood without the bedchamber — made free before the end; and the grave beside the husband of the barley harvest, in the city she saved.

24And the house of Israel lamented her seven days: and before she died, she did distribute her goods to all them that were nearest of kindred to Manasses her husband, and to them that were the nearest of her kindred.

And the house of Israel lamented her seven days — seven, the completeness of a cycle: and before she died, she did distribute her goods to all them that were nearest of kindred to Manasses her husband, and to them that were the nearest of her kindred — lamentation completing the cycle, and the estate distributed while her hand could still direct it: to both kindreds, his and hers, as the house was always ordered.

25And there was none that made the children of Israel any more afraid in the days of Judith, nor a long time after her death.

And there was none that made the children of Israel any more afraid in the days of Judith, nor a long time after her death — the book's last measure of a life: fear itself dismissed for a generation. The empire that swore vengeance on all the earth is not named again; the widow's name closes the account.

Companion volume to The Why Bible — the King James Apocrypha, rendered in its spiritual meanings. First final edition, October 2026.