Judith 6

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

1And when the tumult of men that were about the council was ceased, Holofernes the chief captain of the army of Assur said unto Achior and all the Moabites before all the company of other nations,

And when the tumult of men that were about the council was ceased, Holofernes the chief captain of the army of Assur said unto Achior and all the Moabites before all the company of other nations — the tumult stilled, and the captain answering for the empire before all its subject states.

2And who art thou, Achior, and the hirelings of Ephraim, that thou hast prophesied against us as to day, and hast said, that we should not make war with the people of Israel, because their God will defend them? and who is God but Nabuchodonosor?

And who are you, Achior, and the hirelings of Ephraim — Ephraim, fruitfulness in the land of affliction — that you have prophesied against us as today, and have said, that we should not make war with the people of Israel, because their God will defend them? And who is God but Nabuchodonosor? — the blasphemy spoken as a rhetorical flourish: the ruling state naming itself God, a formed image of power worshipped in the Source's place.

3He will send his power, and will destroy them from the face of the earth, and their God shall not deliver them: but we his servants will destroy them as one man; for they are not able to sustain the power of our horses.

He will send his power, and will destroy them from the face of the earth, and their God shall not deliver them; but we his servants will destroy them as one man; for they are not able to sustain the power of our horses — the servants' unity set against the people's God: one man of destruction against the One who defends.

4For with them we will tread them under foot, and their mountains shall be drunken with their blood, and their fields shall be filled with their dead bodies, and their footsteps shall not be able to stand before us, for they shall utterly perish, saith king Nabuchodonosor, lord of all the earth: for he said, None of my words shall be in vain.

For with them we will tread them under foot, and their mountains — their exalted states — shall be drunken with their blood — the life-stream of the state — and their fields shall be filled with their dead bodies, and their footsteps shall not be able to stand before us, for they shall utterly perish, says king Nabuchodonosor, lord of all the earth; for he said, None of my words shall be in vain — the oath of the empire repeated as its own scripture: the word that cannot be void, sworn by the mouth that spoke it.

5And thou, Achior, an hireling of Ammon, which hast spoken these words in the day of thine iniquity, shalt see my face no more from this day, until I take vengeance of this nation that came out of Egypt.

And you, Achior, an hireling of Ammon, who have spoken these words in the day of your iniquity, shall see my face no more from this day, until I take vengeance of this nation that came out of Egypt — the truth-teller exiled from the captain's face: the sentence postponing his death until the victory it doubts.

6And then shall the sword of mine army, and the multitude of them that serve me, pass through thy sides, and thou shalt fall among their slain, when I return.

And then shall the sword of my army — the cutting word in the host's hand — and the multitude of them that serve me, pass through your sides, and you shall fall among their slain, when I return.

7Now therefore my servants shall bring thee back into the hill country, and shall set thee in one of the cities of the passages:

Now therefore my servants shall bring you back into the hill country, and shall set you in one of the cities of the passages — the condemned man sent, ironically, to the very passes he described: truth delivered to the keeping of those it defended.

8And thou shalt not perish, till thou be destroyed with them.

And you shall not perish, till you be destroyed with them — his life bound to theirs by the sentence itself: if they stand, the sentence fails.

9And if thou persuade thyself in thy mind that they shall be taken, let not thy countenance fall: I have spoken it, and none of my words shall be in vain.

And if you persuade yourself in your mind that they shall be taken, let not your countenance fall: I have spoken it, and none of my words shall be in vain — the word of the captain set against the history of the God: the book's whole contest in one exchange.

10Then Holofernes commanded his servants, that waited in his tent, to take Achior, and bring him to Bethulia, and deliver him into the hands of the children of Israel.

Then Holofernes commanded his servants, that waited in his tent, to take Achior, and bring him to Bethulia, and deliver him into the hands of the children of Israel — the sentence executed: the empire itself carrying its truth-teller to the besieged city.

11So his servants took him, and brought him out of the camp into the plain, and they went from the midst of the plain into the hill country, and came unto the fountains that were under Bethulia.

So his servants took him, and brought him out of the camp into the plain, and they went from the midst of the plain into the hill country, and came unto the fountains that were under Bethulia — the journey from the level sense-state up into the heights, ending at the waters beneath the city.

12And when the men of the city saw them, they took up their weapons, and went out of the city to the top of the hill: and every man that used a sling kept them from coming up by casting of stones against them.

And when the men of the city saw them, they took up their weapons, and went out of the city to the top of the hill; and every man that used a sling kept them from coming up by casting of stones against them — the city's defence answering at sight: stones holding the pass as Joacim charged.

13Nevertheless having gotten privily under the hill, they bound Achior, and cast him down, and left him at the foot of the hill, and returned to their lord.

Nevertheless having gotten privily under the hill, they bound Achior, and cast him down, and left him at the foot of the hill, and returned to their lord — the prisoner bound and abandoned at the foot of the state he warned: the empire's contempt completing its own errand.

14But the Israelites descended from their city, and came unto him, and loosed him, and brought him to Bethulia, and presented him to the governors of the city:

But the Israelites descended from their city, and came unto him, and loosed him, and brought him to Bethulia, and presented him to the governors of the city — bonds loosed by the hands they were meant to frighten: reception answering rejection at the hill's foot.

15Which were in those days Ozias the son of Micha, of the tribe of Simeon, and Chabris the son of Gothoniel, and Charmis the son of Melchiel.

Who were in those days Ozias the son of Micha, of the tribe of Simeon — Simeon, the hearing faculty — and Chabris the son of Gothoniel, and Charmis the son of Melchiel: the governors named, and the hearing faculty first among them.

16And they called together all the ancients of the city, and all their youth ran together, and their women, to the assembly, and they set Achior in the midst of all their people. Then Ozias asked him of that which was done.

And they called together all the ancients of the city, and all their youth ran together, and their women, to the assembly, and they set Achior in the midst of all their people. Then Ozias asked him of that which was done — the stranger set in the midst, not at the edge: the whole state assembled to hear the hearing.

17And he answered and declared unto them the words of the council of Holofernes, and all the words that he had spoken in the midst of the princes of Assur, and whatsoever Holofernes had spoken proudly against the house of Israel.

And he answered and declared unto them the words of the council of Holofernes, and all the words that he had spoken in the midst of the princes of Assur, and whatsoever Holofernes had spoken proudly against the house of Israel — the council of the empire reported whole inside the besieged city: nothing softened, nothing held back.

18Then the people fell down and worshipped God, and cried unto God, saying,

Then the people fell down and worshipped God, and cried unto God, saying — the report answered not with strategy but with worship: the state's first weapon drawn.

19O Lord God of heaven, behold their pride, and pity the low estate of our nation, and look upon the face of those that are sanctified unto thee this day.

O Lord God of heaven — indwelling LORD, Source of the inner realm — behold their pride, and pity the low estate of our nation, and look upon the face of those that are sanctified unto thee this day — pride and low estate laid side by side before the face of God: the prayer asking only that He look.

20Then they comforted Achior, and praised him greatly.

Then they comforted Achior, and praised him greatly — the comforter comforted: truth, cast down at the hill's foot, honoured at the city's table.

21And Ozias took him out of the assembly unto his house, and made a feast to the elders; and they called on the God of Israel all that night for help.

And Ozias took him out of the assembly unto his house, and made a feast to the elders; and they called on the God of Israel all that night for help — the feast and the all-night prayer together: nourishment and petition keeping the same hours.

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