Judith Auerbach
Search results
Judith, the heroine of the book, introduced in chapter 8. A God-fearing woman, she is the daughter of Merari, a Simeonite, and widow of a certain Manasseh or Manasses, a wealthy farmer. She sends her maid or "waitingwoman" to Uzziah to challenge his decision to capitulate to the Assyrians if God has not rescued the people of Bethulia within five days, and she uses her charm to become an intimate friend of Holofernes, but beheads him allowing Israel to counter-attack the Assyrians. Judith's ...
The Book of Judith Invitation to Courage. After the story of a family delineated in the Book of Tobit, the Bible gives us a national drama in two parts. In the first, the fearsome armada of Holofernes imposes its domination over all peoples; the little Israelite nation is threatened and in danger of perishing. In the second, the situation is reversed; a hope of victory rises from the Jewish camp: the pious and wise Judith—that is, the “Jewess,” who incarnates Israel’s resistance and ...
Like Jael, who drove a tent peg through the head of Sisera , Judith kills an enemy general. Like Deborah , Judith “judges” Israel in the time of military crisis. Like Sarah, the mother of Israel’s future , Judith’s beauty deceives foreigners, with the result that blessings redound to Israel (Gn 12:11–20). Her Hebrew name means ...
Like Jael, who drove a tent peg through the head of Sisera , Judith kills an enemy general. Like Deborah (Jgs 4–5), Judith “judges” Israel in the time of military crisis. Like Sarah, the mother of Israel’s future , Judith’s beauty deceives foreigners, with the result that blessings redound to Israel (Gn 12:11–20). Her Hebrew name ...
Sep 5, 2023 · Judith murders Holofernes, the enemy of Israel, a world-class bully who slaughtered his way through Put, Lud, the lands of the Rassisites and the Ishmaelites, the walled towns along Wadi Abron, and Cilicia; he set fire to the tents of the Midiantites and the fields of Damascus (Judith 2:23–27). Alone with him late at night in his tent, Judith beheads him with two strokes to the neck from his own famous sword—praying beforehand, of course (Judith 13:4–7)! ...
Biblical literature - Judith, Apocrypha, Heroine: The book of Judith is similar to the biblical Book of Esther in that it also describes how a woman saved her people from impending massacre by her cunning and daring. The name of the heroine occurs already in Gen. 26:34 as a Gentile wife of Esau, but in the book of Judith it evidently has symbolic value. Judith is an exemplary Jewish woman. Her deed is probably invented under the influence of the account of the 12th-century-bce Kenite woman ...
Judith dedicated to God all the vessels of Holofernes which the people had given to her and the canopy which she had taken from his bed. The feasting in Jerusalem lasted for three months. Judith returned to Bethulia. She had many suitors, but she remained a widow until her death at 105 years of age. She freed her maid and divided her property among her husband’s relatives and her own.
Dec 13, 2003 · in support of respectful meditation The ancient story of Yehudit or Judith is one of remarkable bravery, selflessness and faith that speaks to the universal qualities that enable individuals to step out of themselves and perform unusually heroic acts that serve to liberate the besieged communities in which they live. That this centuries old story has survived, is a miracle in itself, if you think about it! While it is perfectly natural and healthy to ask reflective questions that round out ...
Judith, on the other hand, is noncanonical, apocryphal, for Jews and Protestants; and deutero- (that is, second-) canonical for Roman Catholics.1 That […] Footnotes. 1. The listing of seven cities here is probably the author’s way of underscoring the totality of the capitulation to Holofernes, the number seven in the Bible being a symbol of completeness. 2. A region in southern Babylonia. 3. ...
The story of Judith features, unsurprisingly, Judith as its main hero. Judith, whom we are told was both very beautiful and a widow, was horrified that her fellow Jews did not trust in God to deliver them from their enemies, the Assyrians. So she went to the Assyrian camp and befriended its general, Holofernes. One night while he lay drunk in his bed, she cut off his head and took it back to her fellow Jews. This saved the Jews from the Assyrians who, without a leader, left the campaign and ...
