Texts in Conversation
Judith echoes the complaints of Israel in Exodus, where the people, facing the Egyptian army, say it would be better to remain slaves than die in the desert. In Judith, the people have a similar protest, wishing to surrender rather than die from thirst.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Exodus 14:12
Hebrew Bible
10 When Pharaoh got closer, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians marching after them, and they were terrified. The Israelites cried out to the Lord, 11 and they said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the desert? What in the world have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Isn’t this what we told you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone so that we can serve the Egyptians, because it is better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!’” 13 Moses said to the people, “Do not fear! Stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord that he will provide for you today; for the Egyptians that you see today you will never, ever see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you, and you can be still.”
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Judith 7:27
Deuterocanon
25 Now we have no helper; but God has sold us into their hands, that we should be laid low before them with thirst and great destruction. 26 And now summon them, and deliver up the whole city as prey to the people of Holofernes, and to all his army. 27 For it is better for us to be captured by them. For we will be servants, and our souls will live, and we will not see the death of our babies before our eyes, and our wives and our children fainting in death. 28 We take to witness against you the sky and the earth, and our God and the Lord of our fathers, who punishes us according to our sins and the sins of our fathers. Do what we have said today!” 29 And there was great weeping of all with one consent in the midst of the assembly; and they cried to the Lord God with a loud voice.
Date: 100 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Our passage echoes two of the biblical complaint stories (above, note on 7:23–32) fairly closely. At Exodus 14:12 the Israelites state that it would be better for them to return to Egypt as slaves, rather than die in the desert. At Numbers 14:2–3, the Israelites again use the phrase “it would be better” preferring to die in the desert or return to Egypt, rather than dying by the sword and having their wives and children seized as plunder in Canaan. See too Numbers 20:3–5 and Exodus 17:3 for similar reproaches, and contrast Judah’s words to his soldiers before Emmaus that it is better to die in battle than watch the ruin of their nation and temple (1 Maccabees 3:59) ..."
Deborah Levine Gera, Judith (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014), 247.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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