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Judith 9 opens by invoking her ancestor Simeon, who avenged the rape of Dinah in Genesis 34. Judith identifies with Simeon's tactics of deceit and violence, presenting herself as an avenger acting with divine authority against a foreign enemy.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 34:25
Hebrew Bible
24 All the men who assembled at the city gate agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem. Every male who assembled at the city gate was circumcised. 25 In three days, when they were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, each took his sword and went to the unsuspecting city and slaughtered every male. 26 They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword, took Dinah from Shechem’s house, and left. 27 Jacob’s sons killed them and looted the city because their sister had been violated. 28 They took their flocks, herds, and donkeys, as well as everything in the city and in the surrounding fields.
Judith 9:2
Deuterocanon
1 Then Judith prostrated herself, put ashes on her head, and uncovered the sackcloth she was wearing. At the very time when the evening incense was being offered in the house of God in Jerusalem, Judith cried out to the Lord with a loud voice, and said, 2 "O Lord God of my ancestor Simeon, to whom you gave a sword to take revenge on those strangers who had torn off a virgin's clothing to defile her, and exposed her thighs to put her to shame, and polluted her womb to disgrace her; for you said, "It shall not be done'—yet they did it; 3 so you gave up their rulers to be killed, and their bed, which was ashamed of the deceit they had practiced, was stained with blood, and you struck down slaves along with princes, and princes on their thrones. 4 You gave up their wives for booty and their daughters to captivity, and all their booty to be divided among your beloved children who burned with zeal for you and abhorred the pollution of their blood and called on you for help. O God, my God, hear me also, a widow.
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Notes and References
Judith begins her prayer by invoking God as the god of her forefather Simeon, and immediately turns to the role played by Simeon in avenging the rape of Dinah by Shechem. In three compressed and difficult verses, Judith presents her version of the events recounted in Genesis 34, using the tale as a source of inspiration for, and vindication of, her own deeds. Such use of a single biblical episode as an exemplary story which inspires someone who prays is also found in the prayers of Tobias (Tobit 8:4–8) and Judas Maccabeus (1 Maccabees 4:30–33; 7:40–42). Apart from Simeon, Judith does not mention anyone involved in the Dinah-Shechem episode by name and she presents Simeon's vengeance upon the people of Shechem as a positive deed, the act of a zealous, righteous figure who is aided by God. While we might expect Judith, a solitary, beautiful woman about to enter an enemy camp and meet with its commander, to associate herself with the more vulnerable Dinah, who also went off on her own to foreign territory, Judith stresses the role played by the zealous and violent Simeon and seems to identify with him. Indeed Judith will behave very much along the lines of Simeon and Levi of Genesis 34, for she too will use tricky, deceitful words to lull her enemy and she too will kill her foe when he is weak and off guard.
* 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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