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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.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Judith 9:2
Deuterocanon
1 But Judith fell upon her face, and put ashes upon her head, and uncovered the sackcloth with which she was clothed. The incense of that evening was now being offered at Jerusalem in the house of God, and Judith cried to the Lord with a loud voice, and said, 2 “O Lord God of my father Simeon, into whose hand you gave a sword to take vengeance on the strangers who loosened the belt of a virgin to defile her, uncovered her thigh to her shame, and profaned her womb to her reproach; for you said, ‘It shall not be so;’ and they did so. 3 Therefore you gave their rulers to be slain, and their bed, which was ashamed of the deceit they practiced, to be dyed in blood, and struck the servants with their masters, and the masters upon their thrones; 4 and gave their wives for a prey, and their daughters to be captives, and all their spoils to be divided among your dear children; which were moved with zeal for you, and abhorred the pollution of their blood, and called upon you for aid. O God, O my God, hear me also who am a widow.
Date: 100 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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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. ..."
Deborah Levine Gera, Judith (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014), 303–305.
* 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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