… In rejecting Achior’s “Deuteronomistic” assessment of Israel’s situation Holofernes retorted, “we will strike them down as one man” (ἄνθρωπον ἕνα 6:3). Ironically, he was himself struck down by one woman. The entire speech by Holofernes is ironic, and his boast that “I have spoken, and none of my words shall fail to come true” (6:9) was proved empty by subsequent events. Even his turning over of Achior to the Israelites with the expectation that he “will perish along with them” (6:8) turned out to be the cause of Achior’s survival rather than his downfall. In an ironic reversal, after identifying the head of Holofernes, Achior converted to Judaism and was circumcised (14:10). He “believed firmly in God” (ἐπίστευσεν τῷ θεῷ σφόδρα), a phrase which echoes the Septuagint of Genesis 15:6 (“Abram believed in God,” ἐπίστευσεν Αβραμ τῷ θεῷ) and therefore ironically puts him on the level of the patriarch and portrays him as more faithful than the elders of Bethulia …