Judith’s Song of Thanksgiving

1 Judith said, “Begin a song to my God with tambourines. Sing to my Lord with cymbals. Make melody to him with psalm and praise. Exalt him, and call on his name. 2 For the Lord is the God who crushes battles.⁠a For in his armies in the middle of the people, he delivered me out of the hand of those who persecuted me.

3 Assyria came out of the mountains from the north. He came with tens of thousands of his troops. Its multitude stopped the torrents. Their horsemen covered the hills. 4 He said that he would burn up my borders, kill my young men with the sword, throw my nursing children to the ground,⁠b give my infants up as prey, and take my unmarried women as captured property.

5 “The Almighty Lord brought them to nothing by the hand of a woman. 6 For their mighty one didn’t fall by young men, neither did sons of the Titans strike him. Tall giants didn’t attack him, but Judith the daughter of Merari made him weak with the beauty of her face.

7 “For she took off her widow’s clothing for the exaltation of those who were distressed in Israel. She anointed her face with ointment, 8 she bound her hair in a tiara, and took a linen garment to deceive him. 9 Her sandal captivated his eye. Her beauty took his soul prisoner. The sword passed through his neck.

10 “The Persians quaked at her daring. The Medes were daunted at her boldness.

11 “Then my lowly ones shouted aloud. My oppressed people were terrified and trembled for fear. They lifted up their voices and the enemy fled. 12 The children of slave-girls pierced them through, and wounded them as fugitives’ children. They perished by the army of my Lord.

13 “I will sing to my God a new song. Lord, you are great and glorious, marvelous in strength, invincible. 14 Let all your creation serve you, because you spoke, and they were made. You sent out your spirit, and it built them. There is no one who can resist your voice. 15 For the mountains will be moved from their foundations with the waters, and the rocks will melt as wax at your presence.⁠c But you are still merciful to those who fear you. 16 For all sacrifice is little for a sweet smell, and all the fat is very little for a whole burnt offering to you, but he who fears the Lord is always great.

17 “Woe to the nations who rise up against my race! The Lord Almighty will take vengeance on them in the day of judgment and put fire and worms in their flesh, and they will weep and feel their pain forever.”⁠d

Offerings in Jerusalem

18 Now when they came to Jerusalem, they worshiped God. When the people were purified, they offered their whole burnt offerings, their freewill offerings, and their gifts.

19 Judith dedicated all Holofernes’ possessions, which the people had given her, and gave the canopy, which she had taken for herself out of his bedchamber, for a gift to the Lord.

20 And the people continued feasting in Jerusalem before the sanctuary for three months, and Judith remained with them.

Judith’s Later Life and Death

21 After these days, everyone departed to his own inherited land. Judith went away to Bethulia, and remained in her own property, and was held in honor throughout the land during her lifetime.

22 Many men desired her, but no man slept with her all the days of her life from the day that Manasseh her husband died and was gathered to his people.

23 She grew greatly in honor, and she grew old in her husband’s house, to one hundred five years. She let her maid go free. Then she died in Bethulia. They buried her in the cave of her husband Manasseh.

24 The house of Israel mourned for her seven days. She distributed her goods before she died to all those who were nearest of kin to Manasseh her husband, and to those who were nearest of her own relatives.

25 There was no one who made the people of Israel afraid anymore in the days of Judith, nor for a long time after her death.⁠e