Texts in Conversation
The Song of Deborah in Judges 5 ends with a notice that Israel enjoyed forty years of peace after victory. The Book of Judith closes with the same formula, linking Judith to the pattern of the judges as deliverers of Israel.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Judges 5:31
Hebrew Bible
30 ‘No doubt they are gathering and dividing the plunder—a girl or two for each man to rape! Sisera is grabbing up colorful cloth, he is grabbing up colorful embroidered cloth, two pieces of colorful embroidered cloth, for the neck of the plunderer!’ 31 “May all your enemies perish like this, O Lord! But may those who love you shine like the rising sun at its brightest.” And the land had rest for forty years.
Judith 16:25
Deuterocanon
23 She became more and more famous, and grew old in her husband's house, reaching the age of one hundred five. She set her maid free. She died in Bethulia, and they buried her in the cave of her husband Manasseh; 24 and the house of Israel mourned her for seven days. Before she died she distributed her property to all those who were next of kin to her husband Manasseh, and to her own nearest kindred. 25 No one ever again spread terror among the Israelites during the lifetime of Judith, or for a long time after her death.
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Notes and References
"... The last verse reads, "During the lifetime of Judith and for a long time after her death, no one ever again spread terror among the Israelites" (Judith 16:25). By concluding the story of a righteous leader who thwarts an incursive gentile adversary, the author of Judith imitates several stories from the Book of Judges, which end with a similar description of the peace brought by the victor. Such a concluding notice appears in Judges 8:28: "Midian was subjugated by the Israelites; they no longer held their heads high, and the land had rest for forty years" (see also Judges 3:11, 30; 5:31). ..."
Miller, Geoffrey David
"Methodological Reflections for Future Intertextual Studies" in Corley, Jeremy, and Geoffrey David Miller (eds.) Intertextual Explorations in Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature
(pp. 325-326) De Gruyter, 2019
* 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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