Catholic Commentary on Judith 1

"Nebuchadnezzar king of the Assyrians reigned over all the Assyrians in the great city of Nineveh." (Judith 1:1)

The Book of Judith

Judith is a deuterocanonical book presenting a fictional narrative with historical and theological purposes. Set during an unnamed Assyrian king called Nebuchadnezzar, it tells how the widow Judith saves her people through courage, prayer, and the willingness to risk her life. The book is best read as a theological drama: the testing of Israel's faith against the overwhelming military power of a pagan empire, with the answer delivered through the most unexpected instrument.

Nebuchadnezzar launches a massive campaign against the west. He sends his general Holofernes with 120,000 infantry and 12,000 cavalry to punish the nations that refused to support his war against the Medes. Holofernes devastates city after city. The terror of Assyria spreads before him. The nations capitulate. Israel, just returned from exile, prepares to resist. The Catechism identifies Judith as a type of the Church: the people of God that faces overwhelming power yet trusts in divine deliverance through unexpected means (CCC 967).

Living the Word

Brothers and sisters, the opening of Judith establishes the overwhelming military reality that the story will overturn. The 120,000 infantry are real. The terror is real. The capitulation of the nations is real. Faith does not pretend the enemy is smaller than it is. It faces the true size of the enemy and trusts in a God who is larger.

Prayer

Lord God, the armies of the world are real and their power is real. Give your people the faith that faces the real size of the opposition and still trusts in you. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

JUDITH
1
1 Now Arphaxad king of the Medes had brought many nations under his dominions, and he built a very strong city, which he called Ecbatana, 2 Of stones squared and hewed: he made the walls thereof seventy cubits broad, and thirty cubits high, and the towers thereof he made a hundred cubits high. But on the square of them, each side was extended the space of twenty feet. 3 And he made the gates thereof according to the height of the towers: 4 And he gloried as a mighty one in the force of his army and in the glory of his chariots. 5 Now in the twelfth year of his reign, Nabuchodonosor king of the Assyrians, who reigned in Ninive the great city, fought against Arphaxad and overcame him, 6 In the great plain which is called Ragua, about the Euphrates, and the Tigris, and the Jadason, in the plain of Erioch the king of the Elicians. 7 Then was the kingdom of Nabuchodonosor exalted, and his heart was elevated: and he sent to all that dwelt in Cilicia and Damascus, and Libanus, 8 And to the nations that are in Carmelus, and Cedar, and to the inhabitants of Galilee in the great plain of Asdrelon, 9 And to all that were in Samaria, and beyond the river Jordan even to Jerusalem, and all the land of Jesse till you come to the borders of Ethiopia. 10 To all these Nabuchodonosor king of the Assyrians, sent messengers: 11 But they all with one mind refused, and sent them back empty, and rejected them without honour. 12 Then king Nabuchodonosor being angry against all that land, swore by his throne and kingdom that he would revenge himself of all those countries.

Public Domain