Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Holofernes sends Achior bound to Bethulia, so that when it is captured, he may kill him with the citizens; the Jews kindly receive and comfort him.
Vulgate Text: Judith 6:1-21
1. And it came to pass, when they had ceased speaking, Holofernes, greatly indignant, said to Achior: 2. Since you have prophesied to us, saying that the nation of Israel is defended by their God, to show you that there is no God except Nebuchadnezzar; 3. when we shall have struck them all down as one man, then you also shall perish by the Assyrian sword with them, and all Israel shall be destroyed together with you; 4. and you shall prove that Nebuchadnezzar is lord of all the earth: then the sword of my army shall pass through your sides, and pierced you shall fall among the wounded of Israel, and you shall breathe no more, until you are exterminated with them. 5. Moreover, if you think your prophecy true, let your countenance not fall, and let the pallor that holds your face depart from you, if you think these words of mine cannot be fulfilled. 6. But that you may know that you shall experience these things together with them, behold from this hour you shall be associated with their people, so that when they receive the punishment worthy of my sword, you yourself may also be subject to the same vengeance. 7. Then Holofernes commanded his servants to seize Achior and lead him to Bethulia, and deliver him into the hands of the children of Israel. 8. And the servants of Holofernes, taking him, set forth through the plains; but when they had approached the mountains, the slingers came out against them. 9. They however, turning aside from the mountain, tied Achior to a tree by his hands and feet, and leaving him bound with ropes, returned to their master. 10. Then the children of Israel, descending from Bethulia, came to him. Loosing him, they brought him to Bethulia, and placing him in the midst of the people, they asked what had happened, that the Assyrians had left him bound. 11. In those days the princes there were Ozias son of Micah of the tribe of Simeon, and Charmi, who is also Othoniel. 12. In the midst therefore of the elders, and in the sight of all, Achior told everything he himself had said when questioned by Holofernes: and how the people of Holofernes had wanted to kill him on account of this word, 13. and how Holofernes himself in anger had ordered him to be handed over to the Israelites for this reason: so that when he had conquered the children of Israel, he might then also command Achior to perish by various tortures, because he had said: The God of heaven is their defender. 14. And when Achior had related all these things, all the people fell on their faces, worshipping the Lord, and with common lamentation and weeping they poured out their unanimous prayers to the Lord, 15. saying: Lord God of heaven and earth, behold their pride, and look upon our humility, and attend to the face of Your holy ones, and show that You do not forsake those who trust in You: and those who trust in themselves and glory in their own strength, You humble. 16. When the weeping was ended, and the prayer of the people completed throughout the whole day, they comforted Achior, 17. saying: The God of our fathers, whose power you proclaimed, will Himself give you this recompense, that you may rather see their destruction. 18. And when the Lord our God has given this liberty to His servants, may God be with you also in our midst: so that as it pleases you, you may dwell among us with all your people. 19. Then Ozias, when the council was ended, received him into his house, and made a great supper for him. 20. And all the elders being called, when the fast was completed, they refreshed themselves together. 21. And afterward all the people were called together, and throughout the whole night they prayed in the synagogue, asking aid from the God of Israel.
Verse 2: Since You Have Prophesied
2. Since you have prophesied, — that is, predicted, not from an oracle received from God, but from human prudence and the experience of former times.
Verse 4: You Shall Breathe No More
4. YOU SHALL BREATHE NO MORE, UNTIL YOU ARE EXTERMINATED. — The word 'until' does not refer to 'you shall breathe,' for one who does not breathe is already exterminated and dead: but rather refers above to 'the sword shall pass through your sides, and pierced you shall fall,' namely so that 'you shall breathe no more,' that is, until you are completely lifeless and 'exterminated with them.'
Verse 6: You Shall Be Associated With Their People
6. YOU SHALL BE ASSOCIATED WITH THEIR PEOPLE, — as if to say: You appear, Achior, to be a secret ally and supporter of the Jews, and therefore my betrayer: so go to those whose company you preferred to mine, and be openly my enemy, as they are, so that you who are their partner in hostility may also be a participant in the vengeance of their destruction.
Verse 10: The Children of Israel Came to Him
10. THEN THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, DESCENDING FROM BETHULIA, CAME TO HIM. — Bethulia was a city of Galilee in the tribe of Zebulun, situated on a mountain, three leagues distant from Dothan, where Joseph was captured by his brothers and stripped of his coat of many colors. Brocardus and Adrichomius add that even today traces of Holofernes' camp can be seen there. 'Bethulia' in Hebrew means the same as 'virginity of God.' For she was as a virgin, untouched by the destruction of Holofernes, through the chaste Judith.
Moreover, Bethulia properly belonged to the tribe of Zebulun, and therefore belonging to the kingdom of Israel, that is, of the ten tribes: but when they were carried off to Assyria, the tribe of Judah claimed it and many other cities of Israel for itself; for all of Canaan had been given by God to the descendants of Jacob, and when part of them were carried off, the rest who survived, namely the Jews, as brothers succeeded by right of kinship and nature to the inheritance of the ten tribes as of their brothers.
Verse 11: The Princes Were Ozias and Charmi
11. IN THOSE DAYS THE PRINCES THERE WERE OZIAS SON OF MICAH OF THE TRIBE OF SIMEON, AND CHARMI, WHO IS ALSO OTHONIEL. — For although Bethulia was in the tribe of Zebulun, it had a leader from another tribe, namely Simeon, just as Judges from various tribes presided over all Israel. Hence Ozias is also called in chapter VIII, verse 34: 'Prince of Judah,' and in chapter XIII, verse 23: 'Prince of the people of Israel.' Lyranus and Dionysius think Ozias and Charmi were senior priests, because in the Greek they are called presbyters. But πρέσβυς, that is, presbyter, means an elder and one advanced in age, whether layman or priest. Hence again these events seem not to have happened under King Manasseh, but after the captivity under the leaders Ozias and Charmi.
Verse 15: The Face of Your Holy Ones
15. And the face of Your holy ones. — In Greek, 'of those sanctified,' that is, of Your faithful ones, who dedicated themselves to You through circumcision, and now again through fasting, prayer, and suppliant prayers wholly sanctify, that is, dedicate and consecrate themselves to You.
FOR YOU DO NOT FORSAKE THOSE WHO TRUST IN YOU, — that is, those who are confident in You; for they above all and before all things take God as the leader of their works and commander of their war, and through Him they hope for certain victory. Thus St. Germanus, when a spreading fire threatened him while he was ill, would not allow himself to be moved by others, 'by the presumption of faith,' says Bede, book I of the History of the English, chapter XIX.
THOSE WHO TRUST IN THEMSELVES, (that is, relying on themselves and their own strength: hence explaining, he adds,) AND GLORY IN THEIR OWN STRENGTH, YOU HUMBLE. — Hear St. Bernard, book On the Steps of Humility, step 7: 'He who thinks he surpasses others, how can he not presume more of himself than of others? He sits first in assemblies, in councils he answers first, he comes uninvited, intrudes himself unsent, he rearranges what has been arranged, remakes what has been done; whatever he himself has not done or arranged, he considers neither rightly done nor well arranged. He judges those who judge, and prejudges those who are about to judge.'
Verse 16: They Comforted Achior
16. They comforted Achior, — yet they did not admit him to their counsels or place him in charge of the war, because the loyalty of deserters is suspect; for thus Judith, pretending to desert to the Assyrians, Hushai to Absalom, II Kings XVII, Sinon to the Trojans, Zopyrus the commander of Darius Hystaspes to the Babylonians, all betrayed them to their enemies.
Verse 21: They Prayed in the Synagogue
21. And afterward (after the refreshment and frugal banquet) all the people were called together, and throughout the whole night they prayed in the synagogue, asking aid from the God of Israel. — For as St. Jerome says, epistle to Eustochium: 'You should always eat in such a way that prayer and reading follow your food.' And to Laeta, on the Education of a Daughter: 'Eat so that you are always hungry, so that immediately after eating you can read and sing psalms.' Tertullian, Apology chapter XXXIX, refuting the calumny of the pagans about the drunkenness of Christians, with which they cast at them the saying of Diogenes: 'The Megarians feast as if they will die tomorrow, they build as if they will never die,' describes the Agape, that is, the love-feast common to all Christians after the Eucharist, thus: 'No one reclines before prayer to God has been tasted first; they eat as much as the hungry desire; they drink as much as is useful for the modest; they satisfy themselves in such a way that they remember they must worship God even through the night; they converse in such a way that they know the Lord is listening. After washing of hands and lights, each person is invited to sing to God in the midst, from the holy Scriptures or from their own talent: from this it is proved how they have drunk. And prayer ends the banquet: from there they depart not into bands of brawlers, nor into squads of vagabonds, nor into outbursts of wantonness, but with the same care for modesty, as those who have supped not so much on a dinner as on discipline.' Let the faithful read this and imitate the frugality and piety of the first Christians at their banquets. Note: 'in the synagogue,' that is, in the synagogue, the place of assembly and prayer, which is hence called in Greek προσευχή: for the Jews did not have a temple in Bethulia, but only in Jerusalem; but they had a synagogue in place of the temple in each larger city. See here likewise the antiquity of nocturnal vigils, by which on great feasts, or on account of pressing calamities, all the people kept watch in the temple at Jerusalem, and outside Jerusalem in the proseucha (as the Greek text has here) or synagogue devoted to prayer. Hence Josephus in his own life: 'On the following day, he says, the people assembled in the proseuchas, which they call a spacious house of prayer.' Likewise Philo, On the Life of Moses, book III: 'Among the Jews, he says, there are places in each town designated for sacred prayers, which the people commonly call proseuchas.'
On these sacred vigils see St. Basil, on Psalm CXIV, Eusebius, book VI of the History, chapter VII, Tertullian, book II To His Wife, chapter IV.