Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
With Judith leading the song, all join in singing an Epinicion (victory hymn) to God. The people offer holocausts in thanksgiving. Judith, living a long life in chastity and glory, at last dies gloriously, and the day of her victory is thereafter ordered to be celebrated annually.
Vulgate Text: Judith 16:1-31
1. Then Judith sang this canticle to the Lord, saying: 2. Begin a song to the Lord on timbrels, sing to the Lord on cymbals, sing to Him a new psalm, exalt and call upon His name. 3. The Lord who crushes wars, the Lord is His name. 4. He who set His camp in the midst of His people, to deliver us from the hand of all our enemies. 5. Assur came from the mountains of the north in the multitude of his strength: whose multitude blocked up the torrents, and their horses covered the valleys. 6. He said he would burn my borders, and slay my young men with the sword, give my infants as plunder, and my virgins into captivity. 7. But the Lord Almighty harmed him, and delivered him into the hands of a woman, and she pierced him. 8. For their mighty one did not fall by young men, nor did the sons of Titan strike him, nor did tall giants oppose him; but Judith the daughter of Merari undid him by the beauty of her face. 9. For she put off the garment of her widowhood, and put on the garment of joy for the exultation of the children of Israel. 10. She anointed her face with ointment, and bound up her locks with a headdress, and took a new robe to deceive him. 11. Her sandals ravished his eyes, her beauty made his soul captive. She cut off his head with a dagger. 12. The Persians shuddered at her constancy, and the Medes at her boldness. 13. Then the camps of the Assyrians howled, when my lowly ones appeared, parched with thirst. 14. The sons of young women pierced them through, and as fleeing boys they slew them; they perished in battle before the face of the Lord my God. 15. Let us sing a hymn to the Lord, let us sing a new hymn to our God. 16. O Adonai Lord, great are You and glorious in Your power, and no one can surpass You. 17. Let all Your creation serve You, for You spoke and they were made; You sent forth Your Spirit and they were created, and there is no one who can resist Your voice. 18. The mountains shall be moved from their foundations with the waters: the rocks shall melt like wax before Your face. 19. But those who fear You shall be great before You in all things. 20. Woe to the nation that rises against my people! For the Lord Almighty will take vengeance on them, in the day of judgment He will visit them. 21. For He will give fire and worms into their flesh, that they may burn and feel it forever. 22. And it came to pass after these things, all the people after the victory came to Jerusalem to worship the Lord: and as soon as they were purified, they all offered holocausts, and vows, and their pledges. 23. Moreover Judith offered all the weapons of war of Holofernes, which the people had given her, and the canopy which she herself had taken from his bed, as a memorial offering. 24. And the people were joyful in the sight of the sanctuary, and for three months the joy of this victory was celebrated with Judith. 25. And after those days every one returned to his own house, and Judith became great in Bethulia, and was the most illustrious in all the land of Israel. 26. And chastity was joined to her virtue, so that she knew no man all the days of her life, from the time that Manasses her husband died. 27. And on feast days she went forth with great glory. 28. And she remained in her husband's house one hundred and five years, and set her maid free, and she died and was buried with her husband in Bethulia. 29. And all the people mourned her for seven days. 30. And in all the time of her life there was none who troubled Israel, and for many years after her death. 31. And the day of this victory festival is received among the holy days by the Hebrews, and is observed by the Jews from that time to the present day.
Verse 1: Judith Sang This Canticle to the Lord
1. THEN JUDITH SANG THIS CANTICLE TO THE LORD, SAYING: BEGIN (sing, make music, and rejoice) TO THE LORD. — Whence, with her leading the song, the rest joined in: just as, with Miriam the sister of Moses leading, the other women joined in after the crossing of the Red Sea, Exodus 15:20. For thus the Greek has at this passage: And Judith began this song of thanksgiving among all the Israelites, and all the people sang this praise with a loud voice, and Judith began: Begin to God on timbrels, etc. From this it is clear that Judith was prophetic, indeed a writer of Sacred Scripture; for she composed this canticle, which is part of Sacred Scripture, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Verse 3: The Lord Who Crushes Wars
3. THE LORD WHO CRUSHES WARS. — She alludes to the name Jehovah, which, derived from the root הוה (hava), means the same as "He who crushes." She quotes this from the Victory Hymn of Moses, Exodus 15:3: "The Lord is as a man of war, the Almighty is His name." See what was said there.
Verse 5: Assur Came From the Mountains of the North
5. ASSUR CAME (that is, the Assyrian army sent by Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyrians, under the command of Holofernes) FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF THE NORTH. — For Assyria is partly to the east, and partly and more so to the north of Judea. WHOSE MULTITUDE BLOCKED UP THE TORRENTS, AND THEIR HORSES COVERED THE VALLEYS. — Sanchez, understanding Nebuchadnezzar who sent Holofernes as Xerxes, conveniently applies these things to him. For Xerxes led such great forces into Greece that it is said that the rivers were scarcely enough for drinking, the land for marching, and the seas for sailing. So Paulus Orosius, Book II, chapter 9. Indeed, Herodotus, Book VII, and Justin, Book II, report that rivers were dried up by his army; about whom Juvenal also says, Satire 10: "We believe that deep rivers Failed, and streams were drunk up While the Mede was dining." But Xerxes was a Persian, not Assur, that is, an Assyrian. See what was said in the Prooemium.
Verse 7: He Harmed Him
7. HE HARMED HIM — that is, "him" (in the dative); for in ancient usage nocere governed the accusative case, as is clear from Plautus and others.
Verse 8: Nor Did the Sons of Titan
8. NOR DID THE SONS OF TITAN (that is, "the tall giants," as the text explains by adding) STRIKE HIM. — You may ask: who are the sons of Titan, or, as the Greek has it, of the Titans? I answer: Titan or Titanus is imagined by the poets to be the son of Heaven and Vesta, that is, of Earth, and the Titans are their children, of whom Virgil says in Book 6 of the Aeneid: "Here the ancient race of Earth, the Titan offspring, Struck down by the thunderbolt, roll in the lowest depths." Earth, says Servius, first begot the Titans against Saturn, then the Giants against Jupiter. And the legends say that the Titans were created by Earth, angry against the Gods, for her vengeance. Whence the Titans are also called from the Greek word for vengeance. For Jupiter cast them into Tartarus. It is said that the Titans were six brothers and five sisters, named after their mother Titea, as Diodorus reports: among whom one was Iapetus, the father of Prometheus. And Hyperion is among the number of the Titans, who is said to have been the first to observe and demonstrate the motions of the sun and moon and stars; and therefore he is called the father of the sun and of the stars. Hence the Sun is called Titan, the Moon Titania, and Diana Titania by the poets. Cicero in his Aratus, Book 7: "Whom Titan clothed with perpetual light." Ovid, Metamorphoses Book 3, 35: "And while Titania (Diana) is bathed there in the accustomed waters." Titan therefore is an epithet of the Sun. For the Sun is called the son of Heaven and Earth, because in the morning it appears to rise from the earth and sea, and likewise as the son of Jupiter it shines in what is, as it were, its father's house. Hence many derive Titan from the Hebrew טיט (tit), that is, mud, slime, earth, so that from Tit came Tethys and Titea, the mother of the six Titans. Others derive Titan from the Greek τιταίνω, because Titan, that is the Sun, extends its rays in every direction. Moreover, the poets fable that Titia is the earth, from which the sun and moon came forth. For the Earth had various names. For as Varro says, as quoted by St. Augustine in Book 7 of The City of God, the earth or tellus is called Ops, because it becomes better with help (ops) and cultivation; and Mother, because it produces very many things; and Alma (nourishing), because it provides food; and Proserpina, because fruits creep forth (proserpant) from it; and Vesta, because it is clothed (vestiatur) with plants, or, as others say, because it stands (stet) by its own force. Whence there exists a Hymn to the Titans attributed to Orpheus.
Hence secondly, by the sons of Titan could be understood Phaethon with his offspring, whom the poets say to be the son of the sun; who, while carelessly driving the horses and chariot of the sun, burned everything on earth with the heat of the sun — as if to say: Holofernes was not struck down by the sun or Phaethon, but by the woman Judith.
Thirdly, some think that by the Titans, the sons of heaven and earth, are signified spirits and winds (likewise storms and lightning bolts), which, sent down from heaven, that is, from the air into the earth, are hidden in it, from the verb τεταίνω, that is, "I extend," because the winds, extending their hands and acting with force, cause harm; whence an earthquake arises in which many perish — as if to say: Not winds, not storms, not lightning bolts, not earthquakes, but a single woman overthrew Holofernes. This is supported by the fact that Pausanias writes in his Corinthiaca that on the hill of the Titans near the Sicyonians there was an altar of the winds, on which a priest sacrificed annually to mitigate the ferocity of the winds. The first meaning, as it is the more common, so it is the more fitting: for the Titans were exceedingly mighty giants, whom no one could resist. Whence the proverbs: "A Titanic aspect," that is, fierce, savage, and terrible. "Older than the Titans and Cronus (Time and Saturn); you would fill the Titans." See Apollodorus at the beginning of Book 1 On the Origin of the Gods, Hesiod in the Theogony, Giraldus, and others.
Note from St. Jerome on Amos chapter 5, verse 8, and St. Gregory, Morals Book 9, chapter 6, that the translators, both the Seventy and our own (the Vulgate), sometimes translate Hebrew names, which are called differently among them, with the vocabulary of the fables of the Gentile Greeks and Latins into the Greek and Latin language — not as if they were narrating or approving fables, but because we do not rightly and fully understand what is said except through those words which we have learned by usage and, as it were, imbibed with our mother's milk, as St. Jerome says — especially when the fable takes its origin from Sacred Scripture, as happens here. For the fable of the Titans was formed and invented from the history of the giants, Genesis 6:4 and chapter 11:4. So the Seventy at Job 42:14, instead of "horn of antimony" translate "horn of Amalthea," whom the poets imagine to be the goat who nourished Jupiter with her milk. So at Lamentations 4:3, our translator renders "lamias," when in the Hebrew it is תנכיום (Tannium), a word that signifies dragons or vain and terrifying monsters, such as lamias (vampires). The same judgment applies to Arcturus, Orion, and the like, says St. Jerome, which are mentioned in Job and the Prophets; of which the Poet says: "Arcturus, and the rainy Hyades, and the twin Bears, And Orion armed with gold he surveys." The sons of Titan or of the Titans, therefore, are the sons of the giants, that is, the most enormous, strongest, and most robust giants, who are called Rephaim, for which the Seventy translate Titans, 2 Kings 5:18. It is a metonymy: for by the character and strength of the fathers is signified the character and strength of the sons. Therefore by the Titans, in common popular usage, none other are understood than giants.
It could also be said that this word Titan was in use for signifying giants from the fables spread throughout the whole world among the Assyrians, Chaldeans, Hebrews, and other nations, so that it is signified that Holofernes and the Assyrians, proud of their strength and forces, compared themselves to the Titans, and said they were equal to the Titans, or that they feared nothing except the Titans: so that frequently something Titanic was heard in their camps, and alluding to this, Judith says: The Assyrians did not fall by the hand of their own Titans, but by my hand, I who am an unwarlike and unarmed woman. So Sanchez.
Verse 12: The Persians Shuddered at Her Constancy
12. THE PERSIANS SHUDDERED AT HER CONSTANCY, AND THE MEDES AT HER BOLDNESS. — Hence it is clear that in the camp of Holofernes, Persians and Medes were mixed with the Assyrians; especially because the general Holofernes himself was a Persian, says Cedrenus: and the Medes, after the defeat of Arphaxad their prince, had already been subdued by Nebuchadnezzar, to whom therefore many from the neighboring Persians also defected, on account of the sloth and disgraceful defeat and flight from Greece of Xerxes their king, as I said in the Prooemium.
Verse 13: The Camps of the Assyrians Howled
13. THEN THE CAMPS OF THE ASSYRIANS HOWLED, WHEN MY LOWLY ONES APPEARED, PARCHED WITH THIRST — namely, my fellow citizens of Bethulia, nearly slain by thirst, when after I killed Holofernes, they invaded his camp and pursued the fleeing Assyrians.
Verse 14: The Sons of Young Women
14. THE SONS OF YOUNG WOMEN — that is, small boys, or youths: for those whose mothers are still girls and young women cannot be grown men or adults: hence it is clear that youths and boys along with men rushed upon the fleeing Assyrians. THEY PIERCED THEM THROUGH — with their knives and small swords.
Verse 17: You Sent Forth Your Spirit
17. YOU SENT FORTH YOUR SPIRIT AND THEY WERE CREATED. — By "Spirit" understand the spirit of His mouth, that is, the word and command by which God, in Genesis 1, spoke and commanded: Let there be sun, moon, birds, fish, etc., and immediately they were made. She alludes to Psalm 32:6: "By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all the power of them by the spirit of His mouth."
Verse 18: The Mountains Shall Be Moved
18. THE MOUNTAINS SHALL BE MOVED FROM THEIR FOUNDATIONS — when God commands it, as if to say: So great is God's power that by a mere nod He can move mountains and melt rocks: and just so He has now overcome the camp of the Assyrians, which seemed insurmountable like high mountains and hard rocks, through me, a woman, and has scattered it by melting it like wax.
Verse 21: Fire and Worms Into Their Flesh
21. FOR HE WILL GIVE FIRE AND WORMS INTO THEIR FLESH, THAT THEY MAY BURN AND FEEL (be tormented) FOREVER. — Hence St. Jerome, Chrysostom, Augustine, Theophilus, Haymo, Lyranus, Abulensis, Dionysius, the Gloss, Ribera, Maldonatus, Serarius, and others hold it probable that in hell there are corporeal worms that gnaw the flesh of the damned, just as there is a real fire burning them: see what was said at Ecclesiastes 7:19, and 10:13, and Isaiah, last chapter, verse 24.
Verse 22: As Soon as They Were Purified
22. AS SOON AS THEY WERE PURIFIED — from the legal uncleanness and irregularity contracted from the slaying of the Assyrians and from contact with the dead, by washing their bodies and garments, according to the law of Numbers 31:24.
23. A MEMORIAL OFFERING. — In Hebrew, חרם (cherem) signifies anathema, that is, a gift torn from profane uses and entirely set apart and consecrated to God. The word "of oblivion" is not in the Greek: whence some think it should be read "of offering," but "of oblivion" is found in all Latin manuscripts, and it fits this passage aptly: for it is called an anathema of oblivion because it was dedicated to God in order to ward off the oblivion of so great a benefit and victory among posterity. So Serarius; or because it brought forgetfulness of the past famine, thirst, and the thousand hardships which the Hebrews had previously suffered from the Assyrians: so Sanchez. Similarly, Joseph called his son "Manasseh," that is, "forgetfulness," saying: "The Lord has made me forget all my labors." Genesis 41:51; and Isaiah, chapter 65, verse 16: "The former troubles have been given to oblivion." On which passage Jerome excellently says: "They will forget former evils, not by a forgetfulness of memory, but by the succession of good things, according to what is written: In the good day there is forgetfulness of evils."
Verse 24: In the Sight of the Sanctuary
24. IN THE SIGHT OF THE SANCTUARY — that is, before the temple or before the synagogue: for this served as a substitute for the temple for those living outside Jerusalem. For in it they prayed together and heard the law of God.
Verse 28: She Remained in Her Husband's House
28. SHE REMAINED (in Greek, "grew old") IN HER HUSBAND'S HOUSE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE YEARS — that is, until the one hundred and fifth year of her age. By a similar expression the Hebrews are said to have dwelt in Egypt 430 years, that is, until the year 430 from the departure of Abraham from Chaldea: for otherwise the Hebrews dwelt in Egypt only 215 years, Exodus 12:40. See what was said there. Therefore some less correctly think that Judith, after she became a widow, lived 105 years; for thus dying she would have been 140 years old or more, which at that time was unusual. The Greek adds that Judith, before she died, divided her property among her own and her husband's relatives. Whence it is clear that she had no children. All the more admirable was her chastity. Let Christians imitate Judith — even princes, who, lest their family die out, change their resolution, even their vow of celibacy, and marry so as to have children as heirs and propagators of the family. Not so Judith — rather, she preferred celibacy to all children. For chastity is nobler than all these things. She was indeed mindful of that divine promise to the eunuchs who castrated themselves of their own will, out of love for God and chastity: "I will give them in My house, and within My walls, a place and a name better than sons and daughters; an everlasting name I will give them that shall not perish." Isaiah 56:5.
Verse 29: All the People Mourned Her
29. AND ALL THE PEOPLE MOURNED HER FOR SEVEN DAYS. — Judith is considered a saint by the Fathers. But the day of her death is not assigned in the Martyrology, because it is unknown. The Ethiopian Church, however, celebrates the feast of Judith on the fourth day of the sixth month, which is called Ebul, says Serarius.
Verse 31: The Day of the Victory
31. AND THE DAY OF THE VICTORY — Judith is assigned in the Hebrew calendar to the 25th of the ninth month, which is called Chislev, on which day likewise the memory of the giving of fire and the Dedication (Hanukkah) of the Maccabees is recalled, according to Genebrardus, Torniellus, Sigonius, and Salianus, who also assigns this eulogy as an epitaph of Judith: "This is that Judith who turned the honeyed eloquence of her tongue, the angelic dignity of her face, her flashing eyes, the cheerfulness of her brow, the crimson of her cheeks, her coral lips, and the majesty of the entire world into weapons and arrows, by which barbarous fury would be captured and vain power laid low. This is that Judith who, though she was a prodigy of beauty, was nonetheless a miracle of chastity, which she cultivated and loved with fastings, prayers, and every bodily affliction, so that, while she flourished in age, lacked children, and abounded in riches and glory, for seventy-five years she shone as a celibate and unstained. From the overthrow of the pride of Holofernes and the shaking of the Babylonian empire, she lived seventy-two years, and in all reached one hundred and five."
Allegorically, Judith is the Blessed Virgin, who frees cities and the faithful devoted to Her from enemy siege, just as She freed Constantinople, dedicated and devoted to Her, in the year of our Lord 717, from a three-year siege by the Saracens, when St. Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople, presided there, to whom therefore Pope Gregory II wrote, in letter 4, saying: "The wondrous deeds of that holy warrioress and Lady of all Christians, which have been manifested in herself, through which you also have been preserved among enemies, are not to be passed over in silence. For when they raged with much madness, they found as much hostile adversity against themselves as the injustice of their cause deserved. Nor is this to be wondered at: for if Bethulia was saved by the hand of Judith for the Israelites, whose work was the removal of Holofernes, and in those times the salvation of Israel was so named on that account: how could it not be fitting that your holiness, relying on such a protectress, should prevail over the enemies of the city, and that victory should crown her, etc."
But especially the Blessed Virgin, as the true Judith, defends Bethulia, which in Hebrew signifies virginity. For She, since She is the Virgin of virgins, protects virgins as Her clients, as She has shown by very many examples in every age, and particularly She preserved unharmed, through Angels or through lions, virgins who were condemned by tyrants to the brothel (which was the greatest torment for them: for they preferred to be condemned to the lion rather than to the pimp, says Tertullian in his Apology); as She preserved St. Agnes, St. Daria, St. Lucy: and so you will scarcely find any of them who was violated. Therefore, when you feel the temptations of the flesh, call upon the Blessed Virgin, and you will come through victorious.
Finally, how beloved and admirable Judith was to posterity and to all ages is clear from the fact that heroines and queens sought the name of Judith and with the name, the imitation of her virtue. Thus the wife of Emperor Louis the Pious, who was the son and successor of Charlemagne, was Judith Augusta, who, having been relegated by adversaries — and especially by Pepin, son of Louis by his first wife Irmingarde — to the monastery of St. Radegund, took the monastic veil upon herself, but was restored to the empire together with her husband Louis by Pope Gregory IV, as Baronius narrates from Marianus Scotus under the year of Christ 834. Judith was likewise the name of the daughter of Charles the Bald, king of the Franks, who, marrying the king of the English, went to England in the year of our Lord 855, as Baronius testifies.
The third Judith was queen of Poland, of whom Baronius writes thus from Longinus, volume 2, under the year of Christ 1007 at the end: "In this same year Judith, queen of Poland, a most holy woman, the wife and helper of King Boleslaus, departed this life for the propagation of piety, to the great grief of all, to reign forever with the blessed." So much about the time from Longinus, who also recounts the illustrious deeds performed by her.
The fourth Judith was the daughter of Emperor Henry and queen of Hungary in the year of Christ 1074, who, unjustly driven from her kingdom, was consoled by Pope Gregory VII in letters addressed to her, in which he lavishly praised her heroic virtue. The letters are extant in Baronius under the year of Christ 1074 at the end.
The fifth Judith was the wife of Count Hermann, a woman of holy life, who departed this life for the heavenly one in the year of our Lord 1095, as Baronius writes.
Juditha, and by contraction Jutta, the sixth was the daughter of the Duke of Saxony, who married Eric, son of the king of Denmark, as is clear from letter 412 of Pope Gregory IX.
Juditha, or Jutta, the seventh was a virgin servant of St. Elizabeth, who was illustrious for miracles both in life and after death.
Juditha, or Jutta, the eighth was a maiden whose virtues and miracles Abraham Bzovius recounts from the Chronicles of Poland under the year of our Lord 1260, in which year she died; where among other things he says: "At last, as the end of her life approached, she was seized by illness (in which she often repeated these words: O how much adversity of health, and misery, and poverty avail for obtaining anything from God — joyful are these things for those who trust in the Lord!) and for the third time she saw Christ the Lord appearing to her with many Angels and other Saints, who invited her to Himself with these words: 'Come now, O my servant, into my kingdom.'"