Judith 16
1 Then Judith began to sing this
thanksgiving in all Israel, and all the people sang after her this song of
praise.
2 And Judith said,
Begin unto my God with timbrels, sing unto my Lord with cymbals: tune unto him
a new psalm: exalt him, and call upon his name.
3 For God breaketh the battles: for
among the camps in the midst of the people he hath delivered me out of the
hands of them that persecuted me.
4 Assur came out of the mountains from
the north, he came with ten thousands of his army, the multitude whereof
stopped the torrents, and their horsemen have covered the hills.
5 He bragged that he would burn up my
borders, and kill my young men with the sword, and dash the sucking children
against the ground, and make mine infants as a prey, and my virgins as a
spoil.
6 But the Almighty Lord hath
disappointed them by the hand of a woman.
7 For the mighty one did not fall by
the young men, neither did the sons of the Titans smite him, nor high giants
set upon him: but Judith the daughter of Merari weakened him with the beauty
of her countenance. 8 For she put off
the garment of her widowhood for the exaltation of those that were oppressed
in Israel, and anointed her face with ointment, and bound her hair in a tire,
and took a linen garment to deceive him.
9 Her sandals ravished his eyes, her
beauty took his mind prisoner, and the fauchion passed through his neck.
10 The Persians quaked at her
boldness, and the Medes were daunted at her hardiness.
11 Then my afflicted shouted for joy,
and my weak ones cried aloud; but they were astonished: these lifted up their
voices, but they were overthrown.
12 The sons of the damsels have
pierced them through, and wounded them as fugitives' children: they perished
by the battle of my Lord.
13 I will sing unto my God a new
song: O Lord, thou art great and glorious, wonderful in strength, and
invincible. 14 Let all creatures
serve thee: for thou spakest, and they were made: thou didst send forth thy
spirit, and it created them, and there is none that can resist thy voice.
15 For the mountains shall be moved
from their foundations with the waters, the rocks shall melt as wax at thy
presence: yet thou art merciful to them that fear thee.
16 For all sacrifice is too little
for a sweet savour unto thee, and all the fat is not sufficient for thy burnt
offering: but he that feareth the Lord is great at all times.
17 Woe to the nations that rise up
against my kindred! the Lord Almighty will take vengeance of them in the day
of judgment, in putting fire and worms in their flesh; and they shall feel
them, and weep for ever.
18 Now as soon as they entered into
Jerusalem, they worshipped the Lord; and as soon as the people were purified,
they offered their burnt offerings, and their free offerings, and their gifts.
19 Judith also dedicated all the
stuff of Holofernes, which the people had given her, and gave the canopy which
she had taken out of his bedchamber, for a gift unto God.
20 So the people continued feasting
in Jerusalem before the sanctuary for the space of three months, and Judith
remained with them.
21 After this time every one returned
to his own inheritance, and Judith went to Bethulia, and remained in her own
possession, and was in her time honourable in all the country.
22 And many desired her, but none
knew her all the days of her life, after that Manasses her husband was dead,
and was gathered to his people.
23 But she increased more and more in
honour, and waxed old in her husband's house, being an hundred and five years
old, and made her maid free; so she died in Bethulia: and they buried her in
the cave of her husband Manasses.
24 And the house of Israel lamented
her seven days: and before she died, she did distribute her goods to all them
that were nearest of kindred to Manasses her husband, and to them that were
the nearest of her kindred. 25 And
there was none that made the children of Israel any more afraid in the days of
Judith, nor a long time after her death.