Font Size
Judith 4:1-2
New Catholic Bible
Judith 4:1-2
New Catholic Bible
Campaign against Bethulia
The Israelites Prepare To Resist[a]
Chapter 4
Defensive Preparations. 1 When the Israelites living in Judea heard of everything that Holofernes, the commander-in-chief of King Nebuchadnezzar, had done to the nations, and how he had pillaged and destroyed all their temples, 2 they were filled with unspeakable dread at his approach and greatly concerned over the fate of Jerusalem and of the temple of the Lord, their God.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Judith 4:1 The very center of religious life, the temple, is threatened. The author clearly combines the remembrance of the Babylonian Exile and recent history. The whole fate of Israel depends on Bethulia, the unknown city that receives the mission to stop the invader. It is imagined as an inaccessible fortress that bars the way to Jerusalem. The name may have been selected because it evokes “Bethel,” that is, the “house of God.” The other localities seem to have been freely taken from the accounts of Joshua’s conquests (Jos 6:1; 10:10; 11:1).
