Susanna 28-46

Common English Bible

²⁸ The next day when the people came to her husband Joakim, the two elders came too, full of their immoral scheme to have Susanna killed. They said in front of the people, ²⁹ “Call Susanna, Hilkiah’s daughter, who is married to Joakim.” So they called her in. ³⁰ She came with her parents, her children, and all her relatives.

³¹ Now Susanna was elegant, beautiful in appearance. ³² The criminals ordered the veil that she was wearing to be removed so they could soak in her beauty. ³³ But her household and all who saw her were crying. ³⁴ Upon taking the stand in front of everybody, the elders laid their hands on Susanna’s head to give testimony.^{[a] 35} But she looked up to heaven while crying because she trusted the Lord.

³⁶ The elders said, “While we were walking around the large garden by ourselves, this woman came in with two female servants. She locked the gates of the garden and sent away the female servants. ³⁷ Then a young man, who had been hiding, came and lay with her. ³⁸ We were in a corner of the garden, and when we saw this lawless act, we went running to them. ³⁹ We saw them having sex, but we couldn’t hold on to the man because he was stronger than we were. He opened the gates and ran away. ⁴⁰ So we grabbed this woman and asked who the young man was, ⁴¹ but she wouldn’t tell us. To this we swear.”

The assembly believed them because they were the people’s elders and judges. So they sentenced Susanna to death.

⁴² Susanna screamed out: “Eternal God, you know what is hidden; you see everything before it happens. ⁴³ You know they’ve lied in this court about me! Look, I’m going to die, although I didn’t do any of the things these men accuse in their malice!”

⁴⁴ The Lord heard her cry. ⁴⁵ As she was being led away to die, God stirred up the holy spirit of a young man named Daniel. ⁴⁶ He shouted out loud, “I’m innocent of this woman’s blood!”