Insurrection against Gedaliah

41 In the seventh month, Ish′mael the son of Nethani′ah, son of Elish′ama, of the royal family, one of the chief officers of the king, came with ten men to Gedali′ah the son of Ahi′kam, at Mizpah. As they ate bread together there at Mizpah, ² Ish′mael the son of Nethani′ah and the ten men with him rose up and struck down Gedali′ah the son of Ahi′kam, son of Shaphan, with the sword, and killed him, whom the king of Babylon had appointed governor in the land. ³ Ish′mael also slew all the Jews who were with Gedali′ah at Mizpah, and the Chalde′an soldiers who happened to be there.

⁴ On the day after the murder of Gedali′ah, before any one knew of it, ⁵ eighty men arrived from Shechem and Shiloh and Samar′ia, with their beards shaved and their clothes torn, and their bodies gashed, bringing cereal offerings and incense to present at the temple of the Lord. ⁶ And Ish′mael the son of Nethani′ah came out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he came. As he met them, he said to them, “Come in to Gedali′ah the son of Ahi′kam.” ⁷ When they came into the city, Ish′mael the son of Nethani′ah and the men with him slew them, and cast them into a cistern. ⁸ But there were ten men among them who said to Ish′mael, “Do not kill us, for we have stores of wheat, barley, oil, and honey hidden in the fields.” So he refrained and did not kill them with their companions.

⁹ Now the cistern into which Ish′mael cast all the bodies of the men whom he had slain was the large cistern^[a] which King Asa had made for defense against Ba′asha king of Israel; Ish′mael the son of Nethani′ah filled it with the slain. ¹⁰ Then Ish′mael took captive all the rest of the people who were in Mizpah, the king’s daughters and all the people who were left at Mizpah, whom Nebu′zarad′an, the captain of the guard, had committed to Gedali′ah the son of Ahi′kam. Ish′mael the son of Nethani′ah took them captive and set out to cross over to the Ammonites.

¹¹ But when Joha′nan the son of Kare′ah and all the leaders of the forces with him heard of all the evil which Ish′mael the son of Nethani′ah had done, ¹² they took all their men and went to fight against Ish′mael the son of Nethani′ah. They came upon him at the great pool which is in Gib′eon. ¹³ And when all the people who were with Ish′mael saw Joha′nan the son of Kare′ah and all the leaders of the forces with him, they rejoiced. ¹⁴ So all the people whom Ish′mael had carried away captive from Mizpah turned about and came back, and went to Joha′nan the son of Kare′ah. ¹⁵ But Ish′mael the son of Nethani′ah escaped from Joha′nan with eight men, and went to the Ammonites. ¹⁶ Then Joha′nan the son of Kare′ah and all the leaders of the forces with him took all the rest of the people whom Ish′mael the son of Nethani′ah had carried away captive^[b] from Mizpah after he had slain Gedali′ah the son of Ahi′kam—soldiers, women, children, and eunuchs, whom Joha′nan brought back from Gib′eon. ¹⁷ And they went and stayed at Geruth Chimham near Bethlehem, intending to go to Egypt ¹⁸ because of the Chalde′ans; for they were afraid of them, because Ish′mael the son of Nethani′ah had slain Gedali′ah the son of Ahi′kam, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land.

Jeremiah Advises Survivors Not to Migrate

42 Then all the commanders of the forces, and Joha′nan the son of Kare′ah and Azari′ah^[c] the son of Hoshai′ah, and all the people from the least to the greatest, came near ² and said to Jeremiah the prophet, “Let our supplication come before you, and pray to the Lord your God for us, for all this remnant (for we are left but a few of many, as your eyes see us), ³ that the Lord your God may show us the way we should go, and the thing that we should do.” ⁴ Jeremiah the prophet said to them, “I have heard you; behold, I will pray to the Lord your God according to your request, and whatever the Lord answers you I will tell you; I will keep nothing back from you.” ⁵ Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to all the word with which the Lord your God sends you to us. ⁶ Whether it is good or evil, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God.”

⁷ At the end of ten days the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. ⁸ Then he summoned Joha′nan the son of Kare′ah and all the commanders of the forces who were with him, and all the people from the least to the greatest, ⁹ and said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your supplication before him: ¹⁰ If you will remain in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I repent of the evil which I did to you. ¹¹ Do not fear the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; do not fear him, says the Lord, for I am with you, to save you and to deliver you from his hand. ¹² I will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and let you remain in your own land. ¹³ But if you say, ‘We will not remain in this land,’ disobeying the voice of the Lord your God ¹⁴ and saying, ‘No, we will go to the land of Egypt, where we shall not see war, or hear the sound of the trumpet, or be hungry for bread, and we will dwell there,’ ¹⁵ then hear the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: If you set your faces to enter Egypt and go to live there, ¹⁶ then the sword which you fear shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt; and the famine of which you are afraid shall follow hard after you to Egypt; and there you shall die. ¹⁷ All the men who set their faces to go to Egypt to live there shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; they shall have no remnant or survivor from the evil which I will bring upon them.

¹⁸ “For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: As my anger and my wrath were poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so my wrath will be poured out on you when you go to Egypt. You shall become an execration, a horror, a curse, and a taunt. You shall see this place no more. ¹⁹ The Lord has said to you, O remnant of Judah, ‘Do not go to Egypt.’ Know for a certainty that I have warned you this day ²⁰ that you have gone astray at the cost of your lives. For you sent me to the Lord your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to the Lord our God, and whatever the Lord our God says declare to us and we will do it.’ ²¹ And I have this day declared it to you, but you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God in anything that he sent me to tell you. ²² Now therefore know for a certainty that you shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go to live.”

Judith as a Guest of Holofernes

12 Then he commanded them to bring her in where his silver dishes were kept, and ordered them to set a table for her with some of his own food and to serve her with his own wine. ² But Judith said, “I cannot eat it, lest it be an offense; but I will be provided from the things I have brought with me.” ³ Holofer′nes said to her, “If your supply runs out, where can we get more like it for you? For none of your people is here with us.” ⁴ Judith replied, “As your soul lives, my lord, your servant will not use up the things I have with me before the Lord carries out by my hand what he has determined to do.”

⁵ Then the servants of Holofer′nes brought her into the tent, and she slept until midnight. Along toward the morning watch she arose ⁶ and sent to Holofer′nes and said, “Let my lord now command that your servant be permitted to go out and pray.” ⁷ So Holofer′nes commanded his guards not to hinder her. And she remained in the camp for three days, and went out each night to the valley of Bethu′lia, and bathed at the spring in the camp.^{[a] 8} When she came up from the spring she prayed the Lord God of Israel to direct her way for the raising up of her people. ⁹ So she returned clean and stayed in the tent until she ate her food toward evening.

Judith Attends Holofernes’ Banquet

¹⁰ On the fourth day Holofer′nes held a banquet for his slaves only, and did not invite any of his officers. ¹¹ And he said to Bago′as, the eunuch who had charge of all his personal affairs, “Go now and persuade the Hebrew woman who is in your care to join us and eat and drink with us. ¹² For it will be a disgrace if we let such a woman go without enjoying her company, for if we do not embrace her she will laugh at us.” ¹³ So Bago′as went out from the presence of Holofer′nes, and approached her and said, “This beautiful maidservant will please come to my lord and be honored in his presence, and drink wine and be merry with us, and become today like one of the daughters of the Assyrians who serve in the house of Nebuchadnez′zar.” ¹⁴ And Judith said, “Who am I, to refuse my lord? Surely whatever pleases him I will do at once, and it will be a joy to me until the day of my death!” ¹⁵ So she got up and arrayed herself in all her woman’s finery, and her maid went and spread on the ground for her before Holofer′nes the soft fleeces which she had received from Bago′as for her daily use, so that she might recline on them when she ate.

¹⁶ Then Judith came in and lay down, and Holofer′nes’ heart was ravished with her and he was moved with great desire to possess her; for he had been waiting for an opportunity to deceive her, ever since the day he first saw her. ¹⁷ So Holofer′nes said to her. “Drink now, and be merry with us!” ¹⁸ Judith said, “I will drink now, my lord, because my life means more to me today than in all the days since I was born.” ¹⁹ Then she took and ate and drank before him what her maid had prepared. ²⁰ And Holofer′nes was greatly pleased with her, and drank a great quantity of wine, much more than he had ever drunk in any one day since he was born.

Judith Beheads Holofernes

13 When evening came, his slaves quickly withdrew, and Bago′as closed the tent from outside and shut out the attendants from his master’s presence; and they went to bed, for they all were weary because the banquet had lasted long. ² So Judith was left alone in the tent , with Holofer′nes stretched out on his bed, for he was overcome with wine.

³ Now Judith had told her maid to stand outside the bedchamber and to wait for her to come out, as she did every day; for she said she would be going out for her prayers. And she had said the same thing to Bago′as. ⁴ So every one went out, and no one, either small or great, was left in the bedchamber. Then Judith, standing beside his bed, said in her heart, “O Lord God of all might, look in this hour upon the work of my hands for the exaltation of Jerusalem. ⁵ For now is the time to help thy inheritance, and to carry out my undertaking for the destruction of the enemies who have risen up against us.”

⁶ She went up to the post at the end of the bed, above Holofer′nes’ head, and took down his sword that hung there. ⁷ She came close to his bed and took hold of the hair of his head, and said, “Give me strength this day, O Lord God of Israel!” ⁸ And she struck his neck twice with all her might, and severed his head from his body. ⁹ Then she tumbled his body off the bed and pulled down the canopy from the posts; after a moment she went out, and gave Holofer′nes’ head to her maid, ¹⁰ who placed it in her food bag.

Judith Returns to Bethulia

Then the two of them went out together, as they were accustomed to go for prayer; and they passed through the camp and circled around the valley and went up the mountain to Bethu′lia and came to its gates. ¹¹ Judith called out from afar to the watchmen at the gates, “Open, open the gate! God, our God, is still with us, to show his power in Israel, and his strength against our enemies, even as he has done this day!”

¹² When the men of her city heard her voice, they hurried down to the city gate and called together the elders of the city. ¹³ They all ran together, both small and great, for it was unbelievable that she had returned; they opened the gate and admitted them, and they kindled a fire for light, and gathered around them. ¹⁴ Then she said to them with a loud voice, “Praise God, O praise him! Praise God, who has not withdrawn his mercy from the house of Israel, but has destroyed our enemies by my hand this very night!”

¹⁵ Then she took the head out of the bag and showed it to them, and said, “See, here is the head of Holofer′nes, the commander of the Assyrian army, and here is the canopy beneath which he lay in his drunken stupor. The Lord has struck him down by the hand of a woman. ¹⁶ As the Lord lives, who has protected me in the way I went, it was my face that tricked him to his destruction, and yet he committed no act of sin with me, to defile and shame me.”

¹⁷ All the people were greatly astonished, and bowed down and worshiped God, and said with one accord, “Blessed art thou, our God, who hast brought into contempt this day the enemies of thy people.”

¹⁸ And Uzzi′ah said to her, “O daughter, you are blessed by the Most High God above all women on earth; and blessed be the Lord God, who created the heavens and the earth, who has guided you to strike the head of the leader of our enemies. ¹⁹ Your hope will never depart from the hearts of men, as they remember the power of God. ²⁰ May God grant this to be a perpetual honor to you, and may he visit you with blessings, because you did not spare your own life when our nation was brought low, but have avenged our ruin, walking in the straight path before our God.” And all the people said, “So be it, so be it!”^[b]

Judith’s Counsel

14 Then Judith said to them, “Listen to me, my brethren, and take this head and hang it upon the parapet of your wall. ² And as soon as morning comes and the sun rises, let every valiant man take his weapons and go out of the city, and set a captain over them, as if you were going down to the plain against the Assyrian outpost; only do not go down. ³ Then they will seize their arms and go into the camp and rouse the officers of the Assyrian army; and they will rush into the tent of Holofer′nes, and will not find him. Then fear will come over them, and they will flee before you, ⁴ and you and all who live within the borders of Israel shall pursue them and cut them down as they flee. ⁵ But before you do all this, bring Ach′ior the Am′monite to me, and let him see and recognize the man who despised the house of Israel and sent him to us as if to his death.”

⁶ So they summoned Ach′ior from the house of Uzzi′ah. And when he came and saw the head of Holofer′nes in the hand of one of the men at the gathering of the people, he fell down on his face and his spirit failed him. ⁷ And when they raised him up he fell at Judith’s feet, and knelt before her, and said, “Blessed are you in every tent of Judah! In every nation those who hear your name will be alarmed. ⁸ Now tell me what you have done during these days.”

Then Judith described to him in the presence of the people all that she had done, from the day she left until the moment of her speaking to them. ⁹ And when she had finished, the people raised a great shout and made a joyful noise in their city. ¹⁰ And when Ach′ior saw all that the God of Israel had done, he believed firmly in God, and was circumcised, and joined the house of Israel, remaining so to this day.

Holofernes’ Death Is Discovered

¹¹ As soon as it was dawn they hung the head of Holofer′nes on the wall, and every man took his weapons, and they went out in companies to the passes in the mountains. ¹² And when the Assyrians saw them they sent word to their commanders, and they went to the generals and the captains and to all their officers. ¹³ So they came to Holofer′nes’ tent and said to the steward in charge of all his personal affairs, “Wake up our lord, for the slaves have been so bold as to come down against us to give battle, in order to be destroyed completely.”

¹⁴ So Bago′as went in and knocked at the door of the tent, for he supposed that he was sleeping with Judith. ¹⁵ But when no one answered, he opened it and went into the bedchamber and found him thrown down on the platform dead, with his head cut off and missing. ¹⁶ And he cried out with a loud voice and wept and groaned and shouted, and rent his garments. ¹⁷ Then he went to the tent where Judith had stayed, and when he did not find her he rushed out to the people and shouted, ¹⁸ “The slaves have tricked us! One Hebrew woman has brought disgrace upon the house of King Nebuchadnez′zar! For look, here is Holofer′nes lying on the ground, and his head is not on him!”

¹⁹ When the leaders of the Assyrian army heard this, they rent their tunics and were greatly dismayed, and their loud cries and shouts arose in the midst of the camp.