What does Judith Chapter 3 record?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The envoys offer service and their possessions, saying it is preferable to death or the miseries of slavery. The welcoming festivities do not mitigate Holofernes’s fierceness; he destroys cities and cuts groves under the king’s command. He stays thirty days in the land of Gabaa and commands the army’s troops to unite.

Chapter breakdown

Terrified by the destruction wrought across the region, the kings and princes of all the cities and provinces of Syria, Mesopotamia, Syria Sobal, Libya, and Cilicia sent ambassadors to Holofernes to plead for peace. Presenting themselves before the general, the envoys begged that his indignation toward them would cease. They stated that it was better for them to live in servitude to King Nabuchodonosor and subjection to Holofernes than to die, perish, or endure the miseries of slavery. They surrendered everything into his hands: their cities, possessions, mountains, hills, fields, herds of oxen, flocks of sheep, goats, horses, camels, personal goods, and families. They offered that all they possessed be made subject to his law, pledged that they and their children would serve him, and begged him to come among them as a peaceable lord, using their service as it pleased him.

Holofernes descended from the mountains with a powerful force of cavalry, making himself master over every city and all the inhabitants of the land. From each city, he took valiant men chosen for war to serve as auxiliaries in his army. So great a dread lay upon all those provinces that the princes, nobles, and common people went out to meet him upon his arrival. They received the Assyrian general with festive honors, with garlands and lights, dancing, and playing timbrels and flutes.

Despite these elaborate demonstrations of submission, they could not soften the fierce cruelty of his heart. Holofernes both destroyed their cities and cut down their groves. This destruction carried out a direct command of King Nabuchodonosor, who had ordered him to eradicate all the gods of the earth so that Nabuchodonosor alone might be called God by every nation brought under his dominion through Holofernes's power.

Holofernes continued his march through all Syria Sobal, all Apamea, and all Mesopotamia, until he arrived among the Idumeans in the land of Gabaa. He seized possession of their cities and remained encamped there for thirty days, during which time he commanded all the troops of his army to be united.

The story inside

Context and action: The envoys offer service and their possessions, saying it is preferable to death or the miseries of slavery. Response: The welcoming festivities do not mitigate Holofernes’s fierceness; he destroys cities and cuts groves under the king’s command. Recorded continuation: He stays thirty days in the land of Gabaa and commands the army’s troops to unite.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The envoys offer service and their possessions, saying it is preferable to death or the miseries of slavery.
2
The welcoming festivities do not mitigate Holofernes’s fierceness; he destroys cities and cuts groves under the king’s command.
3
He stays thirty days in the land of Gabaa and commands the army’s troops to unite.

Test your recall

What stated command explains the destruction despite the welcome?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 51772–51774
Let thy indignation towards us cease, for it is better for us to live and serve Nabuchodonosor the great king, and be subject to thee, than to die and to perish, or suffer the miseries of slavery.
Lines 51798–51799
And received him with garlands, and lights, and dances, and timbrels, and flutes.
Lines 51806–51808
For Nabuchodonosor the king had commanded him to destroy all the gods of the earth, that he only might be called God by those nations which could be brought under him by the power of Holofernes.
Lines 51813–51815
And he took possession of their cities, and stayed there for thirty days, in which days he commanded all the troops of his army to be united.