(4) Death of Holofernes. Taking advantage of her opportunity, while he is sunk in sleep, she seizes his falchion and strikes off his head. Giving it to her maid, who was outside the tent door, she leaves the camp as usual, under pretense of devotion, and returns to Bethulia, dis playing the head of Holofernes.
The Israelites, next morning, fall on the As syrians, who, panic-struck at the loss of their general, are soon discomfited, leaving an immcnse spoil in the hands of their enemies. The whole concludes with the triumphal song of Judith, who accompanies all the people to Jerusalem to give thanks to the Lord. After this she returns to her native. city Bethulia, gives freedom to her maid, and dies at the advanced age of los years. The Jews enjoying a profound and happy peace, a yearly festival (according to the Vulgate) is instituted in honor of the victory.
(5) Difficulties of the Story. The difficulties, historical, chronological, and geographical, com prised in the narrative of Judith are so numerous and serious as to be held by many divines alto gether insuperable. Events, times, and manners are said to he confounded, and the chronology of the times before and those after the exile, of the Persian and Assyrian, and even of the Maccabwan period, confusedly and unaccountably blended.
The authorship of the book is as uncertain as its date. It is not named either by Philo or Jo sephus ; nor have we any indication whatever by which to form a conjecture respecting its au thor.
The original language is uncertain. Eichhorn and Jahn (Introduction) and Seiler (Biblical Hermeneutics), with whom is Bertholdt, conceive it to have been Greek. Calmet states on the au thority of Origen (Ep. ad African.) that the Jews had the book of Judith in Hebrew in his time. Jerome (Pref. to Judith) states that it is written in Chaldee, from which he translated it, with the aid of an interpreter, giving rather the sense than the words.
2. Influence. Although the book of Judith never formed part of the Jewish canon (see DEU TERO-CANONICAL), and finds no place in the an cient catalogues, its influence in the Christian church has been very great. (See APOCRYPHA.) The book of Judith is supposed by some to be referred to by St. Paul (i Cor. x :9, ro; comp. with Judith yiii :24. 25). Judith, with the other deutero-canonical books, has been at all times read in the church, and lessons are taken from it in the Church of England in course. ("G. B.," in the Journal of Sac. Lit., July, 1856; Cowper, The Book of Judith and Its Geography, in the same journal, January 1861.) W. W.