{N}2,{/}1: Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Nineveh, passes a law demanding to be acknowledged as the only god; people resist. The king sends his armies to force people to comply; he defeats the powerful king of the Medes, but the Jewish people, unlike the others, refuse to submit.

{N}7,{/}19: When a community starts to look only at what is evil, its bad luck, it begins to lose faith in the future and forgets it has means for getting out of the situation.
{C}God has delivered us into the hands of these pagans.{/} The people of Bethulia declare their defeat beforehand because they only see the human side of the situation which is unpleasant, and do not remember God's promise (Lev 26 and Dt 28). They have prayed and have done penance, but in spite of all that, God is deaf to their pleas. The conclusion is obvious: "We are lost."
In their discouragement, they only see their need and do not measure the consequences of what they are doing. They do not think that to surrender to Holofernes and to acknowledge Nebuchadnezzar as God is to disown God. All they see is that it is better to live as slaves than to die.
"I do not get anything by asking; God will not listen to me," is what we usually hear disheartened people say, as the people of Bethulia did. This discouragement is especially contagious when it comes from the father of the family.

{N}8,{/}4: The Lord achieves his plans through the humble; he reveals his plans to the little ones and the humble (Mt 11:25-30). We can observe the Lord's way of doing things throughout the Bible: for example, his choosing David (1 S 16) and something similar in 1 Mac 3:18-22. In spite of her wealth, Judith is an insignificant woman before Holofernes' military power.
{C}Who are you to put God to the test?{/} Faithfulness to God stands out in Judith's speech to the leaders of the city. She reproaches them for wanting to put time limits on God to fulfill their human plans. Today many Christians do the same with their gifts, when they wish to force God to grant them a specific favor.
{C}If the enemies capture us... the whole of Judea will be taken.{/} Those with problems must think not only of their own interest but also of other people's. Judith forces them to think about the rest of the nation and not only about their city, Bethulia. National solidarity compels them to resist. 

{N}12,{/}10: In the dialogue between Judith and Holofernes, note how Judith says "my Lord" giving these words a double meaning. She does not lie, but she speaks in such a way that Holofernes takes it for himself meanwhile Judith means her Lord.

{N}13,{/}1: The whole account that follows emphasizes the vigilant love of God who intervenes when it is necessary and who safely conducts our enterprises, even those apparently doomed to failure when we risk everything to save our brothers and sisters. In this sense it is true. We shall note however, that the trickery of Judith and the incredible rout of the Assyrians after the death of Holofernes are a dream of childish powerlessness. The account was composed after the time of the Maccabees from the memories of a crushed people, unable to resist the oppressor; it originated in the migrant Jewish communities who had lost their taste and capability for an armed struggle. The old dream of a magic resource rises again; here we have a miraculous intervention of God capable of overturning all situations and crushing evil forever.
Here it is easy to see a mixture of the human and the divine: limitless trust in God and the fabulous dreams of a child. Here once more the cross of Jesus and his resurrection, so strong and so discreet, will keep us within reality.
The account rings true however when the triumph of Judith makes little of the prestige and venerability of men, elders or priests, who pass for the leaders of God's people. It is an act of reparation in favor of women in a thoroughly macho society: God has no thought for these alleged valiant or honored men; all they have to do is applaud an untitled woman.

{N}13,{/}18: {C}May the Most High God bless you more than all women on earth. {/}Luke will remember these words and will adapt them for Mary (Lk 1:42). With Luke we easily see in Judith's victory the image of another victory in which Mary "crushed the head of the serpent" in perfectly welcoming the Son of God and his patient work to redeem the world from the Devil's hands, as the Bible had announced (Gen 3:15). The hymn we refer to: {C}You are the glory of Israel{/} speaks more truly of Mary than of Judith.

