Judith 12 • Judith's observance and the banquet — Greek text and reception
Each card preserves the Greek reading and its textual and reception notes. This source provides a Greek study edition; Hebrew counterparts and Hebrew–Greek classifications are not supplied.
Chapter 12 • Judith's observance and the banquet
Verse 12:1
Greek–English Saints Priority
He ordered her to be brought where his silverware was kept and directed that a meal from his own delicacies be laid before her and that she drink his wine.
Textual & Reception Notes
The chamber's silver objects are explicit.
Verse 12:2
Greek–English Saints Priority
Judith said, “I will not eat from them, lest it become a stumbling block. Provision will be made from what has accompanied me.”
Textual & Reception Notes
The concern is religious transgression, expressed by stumbling block; her own provisions were listed in chapter ten.
Verse 12:3
Greek–English Saints Priority
Holofernes said to her, “If what you have with you runs out, where shall we bring you more of the same? No one of your race is with us.”
Textual & Reception Notes
No one supplies the elliptical final clause.
Verse 12:4
Greek–English Saints Priority
Judith said to him, “As your life lives, my lord, your slave woman will not use up what is with me before the Lord accomplishes by my hand what He has planned.”
Textual & Reception Notes
Human my lord and divine the Lord have distinct referents. The oath concerns Holofernes' life.
Verse 12:5
Greek–English Saints Priority
Holofernes' attendants brought her into the tent. She slept until the middle of the night and rose toward the morning watch.
Textual & Reception Notes
Both temporal indications are retained without forcing them into a single instant.
Verse 12:6
Greek–English Saints Priority
She sent to Holofernes, saying, “Let my lord order that your slave woman be permitted to go out for prayer.”
Textual & Reception Notes
Verse 12:7
Greek–English Saints Priority
Holofernes commanded his bodyguards not to hinder her. She remained in the camp three days, and each night she went out into the ravine of Bethulia and bathed in the camp at the water spring.
Textual & Reception Notes
The entire three-day paragraph belongs to source verse seven. ἐβαπτίζετο describes bathing or immersion here; no Christian baptismal rite is inserted. In the camp retains the source's location phrase.
Verse 12:8
Greek–English Saints Priority
When she came up, she prayed to the Lord God of Israel to direct her way toward the raising up of the sons of His people.
Textual & Reception Notes
The raising-up language concerns the people's recovery; a later doctrinal sense is not imposed.
Verse 12:9
Greek–English Saints Priority
She entered clean and remained in the tent until she took her food toward evening.
Textual & Reception Notes
Clean follows the bathing and prayer; the text does not specify the full ritual rationale.
Verse 12:10
Greek–English Saints Priority
On the fourth day Holofernes held a drinking feast for his slaves alone and invited none of those engaged in official duties.
Textual & Reception Notes
The distinction between the private company and other personnel is contextual; the source does not identify individual excluded offices.
Verse 12:11
Greek–English Saints Priority
He said to Bagoas the eunuch, who was in charge of all his affairs, “Go and persuade the Hebrew woman who is with you to come to us and eat and drink with us.
Textual & Reception Notes
Eunuch is explicit, not replaced by a generic officer.
Verse 12:12
Greek–English Saints Priority
It would be shameful for us to let such a woman go without having intercourse with her. If we do not draw her to ourselves, she will laugh at us.”
Textual & Reception Notes
ὁμιλέω has a sexual sense in this context, confirmed by verse sixteen; the predatory intent is not concealed.
Verse 12:13
Greek–English Saints Priority
Bagoas went out from Holofernes' presence, came to her, and said, “Let this beautiful maid not hesitate to come to my lord and be honored before him, to drink wine with us in gladness, and to become today like one of the daughters of the sons of Asshur who stand in the house of Nebuchadnezzar.”
Textual & Reception Notes
The invitation presents the feast as honor and royal association.
Verse 12:14
Greek–English Saints Priority
Judith said to him, “Who am I to contradict my lord? I will hasten to do whatever is pleasing in his eyes, and it will be a joy to me until the day of my death.”
Textual & Reception Notes
Her deferential promise is retained within the strategy already disclosed.
Verse 12:15
Greek–English Saints Priority
She rose and adorned herself with her clothing and all her feminine ornaments. Her slave woman came and spread on the ground before Holofernes the fleeces she had received from Bagoas for her daily use, to recline upon them while eating.
Textual & Reception Notes
κῴδια denotes fleeces or sheepskins, retained as the seating material.
Verse 12:16
Greek–English Saints Priority
Judith entered and reclined. Holofernes' heart was beside itself over her, his soul was shaken, and he intensely desired to have intercourse with her. From the day he saw her he had been watching for an opportunity to deceive her.
Textual & Reception Notes
His sexual desire and intended deception are both explicit.
Verse 12:17
Greek–English Saints Priority
Holofernes said to her, “Drink now and be merry with us.”
Textual & Reception Notes
Verse 12:18
Greek–English Saints Priority
Judith said, “I will drink, my lord, because today my life has been magnified within me beyond all the days since my birth.”
Textual & Reception Notes
The exuberant life-language is retained rather than reduced to an uncomplicated compliment to him.
Verse 12:19
Greek–English Saints Priority
She took and ate and drank before him what her slave woman had prepared.
Textual & Reception Notes
Her food remains her own provisions. Saints: Ambrose, Concerning Widows 7.40, contrasts Judith's sobriety with the drunken commander and says she did not drink. That retelling is distinguished from this Greek verse, which explicitly says she drank her own provisions [AMB-WID].
Verse 12:20
Greek–English Saints Priority
Holofernes was delighted with her and drank an exceedingly great amount of wine, more than he had ever drunk in a single day since he was born.
Textual & Reception Notes
The unprecedented excess prepares the next scene.