EvangelistEnduring thanksgiving

Judith 16 • Judith's hymn and final years — Greek text and reception

Saints Translation: Judith 1–16 [V1]

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 16 • Judith's hymn and final years

Judith’s hymn

Verse 16:1

Greek–English Saints Priority

Judith said:

“Begin for my God with tambourines;

sing to the Lord with cymbals.

Tune a psalm and praise for Him;

exalt and call upon His name.

Textual & Reception Notes

Poetic lineation follows the main divisions displayed by the publisher; the chapter's narrative introduction is retained.

Verse 16:2

Greek–English Saints Priority

For the Lord is a God who shatters wars;

for into His camps, in the midst of the people,

He rescued me from the hand of those pursuing me.

Textual & Reception Notes

Into His camps preserves εἰς παρεμβολὰς αὐτοῦ as displayed; its exact syntactic attachment is difficult and remains a review question.

Verse 16:3

Greek–English Saints Priority

Asshur came from the mountains, from the north;

he came with the tens of thousands of his army.

Their multitude blocked the torrents,

and their cavalry covered the hills.

Textual & Reception Notes

Tens of thousands renders μυριάδες rather than inserting a new exact total.

Verse 16:4

Greek–English Saints Priority

He said he would burn my territories,

kill my young men with the sword,

dash my nursing infants to the ground,

give my little children to plunder,

and seize my virgins as spoil.

Textual & Reception Notes

All five threats are retained; the speaker's my identifies with the people.

Verse 16:5

Greek–English Saints Priority

The Lord Almighty thwarted them

by the hand of a woman.

Textual & Reception Notes

Verse 16:6

Greek–English Saints Priority

Their mighty man did not fall beneath young men;

sons of Titans did not strike him,

nor did towering giants attack him.

Rather, Judith daughter of Merari

undid him by the beauty of her face.

Textual & Reception Notes

Titans and giants are distinct images in the Greek and are not reduced to ordinary soldiers.

Verse 16:7

Greek–English Saints Priority

For she took off the garment of her widowhood

to exalt those suffering in Israel;

she anointed her face with perfume

Textual & Reception Notes

The hymn presents her adornment as serving the afflicted community.

Verse 16:8

Greek–English Saints Priority

and bound her hair in a headdress;

she took a linen garment to deceive him.

Textual & Reception Notes

Linen is explicitly named in the hymn.

Verse 16:9

Greek–English Saints Priority

Her sandal seized his eye,

her beauty took his soul captive,

and the short sword passed through his neck.

Textual & Reception Notes

The sandal, captivated soul, and weapon form the source's sequence.

Verse 16:10

Greek–English Saints Priority

Persians shuddered at her daring,

and Medes were shaken by her boldness.

Textual & Reception Notes

Persians and Medes are explicitly named here, without being harmonized to Assyrians.

Verse 16:11

Greek–English Saints Priority

Then my humble ones shouted;

my weak ones were afraid and terrified.

They raised their voice and were overthrown.

Textual & Reception Notes

The publisher displays ἐφοβήθησαν (were afraid) and ἀνετράπησαν (were overthrown). The subject sequence is difficult, and this close provisional rendering leaves it unresolved. Bullard–Hatton discuss an alternative shouted reading and rearranged subjects, but their textual evidence is indirect here. No change is adopted from a modern translation or an uncollated witness [UBS-JDT1611].

Verse 16:12

Greek–English Saints Priority

Sons of young girls pierced them through;

they wounded them like children of deserters.

They perished before the battle line of my Lord.

Textual & Reception Notes

The unusual sons of young girls and children of deserters preserve the displayed nouns. The subjects of the final they differ contextually from the victorious attackers; the compact poetic sequence warrants review.

Verse 16:13

Greek–English Saints Priority

I will sing a new hymn to my God:

Lord, You are great and glorious,

wonderful in strength, unsurpassable.

Textual & Reception Notes

Verse 16:14

Greek–English Saints Priority

Let all Your creation serve You,

for You spoke, and they came to be.

You sent Your Spirit, which built them;

no one will resist Your voice.

Textual & Reception Notes

Built retains ᾠκοδόμησεν; them is supplied as its creation-related object. Spirit translates πνεῦμα, also capable of meaning breath. The rendering identifies God's creative action without claiming that this verse resolves later terminology for the Spirit.

Verse 16:15

Greek–English Saints Priority

For mountains will be shaken from their foundations with the waters,

and rocks will melt like wax before You.

But toward those who fear You,

You will be gracious.

Textual & Reception Notes

εὐιλατεύω expresses favorable or gracious disposition here; it is not a human propitiatory act.

Verse 16:16

Greek–English Saints Priority

Every sacrifice is a small thing for a pleasing fragrance,

and all fat is a very small thing for a burnt offering to You;

but whoever fears the Lord is great at all times.

Textual & Reception Notes

The comparison of offerings with reverent obedience is retained without adding a prohibition on sacrifice.

Verse 16:17

Greek–English Saints Priority

Woe to the nations that rise against my race!

The Lord Almighty will take vengeance on them on the day of judgment,

putting fire and worms into their flesh;

they will weep in conscious suffering forever.”

Textual & Reception Notes

ἐν αἰσθήσει denotes sensation or awareness in the punishment; suffering is supplied from the context. The final duration is retained without reducing it to immediate battlefield death.

Worship in Jerusalem and Judith’s final years

Verse 16:18

Greek–English Saints Priority

When they came to Jerusalem, they worshiped God. After the people had been purified, they offered their burnt offerings, their voluntary offerings, and their gifts.

Textual & Reception Notes

The hymn closes before this narrative return.

Verse 16:19

Greek–English Saints Priority

Judith dedicated all Holofernes' equipment that the people had given her. The canopy she had taken for herself from his bedchamber she gave as a dedicated offering to God.

Textual & Reception Notes

ἀνάθημα denotes a votive dedication here, not a curse or destruction ban.

Verse 16:20

Greek–English Saints Priority

The people rejoiced in Jerusalem before the holy place for three months, and Judith remained with them.

Textual & Reception Notes

The three-month celebration is distinct from the thirty-day plundering.

Verse 16:21

Greek–English Saints Priority

After these days each departed for his inheritance. Judith went to Bethulia and remained on her property, and in her time she became renowned throughout the whole land.

Textual & Reception Notes

Verse 16:22

Greek–English Saints Priority

Many desired her, but no man knew her all the days of her life from the day her husband Manasseh died and was gathered to his people.

Textual & Reception Notes

Knew retains the sexual idiom; the chronological qualification excludes her prior marriage.

Verse 16:23

Greek–English Saints Priority

Her greatness continued to increase, and she grew old in her husband's house, reaching a hundred and five years. She set her maid free. She died in Bethulia, and they buried her in the cave of her husband Manasseh.

Textual & Reception Notes

The opening greatness expression follows her renown in verse twenty-one; its precise nuance also permits a connection with advancing age. Her age and the maid's manumission are explicit. The burial paragraph remains part of source verse twenty-three.

Verse 16:24

Greek–English Saints Priority

The house of Israel mourned her seven days. Before she died, she had divided her possessions among all the nearest kin of her husband Manasseh and the nearest kin of her own family.

Textual & Reception Notes

The distribution precedes her death although narrated after the mourning; both sets of kin receive it.

Verse 16:25

Greek–English Saints Priority

No one again brought terror upon the sons of Israel in the days of Judith or for many days after her death.

Textual & Reception Notes

The closing peace is qualified by the stated span, not turned into an unlimited promise.