At last Judith is mentioned. This is her book, so I’m awaiting something very special. She is a widow, but aside from losing her husband there is nothing bad to say about her. She summons Uzziah and the other town leaders to her house and lectures them.
But it’s a good lecture - she is speaking out of the wisdom that her grief has taught her. It is wrong to put the Lord to the test. even in sorrow and suffering, he is still supreme. Judith’s faith was not rocked by losing her husband, and it isn’t even dented by the siege and the water shortage. She castigate the leaders by presuming to test God by saying you’ve got 5 days to save us, or we’ll surrender.Judith sees Bethuliah as the vanguard of Judah. If they fall, Holofernes will sweep on to Jerusalem and destroy the Temple. God will hold them responsible if that is allowed to happen. So they must resist. The responsibility of overcoming this threat rests with them.
Uzziah and friends are impressed with her words. But they could defend themselves by simply pointing to the size of the army against them. There’s no chance. He’s got so many soldiers that if he didn’t mind losing a few, he could order them to keep walking towards Bethuliah until they had trampled the town underfoot.
But Judith has a plan.
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