Bible Verses

O God, my God, listen to me, a widow! You created everything—what is past, what is present, and what is yet to come. It is you who considers both present and future. Those things that you have decided to bring to pass.

You handed their women over to rape, their daughters into slavery, and all their possessions to be divided among your favored sons, who were filled with horror at this defilement of their blood and called out for your help.

Because of this, you handed over their leaders to be slain, and their bed, stained with their deceit, was left crimson with their blood. You struck down the slaves along with their leaders and the leaders themselves along with their servants.

“Lord, God of my father Simeon, you gave him a sword to punish the foreigners who mistreated a young girl, for they had abused her, exposing her body to shame and dishonoring her womb. They did this, even though you said: ‘This shall not be done.’

Judith’s Prayer Judith knelt, bowed to the ground, placed ashes on her head, and uncovered the sackcloth she was wearing. At the exact moment incense was being offered in the house of God in Jerusalem, Judith invoked aloud the Lord God; she said:

Then, leaving Judith’s room, they returned to their posts.

Then Uzziah and the leaders said to her: “Go in peace, and may the Lord our God go before you so that you may take vengeance upon our enemies.”

But do not try to find out what I will do, because I won’t tell you until I have carried out what I intend to do.”

Tonight, you will stand at the town gate, and I will go out with my maidservant. By the time you are supposed to hand over the town to our enemies, the Lord will visit Israel through my presence hand.

Judith said to them: “Listen to me, I will do something that will be passed down through generations of our people’s children.