Continuing our exploration of the Deuterocanonical texts with Judith 2:

1)  In the eighteenth year, on the twenty-second day of the first month, there was a discussion in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyrians, about taking revenge on all the land, as he had threatened.

COMMENTARY:  This is the year when, according to Babylonian records, Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem.

2)  He summoned all his attendants and officers, laid before them his secret plan, and with his own lips recounted in full detail the wickedness of all the land. 3) They decided to destroy all who had refused to obey the order he had issued.

COMMENTARY:  The Bible considers oathbreaking wicked, whether made to one of one’s own faith, race or nationality or any other.  This contrasts strongly with policies where governments in the Americas—to this day—decide at will that treaties with the indigenous people don’t count. 

4) When he had fully recounted his plan, Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyrians, summoned Holofernes, the ranking general of his forces, second only to himself in command, and said to him:

COMMENTARY:  Holofernes (who matters quite a bit in this story) bears here a Persian name.  But that and other Persian names do crop up in the records of a later Chaldean King.

 
5)“Thus says the great king, the lord of all the earth: Go forth from my presence, take with you men of proven valor, one hundred and twenty thousand infantry and twelve thousand cavalry, 6) and proceed against all the land of the west, because they disobeyed the order I issued. 

COMMENTARY:  Nebuchadnezzar epitomized hubris, as his self-proclaimed titles show.  If one looks symbolically at his later madness (historic or literary, who can now say?) it makes sense that one with such an extreme inflation of ego would crave to rebalance himself by becoming, for a time, a non-predatory animal.

7) Tell them to have earth and water ready, for I will come against them in my wrath; I will cover all the land with the feet of my soldiers, to whom I will deliver them as spoils.

COMMENTARY:  In those days one signaled surrender to conquest by symbolically handing over some dirt and some water, to represent all of the land and the bodies of water in one’s nation.

8) Their wounded will fill their ravines and wadies, the swelling river will be choked with their dead;

COMMENTARY:  A most graphic threat!  And worse even than it sounds.  The wounded who tumbled down into ravines and wadis could not easily be rescued again, and if there were too many, they would have to die slow deaths of neglect.  And rivers choked with the dead become unfit to drink, causing great hardship and death to noncombatants as well.  Nebuchadnezzar was not known for his mercy.

 9)  and I will deport them as exiles to the very ends of the earth.

COMMENTARY:  A significant threat to exiles reading this many years later.  This tells them how it came about for Judea, after the fall of Israel.

10) “Go before me and take possession of all their territories for me. If they surrender to you, guard them for me until the day of their sentencing.  11) As for those who disobey, show them no mercy, but deliver them up to slaughter and plunder in all the land you occupy.

COMMENTARY:  Surrender would mean only the execution of the leaders who had defied Nebuchadnezzar.  Kings had to ponder whether they would certainly die, but save their people’s lives, or gamble at a chance of survival, with the massacre of their charges at stake, and very bad odds.

12) For as I live, and by the strength of my kingdom, what I have spoken I will accomplish by my own hand.

COMMENTARY:  Customarily, people swore by their deities this way.  “As The Lord Our God lives,” “As Baal lives,” etc. and they would attribute their victories to the hand of their deities.  Nebuchadnezzar swearing by his own life and insisting that all he accomplished was by his own hand, showed hubris to the point of blasphemy in any nation of the region.

 13) Do not disobey a single one of the orders of your lord; fulfill them exactly as I have commanded you, and do it without delay.”

COMMENTARY:  On the surface this sounds like an admonition not to even think about mercy to  those who resist.  But as it turns out, Holofernes was more likely to err in the opposite direction.

14) So Holofernes left the presence of his lord, and summoned all the commanders, generals, and officers of the Assyrian forces. 15) He mustered one hundred and twenty thousand picked troops, as his lord had commanded, and twelve thousand mounted archers, 16) and drew them up as a vast force organized for battle.

COMMENTARY:  While these numbers probably have symbolic meaning unknown to me, the overall message is that this guy can field a lot more soldiers than anybody else.  This does not bode well for his enemies!

 17) He took along a very large number of camels, donkeys, and mules for carrying their supplies; innumerable sheep, cattle, and goats for their food;

COMMENTARY:  And it’s not just the numbers that he has, but also the wealth and provisions necessary to make it all actually work.  One of the most important determinants in battle—and a common factor in disastrous military errors—is securing and maintaining the supply-lines.  That was how the USA won against the British empire with a smaller and less well-trained force: they suffered defeat after defeat, but each time retreated deeper into the continent where they themselves could readily obtain provision but where the British soldiers could not.

18) abundant provisions for each man, and much gold and silver from the royal palace.

COMMENTARY:  I wondered to myself, “Why would Holofernes need gold and silver, if he’s bringing along his own provisions?  And who would sell anything to somebody intent on conquering them?”  But then it dawned on me—maybe he needed it for bribes!  Traitors make a conquest much easier and more efficient.

19)  Then he and all his forces set out on their expedition in advance of King Nebuchadnezzar, to overrun all the lands of the western region with their chariots, cavalry, and picked infantry. 20) A huge, irregular force, too many to count, like locusts, like the dust of the earth, went along with them.

COMMENTARY:  “Irregular force” is a polite term for “camp-followers”.  But these women (often with their children in tow) provided indispensable services beside the one for which they got their bad reputation.  Most importantly, they bound wounds and tended the sick.   No army lasts for long without nursing, and disease killed off more soldiers than battle, when men invaded regions where their own force had not built up an immunity to the local germs and parasites.  Even within a country, as in the American Civil War, the North lost many soldiers to the malaria endemic in the south.         On top of that the women also cooked, washed clothes, and performed other domestic functions.  They even sometimes engaged in espionage.  And on occasion they were known to pick up their fallen lover’s arms and avenge him in battle.

Alexander the Great valued them so much that he would offer a fortune in gold to any soldier who would marry his camp-follower.  He also adopted any of their orphaned or father-abandoned offspring, training them to become soldiers in their turn.  Sadly, most of the soldiers divorced these poor women as soon as Alexander died.

21) After a three-day march from Nineveh, they reached the plain of Bectileth, and camped opposite Bectileth near the mountains to the north of Upper Cilicia.

COMMENTARY:  A three-day march would not be possible for an army of that time.  But it sounds scary to exaggerate how fast they could move.

 22) From there Holofernes took all his forces, the infantry, cavalry, and chariots, and marched into the hill country. 23) He devastated Put and Lud, and plundered all the Rassisites and the Ishmaelites on the border of the wilderness toward the south of the Chelleans.

24) Then, following the Euphrates, he went through Mesopotamia, and battered down every fortified city along the Wadi Abron, until he reached the sea. 25) He seized the territory of Cilicia, and cut down everyone who resisted him. Then he proceeded to the southern borders of Japheth, toward Arabia. 26He surrounded all the Midianites, burned their tents, and sacked their encampments.

COMMENTARY:  Each community named built up the tension for those listening to the storyteller.  They knew these places.  It’s like when you have a wildfire in your region and listen to the reports of the fire coming nearer and nearer to your home, spreading across a wider and wider region.

          Put and Lud, however, seem out of place, especially when listed together.  Near as translators can figure, Put might be Libya in Africa, and Lud might be Lydia in Asia Minor.  The storyteller might have inserted these to increase the sense of the vastness of this war.

 27) Descending to the plain of Damascus at the time of the wheat harvest, he set fire to all their fields, destroyed their flocks and herds, looted their cities, devastated their plains, and put all their young men to the sword.

COMMENTARY:  Damascuis not only lost their soldiers, but also their most basic means of survival.  After this war, inevitably, must come famine.  This is a disaster of epic proportions!

28⁾ Fear and dread of him fell upon all the inhabitants of the coastland, upon those in Sidon and Tyre, and those who dwelt in Sur and Ocina, and the inhabitants of Jamnia. Those in Azotus and Ascalon also feared him greatly.