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Judith / Chapter 3

Judith 3

15 verses • Latin Vulgate (Jerome)

Translator's Introduction

What This Chapter Is About

Terrified by Holofernes' advance, the western nations capitulate. Cities send embassies offering total submission — their people, livestock, fields, and sanctuaries. But even complete surrender does not satisfy: Holofernes systematically destroys their sacred groves and temples, demanding that Nebuchadnezzar alone be worshipped as god.

What Makes This Chapter Remarkable

The demand to worship Nebuchadnezzar as the sole god transforms the conflict from political to theological. This is no longer merely a war of empires but a contest between the living God and a manufactured deity — the same conflict that animates Daniel 3.

Translation Friction

Jerome's Vulgate chapter 3 is considerably shorter than the Greek Septuagint version. His rapid translation from Aramaic compressed and restructured the material.

Connections

The destruction of foreign shrines to impose worship of one ruler echoes the Seleucid crisis in 1 Maccabees, suggesting the author used Assyria as a cipher for Hellenistic persecution.

Judith 3:1

Tunc miserunt legatos suos universarum urbium ac provinciarum reges ac principes Syriae scilicet Mesopotamiae et Syriae Sobal et Lybiae atque Ciliciae qui venientes ad Holofernem dixerunt.

Then the kings and princes of all the cities and provinces sent their envoys — those of Syria, Mesopotamia, Syrian Sobal, Libya, and Cilicia — and coming to Holofernes they said:

Notes & Key Terms 1 term

Key Terms

legatos
"envoys"

Formal diplomatic surrender; the same term used for Roman ambassadors.

Judith 3:2

Desinat indignatio tua circa nos melius est enim ut viventes serviamus Nabuchodonosor regi magno et subditi simus tibi quam morientes cum interitu nostro ipsi serviamus.

Let your fury toward us cease. For it is better that we serve the great King Nebuchadnezzar and be subject to you while living, than that we serve the consequences of our own destruction by dying.

Notes & Key Terms 1 term

Key Terms

viventes serviamus
"serve while living"

The coward's calculus that Judith will reject.

Translator Notes

  1. Their logic — slavery is preferable to annihilation — sets up the moral contrast with Judith, who will choose death-defying resistance.
Judith 3:3

Omnis civitas nostra omnisque possessio omnes montes et colles et campi et armenta boum gregesque ovium et caprarum equorumque et camelorum et universae facultates nostrae atque familiae in conspectu tuo sunt.

Every city of ours and every possession, all mountains and hills and plains, and the herds of cattle, flocks of sheep and goats, horses and camels, and all our wealth and households — they lie before you.

Judith 3:4

Sint omnia nostra sub lege tua.

Let all that is ours be under your law.

Notes & Key Terms 1 term

Key Terms

sub lege tua
"under your law"

They surrender not just territory but legal sovereignty — replacing their own law with his.

Translator Notes

  1. A devastating four-word sentence of total capitulation.
Judith 3:5

Nos et filii nostri servi tui sumus.

We and our children are your servants.

Judith 3:6

Veni nobis pacificus dominus et utere servitio nostro sicut placuerit tibi.

Come to us as a lord of peace, and make use of our service as it pleases you.

Notes & Key Terms 1 term

Key Terms

pacificus dominus
"a lord of peace"

Bitterly ironic — they beg the destroyer to come 'peacefully.'

Judith 3:7

Tunc descendit de montibus cum equitibus in virtute magna et obtinuit omnem civitatem et omnem inhabitantem terram.

Then he descended from the mountains with his cavalry in great force, and occupied every city and every inhabitant of the land.

Judith 3:8

De universis autem urbibus assumpsit sibi auxiliarios viros fortes et electos ad bellum.

From all the cities he conscripted strong men chosen for war as his auxiliaries.

Judith 3:9

Tantusque metus provinciis illis incubuit ut universarum urbium habitatores principes et honorati simul cum populis exirent obviam venienti.

Such terror pressed upon those provinces that the inhabitants of every city — princes and dignitaries together with the common people — went out to meet him as he came.

Notes & Key Terms 1 term

Key Terms

metus
"terror"

The escalating dread contrasts with the courage Judith will display.

Judith 3:10

Excipientes eum cum coronis et lampadibus ducentes choros in tympanis et tibiis.

They received him with garlands and torches, leading dances with tambourines and flutes.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The festive welcome of a conqueror with music and garlands parodies the welcome given to God's victorious agents (cf. 1 Samuel 18:6, Judges 11:34).
Judith 3:11

Nec ista tamen facientes ferocitatem eius pectoris mitigare potuerunt.

Yet even by doing all this, they could not soften the ferocity of his heart.

Notes & Key Terms 1 term

Key Terms

ferocitatem eius pectoris
"the ferocity of his heart"

Literally 'the savagery of his breast' — their submission only feeds his contempt.

Judith 3:12

Nam et civitates eorum destruxit et lucos eorum excidit.

For he destroyed their cities and cut down their sacred groves.

Notes & Key Terms 1 term

Key Terms

lucos
"sacred groves"

Luci were sacred woodland shrines. Their destruction signals not just conquest but religious annihilation.

Judith 3:13

Praecepit enim illi Nabuchodonosor rex ut omnes deos terrae exterminaret videlicet ut ipse solus diceretur deus ab his nationibus quae potuissent Holofernis potentia subiugari.

For King Nebuchadnezzar had commanded him to destroy all the gods of the earth, so that he alone might be called god by those nations that the power of Holofernes could subjugate.

Notes & Key Terms 1 term

Key Terms

ut ipse solus diceretur deus
"so that he alone might be called god"

The ultimate blasphemy — claiming divine status — which the narrative exists to punish.

Translator Notes

  1. This verse reveals the theological heart of the crisis: forced worship of a human king as sole deity. It transforms the entire narrative into a monotheism-versus-idolatry contest.
Judith 3:14

Pertransiit autem Syriam Sobal et omnem Apameam omnemque Mesopotamiam et venit ad Idumaeos in terram Gabaa.

He passed through Syrian Sobal and all of Apamea and all of Mesopotamia, and came to the Idumeans in the land of Gabaa.

Judith 3:15

Accepitque civitates eorum et sedit ibi per triginta dies in quibus diebus adunari praecepit universum exercitum virtutis suae.

He took their cities and encamped there for thirty days, during which time he ordered the entire strength of his army to be assembled.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The thirty-day pause creates narrative tension — the gathering storm before the assault on Israel.
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