coming was noised among the tents, and they came about her, as she stood without the tent of Holofernes, till they told him of her.

19 And they wondered at her beauty, and admired the children of Israel because of her, and every one said to his neighbour, Who would despise this people, that have among them such women? surely it is not good that one man of them be left,

them)." The margin is wrong; cf. ch. xv. II. Bissell renders "they accompanied her," as if the verb were middle.

18. was noised.] die Bonon. Cf. Gen. xlv. 16: καὶ διεβ. ἡ φωνὴ εἰς τὸν οἶκον Φαραώ. Cod. 58 has diéteσe, i.e. got out, spread abroad, e.g. els Tò σrpáτevμa (Plutarch, Galba,' 22). Instead of ἐλθόντες ἐκύκλουν the same MS. has ἤλθοσαν καὶ ἐκύκλωσαν, which is the Heb. construction; and so Syr. and Old Lat.

19. wondered at... admired.] èOaúμacov they were admiring," both times. Cod. 58 has the aorist ἐθαύμασαν, and inserts καὶ παρεδέχοντο τοὺς λόγους αὐτῆς ὅτι ἦσαν ayaboi opódpa. So the Syriac and Old Lat. "Admired the children of Israel because of her”ἐθαύμαζον τοὺς υἱοὺς Ἰσ. ἀπ ̓ αὐτῆς—ἰς a construction found also in Greek writers of the silver age: e.g. Plut. 'Romulus,' 7, Oavμáζων ἀπὸ τοῦ σώματος τὸν νεανίσκον. In the classical period they wrote lavp. Tivά Tivos, or ἐπί τινι, or διά τι.

Who would despise.] τίς καταφρονήσει. The Heb. impf. may mean "would, or can, or could." With the sentiment of the verse, cf. the remark of the Trojan Elders about the beauty of Helen (‘Il.' iii. 156-158).

surely it is not good.] ὅτι οὐ καλόν ἐστι κ.τ.λ. "because () it is not good," &c.

Cod. 58 omits or . . . Tην yŶv. The Syriac omits őrt, and renders kadóv éσri Do,oportet.

who being let go might deceive the whole earth.] The plur. (oî, appelévτes) refers to the preceding pronoun "them." "Let go," i.e. out of their present durance in the blockaded city.

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Might deceive," lit. "will be able to outwit (or trick) all the earth" (δυνήσονται KaTaσopioaσbaι. Cf. ch. v. 11 supra. The Syr. here has the same verb, ebanda,

as

occurs in the Heb. of Exod. i. 10). They would cajole the world with the beauty of their women. Cf. the story of Samson and

who being let go might deceive the whole earth.

20 And they that lay near Holofernes went out, and all his servants, and they brought her into the tent.

21 Now Holofernes rested upon his bed under a canopy, which was woven with purple, and gold, and emeralds, and precious stones.

22 So they shewed him of her;

the Philistines; and Num. XXV. I, 2, 18, xxxi. 16.

Trom

20. they that lay near. r.] οἱ παρακαθεύ SOVTES. "They that were wont to sleep beside . . ." i.e. to keep watch by . . mius, and Liddell and Scott, refer to this passage only. Cod. 58 has Távtes oi napeδρεύοντες, “ all that were in constant attend

ance on H." So the Syr.aëulo palɔ, "all his attendants;" Old. Lat. omnes deservientes.

21. Now Holofernes rested.] And Holofernes was resting. Cf. ch. viii. 33. It was night.

a

upon his bed under a canopy.] ἐπὶ τῆς κλίνης αὐτοῦ ἐν τῷ κωνωπείῳ. Instead of κλίνης Codd. 19, 108, 23, 44, 71, 74, al. have σênyĥs, i.e. "in his tent on the conopēum;; conopum being (see Liddell and Scott) an Egyptian bed, or couch furnished with mosquito curtains. Cf. Hdt. ii. 95. But κωνωπείον appears to mean strictly the mosquito-net itself; and kλivηs being the better reading, the sense is: "on his bed (or divan) within the mosquito-curtain." Cf. Hor. Epod.' ix. 16:

"Interque signa turpe militaria Sol adspicit conopium." Juven. vi. 8; Propert. iii. 11, 45. The thing is mentioned again, ch. xiii. 9, 15; xvi. 19.

which was woven with . . . gold, &c.] Fritzsche edits: "which was (made) of purple (tissue), and gold, and emerald (Cod. 58, Syr. emeralds) and precious stones inwoven (Xilwv ToλUTEλŵv Kabupaoμévwv. Codd. x. 58, кaðνþaσμévov, and so the Syr., Old. Lat., and A.V.). See Exod. xxviii. 6, 17 (in the latter verse καθυφαίνειν = With this state-bed of Holofernes, cf. the splendid couches on which Assurbanipal and his queen are enthroned, as represented on the sculptured slab in the British Museum. Cf. also Esther i. 6; Cant. iii. 7, 9, 10 (the state couches of Ahashwerosh and Solomon).

, "to set").

23 And when Judith was come before him and his servants, they all marvelled at the beauty of her countenance; and she fell down upon her face, and did reverence unto him: and his servants took her up.

22. before his tent.] Lit. into the proscenium, or entry of the tent. Usually the word means the narrow stage in front of the scena of a Greek theatre.

Instead of καὶ ἐξῆλθεν, Cod. 58 has ὁ δὲ ȧkovσas ¿¿ñλev, and so the Syr. and Old. Lat.

with silver lamps going before him.] Cod. 58 adds: Toλai opódpa' kai eionyayor airny πρὸς αὐτόν. So Syr. and Old Lat. The detail that the lamps were numerous looks original. It was still night, as appears from ch. xi. 3, 5,

"Going before him" is πрoáуovσai avrov. In Matt. ii. 9 we read ὁ ἀστὴρ . . . . προῆγεν αὐτούς.

23. was come.] Came, he, for which Cod. 58 has σTη, "stood;" and so Syr. and Old Lat.

before him.] κατὰ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ = 15: cf. 1 Sam. xvi. 8; 1 Kings iii. 15. Sometimes it = "y, by, "over against," " opposite;" eg. ," "opposite;" e.g. Deut. xxxii. 49. Cf. ch. xi. 5. Midrash: "And when the king saw her beauty and the splendour of her adornment, the fire of passion burnt in him, and he desired her; and the king was sick with the sickness of passion (n); and (so were) all his servants the grandees (DDD) that sat before the king." I think that here and elsewhere this Midrash bears traces of a Chaldee original.

CHAPTER XI.

1. hurt.] ἐκάκωσα. Cod. 58, ἐκακοποίησα. The Heb. word in either case might be ; cf. Gen. xix. 9, xxxi. 7. Those who

earth.

2 Now therefore, if thy people that dwelleth in the mountains had not set light by me, I would not have lifted up my spear against them: but they have done these things to themselves.

3 But now tell me wherefore thou art fled from them, and art come unto us for thou art come for safeguard; be of good comfort, thou shalt live this night, and hereafter:

4 For none shall hurt thee, but entreat thee well, as they do the servants of king Nabuchodonosor my lord.

5 Then Judith said unto him, Re

had submitted to Holofernes had not come off wholly without hurt: see ch. iii. 8; ii. 10 supra.

vas suilling.] ηρέτικο. The verb αἱρετίζω, to choose, select, is late Greek = αἱροῦμαι. It occurs as a deponent in Ctes. Pers. 9 (cf. the reading of 58). Aiperéw (Cod. x.) is unknown. Cf. 1 Chron. xxviii. 4, 10 (the perf.); Ps. xxv. 12; cxix. 30, 172 (the aor. mid.).

2. that dwelleth in the mountains.] Rather, the hill country. Codd. 58, 23, 44, al. read ὁ λαὸς . . . . οἱ κατοικοῦντες, a constructio ad sensum, possible in Heb.

set light by me.] épavλiore. 2, Isa. xxxvii. 22. Cf. ch. i. 11; and v. 22 infra. Midrash: DND.

lifted up my spear against them.]

Cf.

1 Sam. xviii. II, XX. 33; 2 Sam. xxiii. 8, 18. 3. But now.] Rather, And now; and so in V. 2. "Thou art fled," &c. should be "thou "Art rannest away from them, and camest.' come "-kels-recurs immediately after.

for safeguard.] Or, into safety. Cf. Job xiii. 16.

as be

4. For none shall hurt thee.] Rather, For there is none who shall wrong thee. In the next line "as they do" should be " falleth" (yiverai). Instead of the brachylogy, "There is none who shall wrong thee, but (every one) shall treat thee well," Codd. 19, 108, 44, 71, 74, al. have the first person, “I will treat thee well." So the Syriac: And I will do to thee as it is done to the servants. my lord." Similarly the Old Lat.

of

5. Receive.] I.e. favourably, Prov. iv. 10. In imputing the deliberate falsehoods and

ceive the words of thy servant, and suffer thine handmaid to speak in thy presence, and I will declare no lie to my lord this night.

6 And if thou wilt follow the words of thine handmaid, God will bring the thing perfectly to pass by thee; and my lord shall not fail of his

purposes.

flatteries detailed in vv. 5-8 to his heroine, the author is evidently unconscious that such conduct is questionable in a moral point of view. He writes in accordance with ancient rather than modern standards of propriety: his belief is that the end justifies the means, and that an alien and an enemy has no rights. Even the modern world has been slow in attaining to the conviction that not everything is fair in war. Cf. Judg. iii. 20, iv. 18 sqq.; 1 Sam. xxi. 13 sqq.; and Esther's words in the Gk. Esth. v. 17 sqq. It is related of Balthazar Gerard, who killed William I., Prince of Orange, that "though he was a staunch Papist, he craftily behaved like a Protestant. He went to sermons and evening prayers; he had always Marot's Psalms in his hands, or some other Protestant book. He read also Du Bartas's 'Poetical Week,' and it was found that the place most worn out was the story of Judith murdering Holofernes" (Hist. d'Alex. Farnese, duc de Parme,' iii. 205, quoted in Bayle's Dict. s. v. Judith.)

6. God will bring the thing perfectly to pass by thee.] Teλeiws прâyμа поinσet μerà σoù ó deós, "perfectly will God do a work with thee.” Cf. the phrase ποιεῖν ἔλεος μετά τινος, 1 Sam. xx. 8, 14; and compare the Syriac text: "And if thou wilt hear my words, all that is in thy hands shall be fulfilled (to wit), all that God will do with thee." There appears to be a designed ambiguity in the words: "If Croesus pass the Halys, a mighty empire will be overthrown." Vulg. perfectam rem faciet Dominus tecum.

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fail of his purposes.] Lit. fall from his enterprizes (ch. x. 8). Ps. v. 10: Let them fall from their purposes" (Heb. and LXX.). Syr.: "and my lord shall not fall from his

designs (,) as long as he liveth.”

7. Judith confirms her words by an oath, swearing by the life of Nebuchadnezzar, "as Joseph swears by the life of Pharaoh in Gen. xlii. 15" (Churton). Cf. the oaths of Nebuchadnezzar himself, chaps. i. 12, ii. 12 supra; and Ittai's oath to David, "As the Lord liveth, and as my lord the king liveth," 2 Sam. xv. 21. There is, of course, an inner irony in Judith's oath. She professes to

7 As Nabuchodonosor king of all the earth liveth, and as his power liveth, who hath sent thee for the upholding of every living thing: for not only men shall serve him by thee, but also the beasts of the field, and the cattle, and the fowls of the air, shall live by thy power under Nabuchodonosor and all his house.

accept the heathen conception of Nebuchadnezzar as a god on earth, nay, as the sole god, and accordingly swears by him as the strongest possible confirmation of the truth of her words; but all the while she is keenly conscious that an oath by a deity whose deity is denied possesses neither binding force nor corroborative worth, and is moreover a gross mockery of those to whom it is offered.

liveth.] Lit. For and his power

As Nabuchodonosor Nabuchodonosor liveth liveth. The sense is, By the life of Nebuchadnezzar and the reality of his power, I declare that (r) not only do men serve him through thee, but also, &c. Cf. ch. xii. 4, xiii. 16,

where the same construction recurs.

for the upholding of every living thing.] Rather, for the correction or right ordering (els Kaτóрowσw) of every soul. Instead of πάσης

uxns, Codd. 19, 108, 71, 74, 76, 236, read πάσης τῆς γῆς. "Soul" (vx,

) is not in O. T. usage restricted to man, but includes all animate beings: e.g. Gen. i. 20, 21, 24.

the beasts of the field. •fowls of the air.] Cf. Dan. ii. 38: "And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all." Baruch iii. 16, 17: "Where are the princes of the heathen become, and such as ruled the beasts upon the earth; they that had their pastime with the fowls of the air...?" The "hunting inscriptions” of Assurbanipal present a striking parallel with these passages. The Assyrian sovereigns delighted to record the conquests of the chase as well as those of the battlefield. The words of Judith, Oriental hyperbole apart, may contain a reminiscence of the fact that like Nimrod, mighty hunters as well as the Assyrian and Babylonian sovereigns were, warriors; and like the similar prophecies of Jeremiah (Jer. xxvii. 6; xxviii. 14), upon which they are doubtless partly based, their drift is an emphatic assertion of the absolute universality of Nebuchadnezzar's sway.

shall live by thy power under Nabuchodonosor and all his house.] The context requires

even death is now fallen upon them, and their sin hath overtaken them, wherewith they will provoke their God to anger, whensoever they shall do that which is not fit to be done :

12 For their victuals fail them, and all their water is scant, and they have determined to lay hands upon their cattle, and purposed to consume all

Greek is καὶ ἐπιπεσεῖται θάνατος ἐπὶ πρόσωπον αὐτῶν. After καὶ we must mentally supply va from the preceding clause. Its construction with the future indicative would, of course, be a solecism in classical Greek. Codd. x. 23 omit kaì; 19, 108 read yvw ὅτι ἐπιπ. ; and 58 has ἔπεσεν ὁ θάνατος πρὸ προ (Syriac, death has fallen before them.) Old Lat. cecidit enim timor super illos; Vulg. tremor tuus super ipsos est; but Old Lat. (cod. Germ.) has mors.

and their sin hath overtaken them.] Rather, a sin hath seized them; not yet, however, in act but in will. The Kai introduces the apodosis; see ch. v. 20. karaλaμßávw often renders 1, to overtake: e.g. Gen. xxxi. 24; Ps. xl. 12. Cod. 58, Syr., and Old Lat., a great sin.

41,

and

whensoever, &c.] Gk. óпηvíka v пonowσw ἀτοπίαν. The term drоnía, "absurdity," "eccentricity," is not found elsewhere in LXX. or N. T. The adjective толоv, “out of place," "odd," "absurd,” occurs in a stronger ethical sense in Luke xxiii. elsewhere. Cf. Job xxxiv. 12, äтоа Tonσew (=, to do evil); xxxv. 13, arоnа (= N, falsehood); xxxvi. 21 (= 1, vanity, wickedness). Cod. 58 has avrò, i.e. áμáprηua, instead of dτоñíaν; and so Syriac

and Old Lat.

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12. For their victuals, &c.] Lit. "For when the foods failed them, and every (sort of) water was scant, they determined, &c., and all things that God expressly charged them by his laws not to eat, they decided to consume." Instead of гàp éέéλITEV, Codd. iii. x. 19, 44, and many MSS. have πapeέéλɩñev, —“an example,” says Fritzsche, "how well attested mere oversights often are." See ch. vii. 20. 'Eonaviσon, "was scanty," is a late use of the passive of σπανίζω, which itself means "to be rare, scarce, scanty," of things. The late use of the active form as transitive" to make scarce," accounts for this use of the passive, which in classical writers means "to be in want of," indigere. Cf. Job xiv. 11; where "waters depart from the sea" is rendered by LXX.: xpóvæ σñaviζεται θάλασσα. See ch. viii. 5 (orávei).

those things, that God hath forbidden them to eat by his laws :

13 And are resolved to spend the firstfruits of the corn, and the tenths of wine and oil, which they had sanctified, and reserved for the priests that serve in Jerusalem before the face of our God; the which things it is not lawful for any of the people

“Lay hands upon,” ἐπιβάλλειν in the intransitive sense, found also in the classics: to throw oneself upon, fall upon, attack, irruere (1 Macc. iv. 2; cf. Gen. xxii. 12). After "their cattle" Old Lat. adds et bibere sanguinem eorum; and similarly the Vulg. Compare the Midrash, which, after making Judith state as the reason of her flight, "We have sinned before the Lord our God, and therefore He hath said by the hand of the prophets to the people that He will chastise them for their sins," makes her add that owing to thirst "the people have resolved to kill their sheep and to drink their blood, and have determined to loose the holy things (pa), from which they derive no benefit, in corn and in wine and in oil. And if they do this, they will perish, and thou wilt stand." See Lev. xvii. 10-14; 1 Sam. xiv. 31-34. Expressly charged” is διεστείAaro: Mark v. 43.

The Syriac and Old Lat. omit the tithes. The

13. Verses 13-15 are wanting in Cod. 58.

order of the Gk. text is thus: "And the first

fruits of the corn, and the tithes of the wine and the oil, which they had carefully kept, having dedicated (them) for the priests who stand in Jerusalem before the face of our God (1 Kings xviii. 15), they have resolved to use up (avaλioκw)." The last word might represent Heb., to eat, as in

Deut. v. 22.

the which things.] à is the Greek, where we should have expected as. Lit. "which things not even with the hands was it proper (Kanκev impers.; Acts xxii. 22; cf. Ecclus. x. 26) that any of the people touch;" much less with the teeth. As to eating of things hallowed, see Lev. xxii., 1 Sam. xxi. 4-6, and our Saviour's comment upon that passage, Matt. xii. 3 seq. Volkmar observes that the extraordinary importance attached to the pay