Judith 16

¹Thanne Judith song `this song to the Lord, and seide, Bigynne ye in tympans;

²synge ye to the Lord in cymbalis; synge ye swetli a newe salm to hym; fulli make ye ioye, and inwardli clepe ye his name.

³The Lord al to-brekith batels, the Lord is name to hym;

⁴that hath set hise castels in the myddis of his puple, for to deliuere vs fro the hond of alle oure enemyes.

⁵Assur cam fro the hillis, fro the north, in the multitude of his strengthe; whose multitude stoppide strondis, and the horsis of hem hiliden valeis.

⁶And he seide, that he schulde brenne my coostis, and sle my yonge men bi swerd, to yiue my yonge children in to prei, virgyns in to caitifte.

⁷But the Lord Almyyti anoiede hym, and bitook hym in to the hondis of a womman, and schente hym.

⁸For the myyti of hem felde not doun of yonge men, nether the sones of giauntis killiden hym, nether hiye giauntis puttiden hem silf to hym; but Judith, the douytir of Merari, ouercam hym bi the fairnesse of hir face.

⁹For sche vnclothide hir fro the cloth of widewehod, and clothide hir with the cloth of gladnesse, in the ful ioiyng of the sones of Israel.

¹⁰Sche anoyntide hir face with oynement, and boond togidere the tressis of hir heeris with a coronal, to disseyue hym.

¹¹`Hir sandalies rauyschiden hise iyen, hir fairnesse made his soule caitif; with a swerd sche kittide of his necke.

¹²Men of Persis hadden hidousnesse of hir stidfastnesse, and Medeis of hyr hardynesse.

¹³Thanne the castels of Assiriens yelliden, whanne my meke men, wexinge drie for thirst, apperiden.

¹⁴The sones of damesels prickiden hem, and killiden hem as children fleynge; thei perischiden in batel fro the face of my God.

¹⁵`Synge we an ympne to the Lord, synge we a newe ympne to oure God.

¹⁶Lord, Lord God, thou art grete, and ful cleer in thi vertu, and whom no man may ouercome.

¹⁷Ech creature of thin serue thee, for thou seidist, and thingis weren maad; thou sentist thi spirit, and thingis weren maad of nouyt; and noon is that ayenstondith thi comaundement.

¹⁸Hillis schulen be moued fro foundementis with watris; stonys schulen flete a brood as wex bifor thi face.

¹⁹Sotheli thei that dreden thee, schulen be grete anentis thee bi alle thingis.

²⁰Woo to the folk rysynge on my kyn; for the Lord Almyyti schal take veniaunce in hem, in the dai of doom he schal visite hem.

²¹For he schal yyue fier and wormes in the fleischis of hem, that thei be brent, and lyue, and feele til in to with outen ende.

²²And it was doon aftir these thingis, al the puple aftir the victorie cam to Jerusalem to worschipe the Lord; and anoon as thei weren clensid, alle men offriden brent sacrifices, and a vowis, and her biheestis.

²³Certis Judith yaf in to the cursyng of foryetyng alle the armuris of batel of Holofernes, whiche the puple yaf to hir, and the curteyn, which sche hadde take awei.

²⁴Forsothe al the puple was myrie aftir the face of hooli men; and bi thre monethis the ioye of this victorie was halewid with Judith.

²⁵Sotheli aftir tho daies ech man yede ayen in to his owne; and Judith was maad greet in Bethulia, and sche was more cleer thanne alle wymmen of the lond of Israel.

²⁶For chastite was ioyned to hir vertu, so that sche knewe not man alle the daies of hir lijf, sithen Manasses, hir hosebonde, was deed.

²⁷Sotheli in `feeste daies sche cam forth with greet glorie.

²⁸Forsothe sche dwellide in the hows of hir hosebonde an hundrid yeer and fyue; and sche lefte hir handmaide fre. And sche was deed, and biried with hir hosebonde in Bethulia;

²⁹and al the puple biweilide hir seuene daies.

³⁰Forsothe in al the space of her lijf noon `was disturblide Israel, and many yeeris aftir hir deeth.

³¹Sotheli the day of the victorie of this feeste is takun of Ebreis in the noumbre of hooli daies, and it is worschipid of the Jewis fro that tyme til in to present day.

Judith 16

¹Then Judith began to sing this thanksgiving in all Israel, and all the people sang after her this song of praise.

²And Judith said, Begin unto my God with timbrels, sing unto my Lord with cymbals: tune unto him a new psalm: exalt him, and call upon his name.

³For God breaketh the battles: for among the camps in the midst of the people he hath delivered me out of the hands of them that persecuted me.

⁴Assur came out of the mountains from the north, he came with ten thousands of his army, the multitude whereof stopped the torrents, and their horsemen have covered the hills.

⁵He bragged that he would burn up my borders, and kill my young men with the sword, and dash the sucking children against the ground, and make mine infants as a prey, and my virgins as a spoil.

⁶But the Almighty Lord hath disappointed them by the hand of a woman.

⁷For the mighty one did not fall by the young men, neither did the sons of the Titans smite him, nor high giants set upon him: but Judith the daughter of Merari weakened him with the beauty of her countenance.

⁸For she put off the garment of her widowhood for the exaltation of those that were oppressed in Israel, and anointed her face with ointment, and bound her hair in a tire, and took a linen garment to deceive him.

⁹Her sandals ravished his eyes, her beauty took his mind prisoner, and the fauchion passed through his neck.

¹⁰The Persians quaked at her boldness, and the Medes were daunted at her hardiness.

¹¹Then my afflicted shouted for joy, and my weak ones cried aloud; but they were astonished: these lifted up their voices, but they were overthrown.

¹²The sons of the damsels have pierced them through, and wounded them as fugitives’ children: they perished by the battle of the Lord.

¹³I will sing unto the Lord a new song: O Lord, thou art great and glorious, wonderful in strength, and invincible.

¹⁴Let all creatures serve thee: for thou spakest, and they were made, thou didst send forth thy spirit, and it created them, and there is none that can resist thy voice.

¹⁵For the mountains shall be moved from their foundations with the waters, the rocks shall melt as wax at thy presence: yet thou art merciful to them that fear thee.

¹⁶For all sacrifice is too little for a sweet savour unto thee, and all the fat is not sufficient for thy burnt offering: but he that feareth the Lord is great at all times.

¹⁷Woe to the nations that rise up against my kindred! the Lord Almighty will take vengeance of them in the day of judgment, in putting fire and worms in their flesh; and they shall feel them, and weep for ever.

¹⁸Now as soon as they entered into Jerusalem, they worshipped the Lord; and as soon as the people were purified, they offered their burnt offerings, and their free offerings, and their gifts.

¹⁹Judith also dedicated all the stuff of Holofernes, which the people had given her, and gave the canopy, which she had taken out of his bedchamber, for a gift unto the Lord.

²⁰So the people continued feasting in Jerusalem before the sanctuary for the space of three months and Judith remained with them.

²¹After this time every one returned to his own inheritance, and Judith went to Bethulia, and remained in her own possession, and was in her time honourable in all the country.

²²And many desired her, but none knew her all the days of her life, after that Manasses her husband was dead, and was gathered to his people.

²³But she increased more and more in honour, and waxed old in her husband’s house, being an hundred and five years old, and made her maid free; so she died in Bethulia: and they buried her in the cave of her husband Manasses.

²⁴And the house of Israel lamented her seven days: and before she died, she did distribute her goods to all them that were nearest of kindred to Manasses her husband, and to them that were the nearest of her kindred.

²⁵And there was none that made the children of Israel any more afraid in the days of Judith, nor a long time after her death.