1And Judith said to them, ‘Listen to me now, brothers. Take this head and hang it on the battlement of your wall.’
2And when dawn breaks and the sun rises upon the earth, each of you will take up your weapons, and every able-bodied man will go out of the city. You will appoint a commander over them, as if going down to the plain against the outpost of the sons of Asshur—but you will not actually go down.
3And they will take up their full armor and go to their camp to awaken the generals of the army of Asshur. They will run together to the tent of Holofernes, but they will not find him. Then fear will fall upon them, and they will flee from before you.
4Then you, and all who inhabit every region of Israel, pursue them and cut them down in their paths.
5But before you do these things, call Achior the Ammonite to me, so that he may see and recognize the one who despised the house of Israel and sent him to us as though to his death.
6So they called Achior from the house of Uzziah. And when he came and saw the head of Holofernes in a man’s hand in the assembly of the people, he fell on his face, and his spirit failed him.
7And when they revived him, he fell at Judith’s feet, bowed down before her, and said, ‘Blessed are you in every tent of Judah and in every nation; all who hear your name will be shaken.’
8‘And now, tell me all that you have done in these days.’ So Judith recounted to him in the midst of the people everything she had done, from the day she went out until the moment she was speaking to them.
9And when she stopped speaking, the people shouted with a loud voice and raised a joyful cry in their city.
10And when Achior saw all that the God of Israel had done, he believed deeply in God. He circumcised the flesh of his foreskin and was joined to the house of Israel, to this very day.
11And when dawn came, they hung the head of Holofernes from the wall. Every man of Israel took up his weapons, and they went out by companies to the mountain passes.
12When the sons of Asshur saw them, they sent word to their leaders; and these went to the generals, the commanders of a thousand, and to all their other officers.
13And they came to the tent of Holofernes and said to the one who was in charge of all his affairs, ‘Wake our lord, for the slaves have dared to come down against us for battle, to be utterly destroyed!’
14So Bagoas went in and clapped his hands before the curtain of the tent, for he supposed that Holofernes was sleeping with Judith.
15But when no one answered, he parted the curtain and entered the bedchamber, and found him thrown on the bedstead, dead, with his head taken from him.
16And he cried out with a loud voice, with weeping and groaning and a mighty shout, and he tore his garments.
17Then he entered the tent where Judith had been lodging, but he did not find her. He rushed out to the people, crying:
18‘The slaves have acted treacherously! A single Hebrew woman has brought shame upon the house of King Nebuchadnezzar! For look, Holofernes is on the ground, and his head is not on him!’
19When the commanders of the army of Asshur heard these words, they tore their tunics, and they were deeply shaken. And a great and terrible outcry arose from them in the midst of the camp.
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