1Then Judith fell on her face, put ashes on her head, and uncovered the sackcloth she was wearing. And at that very hour, the evening incense was being offered in Jerusalem in the house of God. And Judith cried out to the Lord with a loud voice and said:
2“O Lord, God of my father Simeon, to whom you gave a sword in hand for vengeance against foreigners, who violated a virgin’s womb for defilement, and laid bare her thigh for shame, and profaned her womb for disgrace. For you said, ‘It shall not be so,’ yet they did it.
3Therefore you gave their rulers to slaughter, and their bed, which was shamed by their deceit, was itself deceived into bloodshed. And you struck down slaves with their masters, and masters on their thrones.
4And you gave their women as plunder and their daughters as captives, and all their spoils for a division among the sons beloved by you, who were zealous with your zeal and abhorred the defilement of their bloodline, and called upon you for help. O God, my God, hear me, a widow.
5For you made the things that came before those events, and those events themselves, and the things that came after. You have planned both the things of now and the things to come, and what you intended came to be.
6The things you willed presented themselves and said, ‘Behold, we are here.’ For all your ways are prepared, and your judgment is set with foreknowledge.
7For behold, the Assyrians have multiplied in their power; they are exalted in horse and rider. They have boasted in the arm of their infantry; they have trusted in shield and javelin, in bow and sling. And they did not know that you are the Lord, the crusher of wars.
8Lord is your name. Dash their strength with your power, and break their might in your wrath. For they have planned to profane your holy things, to defile the tabernacle where your glorious name rests, and to cut down with iron the horn of your altar.
9Look upon their arrogance, send forth your wrath upon their heads, and give into my hand—a widow’s hand—the power for what I have planned.
10By the deceit of my lips, strike the slave with the ruler, and the ruler with his servant. Shatter their lofty pride by the hand of a female.
11For your strength is not in numbers, nor your dominion in the mighty. But you are a God of the humble, a helper of the lowly, a supporter of the weak, a shelter for the forsaken, a savior of the hopeless.
12Yes, yes, O God of my father and God of the inheritance of Israel, Master of the heavens and the earth, Creator of the waters, King of all your creation, hear my prayer.
13And make my word and my deceit a wound and a bruise for them, who have planned harsh things against your covenant, your hallowed house, the peak of Zion, and the house that is your sons’ possession.
14And make your whole nation and every tribe recognize and know that you are the God of all power and might, and that there is no other who shields the people of Israel but you.”
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