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Judith 1:1-4
New Catholic Bible
Judith 1:1-4
New Catholic Bible
The Assyrian Threat[a]
Fall of the Empire of the Medes
Chapter 1[b]
War against the Medes. 1 It was the twelfth year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar,[c] who ruled the Assyrians in the great city of Nineveh. During that period Arphaxad ruled over the Medes in Ecbatana, 2 and he completely encircled this city with a wall constructed of hewn stones, each stone three cubits thick and six cubits long. The completed wall was seventy cubits high and fifty cubits thick. 3 At the city’s gates he erected towers one hundred cubits high, with a thickness of sixty cubits at its foundations. 4 He made its gates seventy cubits high and forty cubits wide to enable his entire army to march out in a body with his infantry arrayed in proper rank.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Judith 1:1 The author manipulates history, geography, and numbers, as in apocalyptic works, to impress the reader; in this gigantic and unequal combat, the fate of the party of God takes place.
- Judith 1:1 Nebuchadnezzar personifies the power and haughtiness of those who dominate nations and combat the People of God. The name Arphaxad, a person unknown to history, is taken from Gen 10:22; the dimensions of the fortifications are exaggerated so as to give the impression of something colossal. The forces of the Cheleoud probably refers to the Chaldeans. The peoples are listed by enumerating the biblical names from one end to the other of the Near East. With the collapse of the Median Empire (in fact it was absorbed by the Persian Empire), the whole power of paganism lies in the hand of a single king. The public rejoicing is on a par with those after similar victories (Est 1:3-8; Dan 5).
- Judith 1:1 Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylonia (604–562 B.C.), was never called “king of Assyria” and did not reign at Nineveh, which had been destroyed in 612 B.C. by his father Nabopolassar. Ecbatana (modern-day Hamadan) was founded by the Mede Deioces. Some scholars believe that the Book’s historical confusion (of which this is an example) is deliberate with the purpose of stamping the work as fiction.
