Resumo de Judith - The Apocrypha

Judith is one of the books of The Apocrypha. The Apocrypha contains the books or portions of books written between the Old and New Testaments of the Holy Bible. Over the years, portions of The Apocrypha appeared in the ?official? Bible, at other times, Biblical experts determined these books did not belong there. Your personal Bible may or may not contain them. Regardless of whether it does or not, the story of Judith is an exciting read.

During his reign over Assyria, King Nebuchadnezzar wanted to start a war with the Medes. Nebuchadnezzar called all the inhabitants of Assyria and the surrounding areas join him in war. The people said no, and Nebuchadnezzar got angry. He called his chief general, Holofernes, and instructed him to gather hundreds of troops and mounted cavalry to go throughout the land and kill and plunder all the people who refused to go to war with him.

Holofernes did as Nebuchadnezzar ordered and captured or destroyed all the people in the surrounding area. Then people greatly feared Holofernes. Eventually, Holofernes? army reached the land of Judea. The leaders of that country made a plan to move all the citizens to the mountains, taking food and water with them to withstand Holofernes? troops. When Holofernes learned of this, he called the leaders of the Canaanite people together to ask them about these people from Judea hiding in the hills. The leaders told how the people had come into their land and took it away. They also warned Holofernes that the God of these people was strong, and that maybe Holofernes should think about going around Judea. This made Holofernes even angrier and he prepared to wipe Judea off the map.

Holofernes and his army cut the water supply lines to the Judeans in the hills. After a time with little fresh water, the Judeans went to their leader, Uzziah, and requested him to surrender to Holofernes. Uzziah told the people to wait 5 days for their God to deliver them from Holofernes.

When Judith, a devout, beautiful and wealthy widow, heard this news, she called Uzziah and some of the other leaders to her home and lectured them on belief and trust in God. Then she formulated a plan to get Holofernes and his army to leave them and Judea alone and unharmed. After much prayer, Judith and her maid put the plan into action. Judith dressed in her best clothing and she and her maid went down to Holofernes? camp. She was able to get in to see Holofernes, because of her beauty, and told him a lie about how he could capture Judea and its people without any loss of life to his troops. Judith got into the good graces of Holofernes and his guards and troops and could move about the camp as she wanted.

One night, Holofernes decided he wanted to sleep with Judith, so he invited her to a party intending to get her drunk. Judith made sure Holofernes was the one who got so drunk that he passed out and Judith was able to execute her plan to save Judea and its people. Read the story to find out about Judith?s bravery in the face of thousand of enemy troops.

Resumos Relacionados