Judith Commands the Attack

‎Hastening onward to Bethulia, Judith displayed the head of Holofernes to her countrymen and told them what she had done. In a vehement speech she urged that they should hang up the head before all men upon their city walls; then with this to encourage their followers, they should prepare to attack the Assyrians.

‎They followed Judith’s counsel. Yet she would not let them advance instantly, but marshalled them before the city gates as a threat against the enemy. There she held them waiting, till the Assyrians, having ventured into the general’s tent to summon him, discovered his hideous death. A panic swept the entire army of the invaders; they fled in every direction, and the Israelites gathering from Bethulia and other cities pursued and slaughtered them. After this Judith led her people in singing a great chant of praise.

‎“For 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.”