Holofernes Crosses the Euphratres
The story opens on a metaphor that situates the devastating power of Holofernes with a simple but effective symbol of recognizable devastating capacity while also immediately instilling the knowledge that force of nature is neither wanted nor easily dismissed.
“Unheralded, like some tornado loosed
Out of the brooding hills, it came to pass.”
The Assyrians
The full extent of the malevolence that Assyrians presents in the eyes of Judith is conveyed following a month-long siege when she looks out over the military encampment below:
“The army like a witch's caldron seethed.”
The Citizens
Under assault, the citizens of the city find themselves succumbing to the effects of the tornado of Holofernes. The full viral extent the consequences of the crossing of the Euphrates is revealed through the specificity of the metaphorical state:
“The city, with its pestilential breath,
A hive of woes, lay close beneath her feet”
The Israelites
Judith is moved by the sights she sees and the suffering around her, but it is history that is her guide. More to the point; it is the sorrowful dread of a history on the edge of an end that has gripped her heart and steadied her resolve:
“Yet dear to her, and for his memory dear,
Was Israel, the chosen people, now
How shorn of glory!”
Waiting for God
Judith puts her faith in the God of that long history which has served the Israelites well under the duress of dark times before. Patient wears thin, but Judith remains steadfast. It is not for man to put the almighty on a schedule:
“`His time is not man's time,’ Judith cried,
`And why should we, the dust beneath His feet,
Decide the hour of our deliverance.’”
