The female hero
Judith is an undeniable hero in the poem. She is a literal Biblical hero, which is to say that she is legendary and folkloric. She is part of a whole cast of women in the Bible who serve as reminders that in the "holy" story, women are not less qualified as heroes than men. Actually, her being a woman puts her in close proximity to the king, and her fearlessness allows her to take a swing at defeating him, so to speak. Though many people might feel women are too weak to be heroes, the story suggests that they are strong enough, even if they have to hack twice to cut a human head off. In a way, that makes Judith twice as brutal, because Holofernes suffers two blows instead of one.
The motif of alcohol
The symbol of alcoholism appears throughout the story. In Holofernes's life, alcoholism is clearly a symbol for entitlement. It is also a symbol of pride, because a king who drinks is a king who is careless. It is like saying, "What's the worst that could happen?" The story responds by suggesting the worst that could happen is that he gets too drunk and gets his head chopped off by a sex slave. The alcoholism of the city is their downfall when Judith comes back and tells the Israelites that, although they are severely outnumbered, they will still win if they invade because the entire city stays super drunk all the time.
The entrance through the gates
When Judith enters the city of Bethulia, she enters through the gate which is a symbolic reference to a common Biblical motif. The symbol is a picture of honor, because she comes into the city through the official passage, in the center of the city's attention. The heroic way to enter a holy city (in the Bible) is through the front gate, like a king. This is a portrait of Judith as a royal power of the city. She is not a slave to another king but a hero to her homelands.
Misogyny
Holofernes is a symbol for misogyny and rape because he clearly forces himself on women by using the threat of power. The understanding is that if Judith says no, he will have her tortured and killed. The poem frames Judith's story as victory over the misogynistic patriarchy. The downfall of misogyny is that the same addictive relationship that Holofernes has to sex also extends to the pleasure of alcoholism. He drinks himself stupid and she chops his head off. Also, she is not strong enough to cut his head of cleanly, so she has to take two swings, which is a playful inversion of the typical "women aren't as strong as men," business, because she is twice as gory as a man.
The trophies
The bodies of the dead Assyrians are symbolic trophies of brutal victory. These bodies are presented by the poem as symbols for something very specific—the glory of God. Judith herself clarifies this, because she declines accepting the ultimate trophy, the blood of her oppressor Holofernes. She prefers to decline the earthly glory in order to receive a higher reward in heaven. This means that the sign of God's blessing is the ultimate, bloody, gory annihilation of oppressive governments. By the way, this is a consistent Biblical motif that appears over and over again. It's found in the first and last book of the Bible and in many, many books in-between. The reader might notice similarities to Greek folklore, like the Iliad.
