Judith 9

1But Judith fell on her face, and put ashes on her head, and uncovered the sackcloth she had been wearing. And at that very time the evening incense was being offered in Jerusalem in the house of God, and Judith cried out with a loud voice to the Lord,

2And she said, “O Lord, God of my father Simeon, to whom you gave a sword in his hand for vengeance against foreigners, who loosed a virgin’s womb for defilement and bared the thigh for shame and profaned the womb for disgrace—though you said, ‘It shall not be so’; but they did it.”

3Therefore you gave their rulers over to slaughter, and their bed, which was ashamed of their deceit, was deceived into blood; and you struck servants against princes, and princes upon their thrones.

4And you gave their wives as plunder, and their daughters into captivity, and all their spoils for division among the sons beloved by you, who also were zealous with your zeal and abhorred the defilement of their blood and called on you for help. O God, my God, hear me, the widow.

5For you made those things before them, and those things and the things afterward and the things now and the things to come you planned, and what you planned came to be.

6And what I planned stood ready, and they said, ‘Behold, we are here; for all your ways are prepared, and your judgment is in foreknowledge.’

7For behold, the Assyrians have multiplied in their strength; they have been exalted on horse and rider; they have boasted in the arm of foot soldiers; they have hoped in shield and spear and bow and sling, and they have not known that you are the Lord, the one who shatters wars.

8Lord is your name; you, shatter their strength in your power, and break their might in your wrath; for they planned to profane your holy things, to defile the tabernacle, the resting place of your glorious name, and to cast down with the sword the horn of your altar.

9Look upon their arrogance; send your wrath upon their heads; give power to what I have planned by the hand of me, a widow.

10Strike servant against ruler with the deceit of my lips, and ruler against his attendant; shatter their arrogance by the hand of a woman.

11For your power is not in a multitude, nor is your dominion among the strong; rather, you are God of the lowly, helper of the lesser, supporter of the weak, shelter of the forsaken, savior of those without hope.

12Yes, yes, O God of my father and God of Israel’s inheritance, Master of the heavens and of the earth, Creator of the waters, King of all your creation, you—hear my prayer.

13And make my words and deceit become their wound and bruise, they who have devised harsh things against your covenant and your sanctified house and the summit of Zion and the house possessed by your sons.

14And bring about, upon all your nation and every tribe, recognition, so that they may know that you are the God of all power and might, and there is no other who defends the people of Israel except you.