Victory Hymn and Return to Bethulia

Hebrew militiamen spent thirty days stripping valuables from the abandoned Assyrian camp. They hauled heavy iron swords, silver washbasins, and woven wool canopies down the mountain paths. Women stripped branches from local olive trees to weave thick festival crowns. Judith struck a wooden tambourine and led a massive victory procession toward the capital.

The victorious Israelites traveled almost forty miles south to Jerusalem for temple sacrifices. Judith presented the heavy silver-threaded tent of the enemy general to the God of Israel. She refused all marriage proposals and returned north to her farming estate in Bethulia. She lived there in quiet prosperity until the middle of the sixth century b.c.

Judith lived to the advanced age of one hundred and five years. Before her death, she granted full legal freedom to her loyal female servant. Her family buried her in the hollowed limestone cave of her husband Manasseh. No foreign armies dared to threaten the border towns for several uninterrupted generations.

I will sing a new song to my God. O Lord, you are great and glorious, wonderful in strength, and invincible.

The local population gathered to mourn her passing for a period of seven days. Town leaders distributed her remaining land and grazing cattle among her closest living relatives. Her reputation commanded immense respect across the rocky hill country long after her burial.