She put the head in her bag of meat and gave it to her maid, and the twain went forth together, according to their custom, as unto prayer, and passed the camp.  Then came they to Bethulia, and were admitted into the city; and the people were astonished wonderfully and worshipped God, and said:  Blessed be thou, O our God, which hast this day brought to nought the enemies of thy people.  The head of Holofernes was hanged up on the highest place of the city walls, and the men of Israel went forth by bands into the passes of the mountain.  When the Assyrians saw this, they sent to Holofernes’s tent, and said that the slaves of Israelites had come forth against them in battle.  Then Bagoas went into the tent and found the body of Holofernes cast upon the ground and his head taken away.  When also he found not Judith, he leaped out to the people and told them; and great fear and trembling fell upon them, and they fled, being chased until past Damascus and the borders thereof by the children of Israel, who gat many spoils.  Then Judith sang a song of thanksgiving in all Israel, and the people sang after her.  She dedicated the spoil of Holofernes, which the people had given her, for a gift unto the Lord; and when she died in Bethulia, a widow of great honour, all Israel did lament.

THE BOOK OF ESTHER

     These are the chapters of the Book of Esther, which are found
     neither in the Hebrew nor in the Chaldee.

In the second year of the reign of Artaxerxes the Great, Mardocheus, who was a Jew and dwelt in the city of Susa, had a dream.  And the same night he overheard two eunuchs plotting to lay hands on Artaxerxes, and he, being a servitor in the king’s court, told the king; and the eunuchs, after examination, were strangled.  Aman, because of this, induced Artaxerxes to write to all the princes and governors from India unto Ethiopia to destroy all the Jews, with their wives and children, without pity, on the fourteenth day of the twelfth month of Adar.  Mardocheus and Queen Esther, being in the fear of death, resorted unto the Lord, and prayed for deliverance, and for the preservation of the children of Israel.  On the third day, Queen Esther cometh unto the king’s presence; and she was ruddy through the perfection of her beauty, but her heart was in anguish for fear.  The king looketh angrily at her as she stood before his royal throne, and she fainteth.  Then God changed the spirit of the king, who leaped from his throne, took her in his arms, saying:  Be of good cheer, thou shalt not die, though our commandment be general.  As he was speaking, she fell a second time for faintness, and the king was troubled and all his servants comforted her.

Artaxerxes then wrote a letter to all the princes wherein he taxed Aman, the Macedonian, with having by manifold and cunning deceits sought the destruction of Mardocheus, who had saved the king’s life, and also of the blameless Esther, partaker of his kingdom, with their whole nation.  The king revoked the decree procured by Aman, who, with all his family, was hanged at the gates of Susa.  And the king commanded the day of their deliverance to be kept holy.