The heroines in the Book of Judges and in the Book of Judith are powerful women executing the men who were against God. The difference is that Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite killed the man who wanted to destroy the Israelites, the commander of King Jabin of Canaan; Sisera, by sudden inspiration, when he came to her for safety. On the other hand, Judith, a widow from the town of Judea had a carefully thought out plan for her assassination of Holofernes, the chief general of Nebuchadnezzar King of the Assyrian’s. Each book represents these women as saviors to their people, and as a force of God’s judgment.
Judith is represented as a beautiful, wise woman with much devotion to God. All the people in her town of Judea looked up to her for the wisdom and understanding she had in the Lord God, and believed along with her that God will help them to defeat Holofernes, and his army. In the book of Judges, Deborah, the only female judge, ordered that Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali to go and defeat Sisera the general of King Jabin’s army. Barak diminishes his heroic stature when he says “If you will go with me, I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go” (Judges 4:8). He does not realize that in the end the defeat of Sisera will be at the hand of a woman. The difference is that Judith had much confidence in going up against Holofernes, believing that God will be her guide. It seems as if Barak did not believe in Deborah’s message, and would only carry out the orders if he had her by his side.
When Judith prepares to set out on her mission against Holofernes she prays to God for his blessing and announces that she pl ...