Catholic Commentary
Judith's Prayer Before the Act
4All went away from her presence, and none was left in the bedchamber, small or great. Judith, standing by his bed, said in her heart, O Lord God of all power, look in this hour upon the works of my hands for the exaltation of Jerusalem.5For now is the time to help your inheritance, and to do the thing that I have purposed to the destruction of the enemies which have risen up against us.
Judith 13:4–5 describes Judith's moment of solitude and interior prayer as she stands by Holofernes' bed, invoking God as "Lord God of all power" and asking Him to witness her act for the exaltation of Jerusalem and destruction of the enemies of His people. Her prayer is entirely internal and devoid of self-interest, framed as divine purpose rather than personal initiative.
Judith prays not for her own safety but places her hands entirely under God's gaze, showing that faithful action flows from silent trust in God's purpose, not from personal courage.
"And to do the thing that I have purposed to the destruction of the enemies." Judith's "purpose" (epinoia) is cast not as personal initiative but as a plan already aligned with divine will. The enemies are described as those "which have risen up against us" — a phrase evoking Psalm 124 and the Reed Sea deliverance, placing Judith's act within the long typological arc of God saving His people from overwhelming odds through unexpected instruments.
Typological Sense: Judith as a type of Mary is one of the most ancient and persistent readings in Catholic tradition. Just as Judith stands alone, in silence, in the darkness, and crushes the head of the enemy of God's people, so Mary is the woman of Genesis 3:15 whose seed crushes the head of the serpent. Both acts are performed in hiddenness; both redound entirely to God's glory.
Catholic tradition has long read these two verses as a masterclass in the theology of prayer and cooperation with divine grace. St. Jerome, who included Judith in his translation (the Vulgate) over his own initial hesitations, explicitly defended the book's canonical status by pointing to its spiritual depth — and this passage in particular exemplifies why: here is a human being fully aware of her own insufficiency, placing every contingency before God before lifting a finger.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (§2559) defines prayer as "the raising of one's mind and heart to God," precisely what Judith performs here — in the heart, standing, in the most dangerous moment of her life. Her prayer is not a magical formula but an act of radical theological trust. She does not pray instead of acting; she acts out of prayer. This perfectly illustrates what the CCC (§1814–1816) describes as the virtue of faith: a personal adherence to God, confident trust in His promises, and the obedience that issues from it.
Pope St. John Paul II, in Mulieris Dignitatem (§14), draws on Old Testament heroines — including Judith — as models of how women have historically been instruments of God's saving purposes in moments of national and spiritual crisis. Judith's appeal to "your inheritance" reflects what the Church understands as the deeply Marian logic of intercession: approaching God not on one's own merits but on behalf of the community, and invoking God's own fidelity to His covenant as the ground of appeal.
St. Clement of Rome (1 Clement 55) cites Judith as a model of courage who "exposed herself to danger" for the love of her people — an early patristic recognition that her act was ordered entirely to charity and the common good. The Church has consistently held, from Origen through Aquinas, that Judith's deed is morally intelligible only in light of her prayer: she acts as an instrument of God, not as a private avenger.
Contemporary Catholics often compartmentalize prayer and action — treating them as sequential rather than simultaneous. Judith's example breaks that dichotomy with force. She does not retreat to pray and then return to act; she prays at the very threshold of the act, poised and resolved, asking only that God's gaze accompany what her hands are about to do. This is a model for every Catholic who must act in circumstances of moral weight: the surgeon before a critical operation, the parent confronting a child in crisis, the politician facing a vote of conscience, the employee about to speak an uncomfortable truth. The practice of a brief, sincere, interior prayer — "Lord, look upon the works of my hands" — before a decisive moment is not piety detached from real life. It is the integration of faith and action that the Church calls holiness. Judith also models petitionary prayer that is entirely unself-interested: she prays for Jerusalem, not for herself. Catholics today are invited to examine whether their prayer is centered on God's glory and the good of the community, or primarily on personal comfort and safety.
Commentary
Judith 13:4 — The Emptying of the Chamber and the Interior Prayer
"All went away from her presence, and none was left in the bedchamber, small or great." The narrator's insistence that no one remained — "small or great" — is not merely circumstantial detail. It is a deliberate theological staging. This is the moment of absolute solitude, the point at which human witnesses vanish and God alone remains as witness. The phrase echoes the language of divine encounter in the Hebrew tradition: Moses before the burning bush, Elijah at Horeb, and the soul before God in the Psalms. The bedchamber, a space of Gentile power and sensual entrapment, is transformed into a sanctuary of prayer.
"Judith, standing by his bed, said in her heart." The posture of standing (rather than prostrating) is significant — standing is the posture of the free, the petitioner before a king, the vigilant. That she prays in her heart (Greek: en tē kardia autēs) underscores the interiority of her faith. This is not performance; there is no audience. It is the purest form of prayer: wordless in the exterior, yet cry-like in the interior. The Deuteronomic tradition consistently prizes the prayer of the heart over external ritual (cf. Deut 6:6).
"O Lord God of all power, look in this hour upon the works of my hands." The address — "Lord God of all power" (Kyrie ho Theos pases dynameōs) — is a throne-room invocation, acknowledging divine sovereignty over every force in heaven and earth, including Holofernes' vast army. Judith does not ask God to grant her strength; she asks Him to look upon her hands — hands already poised for action. This implies that her resolve is already formed and her act is being placed entirely under God's gaze. The phrase "in this hour" (en tē hōra tautē) gives the moment eschatological weight; it is a kairos, a decisive, God-appointed time.
"For the exaltation of Jerusalem." Her purpose is stripped of self-interest. She seeks not survival, not glory, not revenge. She seeks the hypsōsis Ierousalēm — the lifting up of the Holy City. Jerusalem functions here not merely as a geographic capital but as the embodiment of the covenant people, the dwelling place of God among His chosen.
Judith 13:5 — Inheritance, Time, and Purpose
"For now is the time to help your inheritance." The word inheritance (klēronomia) is loaded with covenantal meaning throughout the Old Testament — Israel is God's inheritance (Deut 32:9; Ps 28:9), the land is Israel's inheritance, and the Temple Mount is the inheritance promised to the tribe of Judah. Judith's appeal to "your inheritance" is a theological argument addressed to God: It mirrors the intercessory logic of Moses at Sinai (Ex 32:11–13).