Judith:16

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* Then Judith began to sing this thanksgiving in all Israel , and all the people sang after her this song of praise . * And Judith said , Begin unto my God with timbrels , sing unto my Lord with cymbals : tune unto him a new psalm : exalt him , and call upon his name . * For God breaketh the battles : for among the camps in the midst of the people he hath delivered me out of the hands of them that persecuted me . * Assur came out of the mountains from the north , he came with ten thousands of his army , the multitude whereof stopped the torrents , and their horsemen have covered the hills . * He bragged that he would burn up my borders , and kill my young men with the sword , and dash the sucking children against the ground , and make mine infants as a prey , and my virgins as a spoil . * But the Almighty Lord hath disappointed them by the hand of a woman . * For the mighty one did not fall by the young men , neither did the sons of the Titans smite him , nor high giants set upon him : but Judith the daughter of Merari weakened him with the beauty of her countenance . * For she put off the garment of her widowhood for the exaltation of those that were oppressed in Israel , and anointed her face with ointment , and bound her hair in a tire , and took a linen garment to deceive him . * Her sandals ravished his eyes , her beauty took his mind prisoner , and the fauchion passed through his neck . * The Persians quaked at her boldness , and the Medes were daunted at her hardiness . * Then my afflicted shouted for joy , and my weak ones cried aloud ; but they were astonished : these lifted up their voices , but they were overthrown . * The sons of the damsels have pierced them through , and wounded them as fugatives ' children : they perished by the battle of the Lord . * I will sing unto the Lord a new song : O Lord , thou art great and glorious , wonderful in strength , and invincible . * Let all creatures serve thee : for thou spakest , and they were made , thou didst send forth thy spirit , and it created them , and there is none that can resist thy voice . * For the mountains shall be moved from their foundations with the waters , the rocks shall melt as wax at thy presence : yet thou art merciful to them that fear thee . * For all sacrifice is too little for a sweet savour unto thee , and all the fat is not sufficient for thy burnt offering : but he that feareth the Lord is great at all times . * Woe to the nations that rise up against my kindred ! the Lord Almighty will take vengeance of them in the day of judgment , in putting fire and worms in their flesh ; and they shall feel them , and weep for ever . * Now as soon as they entered into Jerusalem , they worshipped the Lord ; and as soon as the people were purified , they offered their burnt offerings , and their free offerings , and their gifts . * Judith also dedicated all the stuff of Holofernes , which the people had given her , and gave the canopy , which she had taken out of his bedchamber , for a gift unto the Lord . * So the people continued feasting in Jerusalem before the sanctuary for the space of three months and Judith remained with them . * After this time every one returned to his own inheritance , and Judith went to Bethulia , and remained in her own possession , and was in her time honourable in all the country . * And many desired her , but none knew her all the days of her life , after that Manasses her husband was dead , and was gathered to his people . * But she increased more and more in honour , and waxed old in her husband 's house , being an hundred and five years old , and made her maid free ; so she died in Bethulia : and they buried her in the cave of her husband Manasses . * And the house of Israel lamented her seven days : and before she died , she did distribute her goods to all them that were nearest of kindred to Manasses her husband , and to them that were the nearest of her kindred . * And there was none that made the children of Israel any more afraid in the days of Judith , nor a long time after her death .

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