A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Judith, of the tribe of Reuben
JUDITH,
Of the tribe of Reuben, daughter of Meravi, and widow of Manasseh, lived in Bethuliah, when it was besieged by Holoferaes. She was beautiful and wealthy, and lived very much secluded. Being informed that the chief of Bethulia had promised to deliver it in five days, she sent for the elders and remonstrated with them, and declared her intention of leaving the city for a short time. Judith then prayed, dressed herself in her best attire, and pretending to have fled from the city, went, with her maid, to the camp of Holofemes, whom she captivated by her beauty, and eventually destroyed by striking off his head while he lay asleep in his tent after a debauch; his army was then defeated; everything that had belonged to him was given to Judith, and who consecrated his arms and the curtains of his bed to the Lord. Judith died in Bethulia at the age of one hundred and five, was buried with her husband, and all the people lamented her seven days.
The "Song of Judith," as recorded in the Apocrypha, is a poem of much power and beauty.