---
title: "Judith 1 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/judith/1/
description: "Nabuchodonosor king of the Assyrians overcometh Arphaxad king of the Medes. Judith 1 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Judith 1

Judith 1 is chapter 1 of 16 in the Book of Judith. Here are all 12 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> Nabuchodonosor king of the Assyrians overcometh Arphaxad king of the Medes.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Judith 1 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. And so Arphaxad, king of the Medes, subjugated many nations under his authority, and he built a very powerful city, which he called Ecbatana.
2. From stones, cut and squared, he made its walls: seventy cubits in height and thirty cubits in breadth. And, in truth, he set its towers one hundred cubits in height.
3. In fact, at its corners, each side was extended for the space of twenty feet. And he set its gates according to the height of the towers.
4. And he glorified it, in its power, with the force of his army and with the glory of his chariots.
5. Thereafter, in the twelfth year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyrians, who reigned in Nineveh the great city, fought against Arphaxad and prevailed over him:
6. in the great plain, which is called Ragae, near the Euphrates, and the Tigris, and the Hydaspes, at the encampment of Arioch, king of the Elymaeans.
7. Then the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar was exalted, and his heart was elevated. And he sent to all who dwelt in Cilicia, and Damascus, and Lebanon,
8. and to the nations that are in Carmel and Kedar, and to the inhabitants of Galilee, in the great plain of Esdrelon,
9. and to all who were in Samaria and across the river Jordan, even to Jerusalem and to all the land of Jesse, until one passes through to the borders of Ethiopia.
10. To all these, Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyrians, sent messengers:
11. whom they all with one mind contradicted, and they sent them back empty, and they rejected them without honor.
12. Then king Nebuchadnezzar, being indignant against all that land, swore by his throne and his kingdom that he would defend himself against all those regions.

## Judith 1 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Arphaxad itaque, rex Medorum, subjugaverat multas gentes imperio suo, et ipse ædificavit civitatem potentissimam, quam appellavit Ecbatanis,
2. ex lapidibus quadratis et sectis: fecit muros ejus in altitudinem cubitorum septuaginta, et in latitudinem cubitorum triginta: turres vero ejus posuit in altitudinem cubitorum centum.
3. Per quadrum vero earum latus utrumque vicenorum pedum spatio tendebatur, posuitque portas ejus in altitudinem turrium:
4. et gloriabatur quasi potens in potentia exercitus sui, et in gloria quadrigarum suarum.
5. Anno igitur duodecimo regni sui, Nabuchodonosor rex Assyriorum, qui regnabat in Ninive civitate magna, pugnavit contra Arphaxad, et obtinuit eum
6. in campo magno qui appellatur Ragau, circa Euphraten, et Tigrin, et Jadason, in campo Erioch regis Elicorum.
7. Tunc exaltatum est regnum Nabuchodonosor, et cor ejus elevatum est: et misit ad omnes qui habitabant in Cilicia, et Damasco, et Libano,
8. et ad gentes quæ sunt in Carmelo et Cedar, et inhabitantes Galilæam in campo magno Esdrelon,
9. et ad omnes qui erant in Samaria, et trans flumen Jordanem usque ad Jerusalem, et omnem terram Jesse quousque perveniatur ad terminos Æthiopiæ.
10. Ad hos omnes misit nuntios Nabuchodonosor rex Assyriorum:
11. qui omnes uno animo contradixerunt, et remiserunt eos vacuos, et sine honore abjecerunt.
12. Tunc indignatus Nabuchodonosor rex adversus omnem terram illam, juravit per thronum et regnum suum quod defenderet se de omnibus regionibus his.

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 1: “Arphaxad” … He was probably the same as is called Dejoces by Herodotus; to whom he attributes the building of Ecbatana, the capital city of Media.
- Verse 5: Not the king of Babylon, who took and destroyed Jerusalem, but another of the same name, who reigned in Ninive: and is called by profane historians Saosduchin. He succeeded Asarhaddan in the kingdom of the Assyrians, and was contemporary with Manasses king of Juda.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).