---
title: "Judith 16 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/judith/16/
description: "The canticle of Judith: her virtuous life and death. Judith 16 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Judith 16

Judith 16 is chapter 16 of 16 in the Book of Judith. Here are all 31 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> The canticle of Judith: her virtuous life and death.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Judith 16 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. Then Judith sang this canticle to the Lord, saying:
2. “Call to the Lord with drums, sing to the Lord with cymbals, play for him a new psalm, exalt and invoke his name.
3. The Lord crushes wars; the Lord is his name.
4. He has set up his camp in the midst of his people, to rescue us from the hand of all our enemies.
5. Assur came from the mountains, from the North, with the multitude of his strength. His multitude blockaded the torrents, and their horses covered the valleys.
6. He told himself that he would set fire to my borders, and kill my young men with the sword, to give my children into plunder and my virgins into captivity.
7. But the almighty Lord has harmed him, and he has delivered him into the hands of a woman, and he has pierced him through.
8. For their powerful one did not fall by young men, nor did the sons of Titan strike him, nor did lofty giants set themselves against him, but Judith, the daughter of Merari, dissolved him with the splendor of her face.
9. For she put away from herself the garments of widowhood, and she clothed herself with the garments of rejoicing, for the sake of the exultation of the sons of Israel.
10. She anointed her face with ointment, and she gathered the locks of her hair with a headdress; she accepted a new dress in order to deceive him.
11. Her sandals ravished his eyes; her beauty made his soul her captive; with a blade, she cut off his head.
12. The Persians were horrified at her constancy, and the Medes at her boldness.
13. Then the camp of the Assyrians howled, when my humble ones appeared, parched with thirst.
14. The sons of the servant girls have pierced them through, and, like fleeing servants, they have killed them. They perished in battle before the face of the Lord, my God.
15. Let us sing a canticle to the Lord; let us sing a new hymn to our God.
16. O Adonai, O Lord, you are great, and splendor is in your virtue, and no one is able to overcome you.
17. Let all your creatures serve you. For you spoke, and they became. You sent forth your Spirit, and they were created. And there is no one who can withstand your voice.
18. The mountains will be moved from the foundations by the waters. The rocks, like wax, will liquefy before your face.
19. But those who fear you will be great with you, throughout all things.
20. Woe to the people that rises up against my people. For the Lord almighty will be vindicated against them; in the day of judgment, he will visit them.
21. For he will bestow fire and worms on their flesh, so that they may burn and have sensations without ceasing.”
22. And it happened that, after these things, all the people came to Jerusalem after the victory, to adore the Lord. And as soon as they were purified, they all offered holocausts, and vows, and their promises.
23. Moreover, Judith offered all the implements of war from Holofernes, which the people gave to her, and the canopy that she had taken away from his chamber, as an anathema unto oblivion.
24. But the people were cheerful before the face of the sanctuary, and for three months the gladness of this victory was celebrated with Judith.
25. And after those days, each one returned to his own house, and Judith became great in Bethulia, and she had great splendor in all the land of Israel.
26. For chastity was one with her virtue, so that she did not know man all the days of her life, after the passing away of her husband, Manasseh.
27. And then, on feast days, she came forth with great glory.
28. But she remained in her husband’s house for one hundred and five years, and she set her handmaid free. And she passed away and was buried with her husband in Bethulia.
29. And all the people mourned her, for seven days.
30. And, during all the time of her life, there was no one who disturbed Israel, nor for many years after her death.
31. Moreover, the day of the festivity of this victory was accepted by the Hebrews in the numbering of holy days, and it was religiously observed by the Jews, from that time, even to the present day.

## Judith 16 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Tunc cantavit canticum hoc Domino Judith, dicens:
2. Incipite Domino in tympanis; cantate Domino in cymbalis; modulamini illi psalmum novum: exaltate, et invocate nomen ejus.
3. Dominus conterens bella, Dominus nomen est illi.
4. Qui posuit castra sua in medio populi sui, ut eriperet nos de manu omnium inimicorum nostrorum.
5. Venit Assur ex montibus ab aquilone in multitudine fortitudinis suæ: cujus multitudo obturavit torrentes, et equi eorum cooperuerunt valles.
6. Dixit se incensurum fines meos, et juvenes meos occisurum gladio; infantes meos dare in prædam, et virgines in captivitatem.
7. Dominus autem omnipotens nocuit eum, et tradidit eum in manus feminæ, et confodit eum.
8. Non enim cecidit potens eorum a juvenibus, nec filii Titan percusserunt eum, nec excelsi gigantes opposuerunt se illi: sed Judith filia Merari in specie faciei suæ dissolvit eum.
9. Exuit enim se vestimento viduitatis, et induit se vestimento lætitiæ in exultatione filiorum Israël.
10. Unxit faciem suam unguento, et colligavit cincinnos suos mitra; accepit stolam novam ad decipiendum illum.
11. Sandalia ejus rapuerunt oculos ejus; pulchritudo ejus captivam fecit animam ejus: amputavit pugione cervicem ejus.
12. Horruerunt Persæ constantiam ejus, et Medi audaciam ejus.
13. Tunc ululaverunt castra Assyriorum, quando apparuerunt humiles mei, arescentes in siti.
14. Filii puellarum compunxerunt eos, et sicut pueros fugientes occiderunt eos: perierunt in prælio a facie Domini Dei mei.
15. Hymnum cantemus Domino; hymnum novum cantemus Deo nostro.
16. Adonai Domine, magnus es tu, et præclarus in virtute tua: et quem superare nemo potest.
17. Tibi serviat omnis creatura tua, quia dixisti, et facta sunt; misisti spiritum tuum, et creata sunt: et non est qui resistat voci tuæ.
18. Montes a fundamentis movebuntur cum aquis; petræ, sicut cera, liquescent ante faciem tuam.
19. Qui autem timent te, magni erunt apud te per omnia.
20. Væ genti insurgenti super genus meum: Dominus enim omnipotens vindicabit in eis; in die judicii visitabit illos.
21. Dabit enim ignem et vermes in carnes eorum, ut urantur et sentiant usque in sempiternum.
22. Et factum est post hæc, omnis populus post victoriam venit in Jerusalem adorare Dominum: et mox ut purificati sunt, obtulerunt omnes holocausta, et vota, et repromissiones suas.
23. Porro Judith universa vasa bellica Holofernis, quæ dedit illi populus, et conopeum quod ipsa sustulerat de cubili ipsius, obtulit in anathema oblivionis.
24. Erat autem populus jucundus secundum faciem sanctorum: et per tres menses gaudium hujus victoriæ celebratum est cum Judith.
25. Post dies autem illos, unusquisque rediit in domum suam: et Judith magna facta est in Bethulia, et præclarior erat universæ terræ Israël.
26. Erat enim virtuti castitas adjuncta, ita ut non cognosceret virum omnibus diebus vitæ suæ, ex quo defunctus est Manasses vir ejus.
27. Erat autem, diebus festis, procedens cum magna gloria.
28. Mansit autem in domo viri sui annos centum quinque, et dimisit abram suam liberam: et defuncta est ac sepulta cum viro suo in Bethulia.
29. Luxitque illam omnis populus diebus septem.
30. In omni autem spatio vitæ ejus non fuit qui perturbaret Israël, et post mortem ejus annis multis.
31. Dies autem victoriæ hujus festivitatis ab Hebræis in numero sanctorum dierum accipitur, et colitur a Judæis ex illo tempore usque in præsentem diem.

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 23: That is, a gift or offering made to God, by way of an everlasting monument, to prevent the oblivion or forgetting so great a benefit.

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