“As the women were going straight on through the valley, an Assyrian patrol met Judith. They took her into custody. They asked her.
‘To what people do you belong?
Where are you coming from?
Where are you going?’
She replied.
‘I am a daughter of the Hebrews,
But I am fleeing from them.
They are about to be handed over to you to be devoured.
I am on my way to the presence of General Holofernes,
The commander of your army,
To give him a true report.
I will show him the way
By which he can go and capture all the hill country
Without losing one of his men, captured or slain.’”
Naturally, these 2 women walking alone in the valley with all these Assyrian troops were stopped. They were taken into custody and asked questions about who they were, where they were coming from and where they were going. Judith responded that she was a Hebrew but she did not want to be destroyed. She wanted to meet General Holofernes to show him a way to capture the Israelites without anyone being captured or killed.
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 