“Then Judith said to them.
‘Listen to me!
My friends,
Take this head!
Hang it upon the parapet of your wall!
As soon as day breaks,
When the sun rises on the earth,
Each of you take up your weapons!
Let every able-bodied man go out of the town.
Set a captain over them,
As if you were going down to the plain
Against the Assyrian outpost.
Only do not go down.
Then they will seize their arms.
They will go into the camp.
They will rouse the officers of the Assyrian army.
They will rush into the tent of Holofernes.
They will not find him.
Then panic will come over them.
They will flee before you.
Then you,
And all who live within the borders of Israel,
Will pursue them.
You will cut them down in their tracks!
But before you do all this,
Bring Achior the Ammonite to me.
Let him see and recognize the man
Who despised the house of Israel,
And sent him to us as if to his death.’”
Judith then has a further plan on what to do next. First, they are going to put the head of General Holofernes on the wall. Then at sunrise, all the able bodied men would take their weapons and form a line as if to attack the Assyrians. This will then force the Assyrians to tell their commanders what was happening. When they would go to tell General Holofernes what happened, they will panic because they will find out that he is dead. There will be general disorder so that we can then attack and pursue them. All of this was based on the assumption that without their general they would simply panic and run away. Israel would then pursue them and kill them. However, Judith still wanted to talk to Achior the Ammonite before they began this exploit.
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 