Judith, a play in three acts | Page 8

JUDITH. Who are you that have tempted God this day? For you cannot
find the depth of the heart of man,--how then shall you search out God
or comprehend his purpose? Brother, provoke not the Lord our God to
anger. For if he will not help us within these five days, he has power to
defend us when he will, even every day. Do not bind the counsels of
God. For God is not as man that he may be threatened, neither as the
son of man that he should be wavering. Therefore let us wait for
salvation from him, and he will hear our voice,--if it please him.
Moreover, this city is the key and the gateway to all Judea. If it be
obstinate in resistance, Judea is not defiled, but if it be taken the whole
land shall lie waste and God will require the profanation of it at our
mouth.
OZIAS. All that you have spoken is truth, and there is none to gainsay
your words. From the beginning of your days we have known your
wisdom, and your understanding is manifest.... (With significance.) But
we are thirsty.
JUDITH. If we are thirsty, let us give thanks to the Lord our God, who
tries us, even as he did our fathers.
OZIAS. The people in the extremity of their thirst compelled me to an
oath, which I will not break.
JUDITH. Say you the people, Ozias? As for them, you hold them
lightly, and they are as naught in your eyes. So much you have avowed.

OZIAS (_in a new tone_). It is true. This day I hold the people lightly.
But when the great madness and desperation of thirst comes at last
upon them, who shall hold them? In that day they will seize the things
forbidden, and they will drink the wine sanctified and reserved for the
priests that serve the Lord. And to avert from me the wrath of Joachim,
the high priest of Jerusalem, I have sent already a messenger to
Jerusalem to bring a licence that this matter may be lawful.
JUDITH (_shocked_). Nay!
OZIAS. I say it will be so.
JUDITH. It shall not be so.
OZIAS. Then pray you to the Most High for the city, even for all of us,
and the Lord will send rain for our cisterns and we shall faint no more.
Pray, for you are a godly woman, and the God of Israel shall listen.
JUDITH (_with supreme impressiveness_). Hear me again, Ozias. This
night I will do a thing which shall go throughout all the generations to
the children of Israel. You shall stand this night in the gate of the city,
and I will go forth from the city with my waiting-woman; and within
the days that you have promised to deliver the city to our enemies the
Lord will visit Israel by my hand.
OZIAS. On what errand will you go?
JUDITH. Enquire not of my act, for I will not declare it until the things
are finished that I do. But this I declare, that the Lord has inclined
himself to me, and now he has sent Achior for a sign.
OZIAS. You go to Holofernes!
JUDITH. To Holofernes.
OZIAS. Do not go!
JUDITH. But why shall I not go?

OZIAS. The perils of the heathen will surround you, and harm will
surely befall you, for Holofernes will work lamentable evil upon you.
And I cannot suffer it.
JUDITH (_smiling_). Did not Ozias say that Holofernes was a great
warrior and had compassion in his greatness?
OZIAS (_insistent_). I cannot suffer it, for if any shame come upon you
I will not live.
JUDITH. God will not see his handmaid shamed. Moreover I regard
not myself in this thing, but the welfare of the people of Israel.
OZIAS (_kneeling_). Judith, I entreat you! For you are the light of my
eyes, and without you the world is not.
JUDITH (_softly_). I know it. Think you that in these years I have not
seen the depths of your heart, Ozias? Think you that I was blind in my
tent? Think you that I watched not upon you? You were comely in my
sight. But this day you have revealed your pride. For you seek not God,
but the vanity of the earth, and you would make all Israel the
instrument of your glory, denying the Lord. And I am sad.
OZIAS. Forgive me, Rose of Sharon.
JUDITH (_softly_). Who am I, to forgive my brother? Peace be upon
you! (She turns towards her house.)
OZIAS (_rising,_). Stay!
JUDITH. I go to prepare myself for that which I have to do. (Exit into
the house.)
(_A soldier shows himself, back._)
OZIAS. Friend!
FIRST SOLDIER (_approaching and saluting_). Lord! Your command!

OZIAS. Send to me the officer