2. But Judith said, “I cannot eat any of them, because it would be a scandal. Besides, I will have enough with the things I brought with me.”
3. Holofernes asked her, “But if your provisions give out, where can we get more of the same to provide for you? None of your people are with us.”
4. Judith answered him, “As surely as you live, my lord, your servant will not use up her supplies before the Lord accomplishes by my hand what he has determined.”
5. Then the attendants of Holofernes led her to her tent, where she slept until the middle of the night. Toward the early morning watch, she rose
6. and sent this message to Holofernes, “Give orders, my lord, to let your servant go out for prayer.”
7. So Holofernes ordered his guards not to hinder her. Thus she stayed in the camp three days. Each night she went out to the valley of Bethulia, where she bathed herself at the spring of the camp.
8. After bathing, she prayed to the Lord, the God of Israel, to direct her way for the triumph of her people.
9. Then she returned purified to the tent and remained there until her food was brought to her toward evening.
10. On the fourth day Holofernes gave a banquet for his servants alone, to which he did not invite any of the officers.
11. And he said to Bagoas, the eunuch in charge of his personal affairs, “Go and persuade the Hebrew woman in your care to come and to eat and drink with us.
12. It would bring shame on us to be with such a woman without enjoying her. If we do not seduce her, she will laugh at us.”