Day 251: Judith and Holofernes (2026)

Fr. Mike Schmitz (0:04)

Hi, my name is Fr. Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to The Bible in a Year Podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year Podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using The Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 251 We're reading five chapters today, Jeremiah 41 and 42, reading Judith 12, 13, and 14, as well as Proverbs 17, verses 13-16. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Mission. I'm using The Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download or get, acquire, have in your possession the Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com/bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast and receive daily episodes and updates and all the good things that would be at your disposal. If only, if only on day 251, you would subscribe to this podcast and all would be right with this world.

But alas, I know some of you, some of you will refuse and that I have to be at peace with. Nonetheless, for all of us, subscribed or not subscribed, it is still day 251 and we are reading Jeremiah 41 and 42, Judith 12, 13, and 14, Proverbs 17, verses 13 through 16

The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, Chapter 41, Insurrection against Gedaliah. In the seventh month, Ishmael, the son of Nathanael, son of Elishema, of the royal family, one of the chief officers of the king, came with ten men to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam at Mizpah.

As they ate bread together there at Mizpah, Ishmael, the son of Nathanael, and the ten men with him, rose up and struck down Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, son of Shafan, with the sword and killed him, whom the king of Babylon had appointed governor in the land. Ishmael also slew all the Jews who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah and the Chaldean soldiers who happened to be there. On the day after the murder of Gedaliah, before anyone knew of it, 80 men arrived from Shechem in Shiloh and Samaria with their beards shaved and their clothes torn and their bodies gashed, bringing cereal offerings and incense to present at the temple of the Lord. And Ishmael, the son of Nathanael, came out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he came. As he met them, he said to them, Come in to Gedaliah, the son of Ahicham. When they came into the city, Ishmael, the son of Nathanael, and the men with him slew them and cast them into a cistern. But there were ten men among them who said to Ishmael, Do not kill us, for we have stores of wheat, barley, oil and honey hidden in the fields. So he refrained and did not kill them with their companions. Now the cistern into which Ishmael cast all the bodies of the men whom he had slain was the largest cistern which King Asa had made for defense against Baasha, king of Israel. Ishmael, the son of Nathanael, filled it with the slain. Then Ishmael took captive all the rest of the people who were in Mizpah, the king's daughters and all the people who were left at Mizpah whom Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, had committed to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam. Ishmael, the son of Nathanael, took them captive and set out to cross over to the Ammonites.

Johanan and Ishmael. But when Johanan, the son of Cariah, and all the leaders of the forces with him heard of all the evil which Ishmael, the son of Nathanael, had done, they took all their men and went to fight against Ishmael, the son of Nathanael. They came upon him at the great pool which is in Gibeon. And when all the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan, the son of Cariah, and all the leaders of the forces with him, they rejoiced. So all the people whom Ishmael had carried away captive from Mizpah turned about and came back and went to Johanan, the son of Cariah. But Ishmael, the son of Nathanael, escaped from Johanan with eight men and went to the Ammonites. Then Johanan, the son of Cariah, and all the leaders of the forces with him took all the rest of the people whom Ishmael, the son of Nathanael, had carried away captive from Mizpah after he had slain Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, soldiers, women, children and eunuchs whom Johanan brought back from Gibeon. And they went and stayed at Gerut Chimham near Bethlehem, intending to go to Egypt because of the Chaldeans, for they were afraid of them, because Ishmael, the son of Nathanael, had slain Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land.