The Book of Judith as a Re versal of the Sexual and Marital Metaphors in Jeremiah 2:20–3:20 and Hosea 1–3

This essay seeks to interpret how Judith’s story can be read as a reversal of one of the most subversive feminine metaphors in the Hebrew Bible: the sexual and marital metaphor. It begins by outlining the interpretations of the sexual and marital metaphors found in Jer 2:20–3:20 and Hos 1–3 proffered by MoughtinMumby, and it then goes on to show how the story of Judith reverses this metaphor through the following themes: (1) reversal of faithlessness towards Yahweh; (2) reversal of the sexual and marital metaphors; and (3) reversal of cultural memory. With regard to the first two themes, ridiculousness and absurdity are characteristics of the feminine sexual and marital metaphors and in the same way, exaggerated characteristics in Judith are found and listed as if to counter the negative metaphors in the prophetic texts. In the final theme, I set out how the significance of Bethulia, the building of Judith’s prayer tent on her roof, her genealogical record with connections between the priestly and Simeon’s lineage, as well as the historical information provided by the story itself, can all find a possible link that causes the painful memory of the failures in both histories of Israel and Judah to be reversed.