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Bethulia

A place in the Bible

The city of Judith. It stood on a hill facing the plain of Esdraelon, and it guarded the passes that led into Judea.

What happened here

  1. Judith: she was a widow of Bethulia. She lived apart in a room she had made on the roof of her house. She fasted and greatly feared God.
  2. The city under siege: the Assyrian army surrounded it, and the leader of the city promised to surrender in five days. Judith called the elders and asked them who they were to put the Lord to the test.
  3. Judith comes back: Judith came back at night and called out to the guards on the wall to open the gate, because God was with them. Afterward she praised the Lord, who does not abandon those who trust in him.
  4. Her tomb: Judith lived to be one hundred and five years old, and she was buried with her husband in Bethulia.

Today

No one knows for sure where it was. Several places have been proposed in the hills west of Jenin, in the West Bank.

Where it appears in the Bible

Judith 4:6; Judith 8:3; Judith 8:4-8; Judith 8:9-12; Judith 13:10-11; Judith 13:14; Judith 16:23

What the Bible says

Judith 4:6

And Eliachim the priest wrote to all that were over against Esdrelon, which faceth the great plain near Dothain, and to all by whom there might be a passage of way, that they should take possession of the ascents of the mountains, by which there might be any way to Jerusalem, and should keep watch where the way was narrow between the mountains.

Judith 8:3

For he was standing over them that bound sheaves in the field; and the heat came upon his head, and he died in Bethulia his own city, and was buried there with his fathers.

Judith 8:4-8

4And Judith his relict was a widow now three years and six months. 5And she made herself a private chamber in the upper part of her house, in which she abode shut up with her maids. 6And she wore haircloth upon her loins, and fasted all the days of her life, except the sabbaths, and new moons, and the feasts of the house of Israel. 7And she was exceedingly beautiful, and her husband left her great riches, and very many servants, and large possessions of herds of oxen, and flocks of sheep. 8And she was greatly renowned among all, because she feared the Lord very much, neither was there any one that spoke an ill word of her.

Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner revision), public domain.

Source: Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “Bethulia”

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