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Achior Explains Israel's History
In Judith 5:5–21, Achior gives a careful summary of Israel’s past. He uses that history to warn that this people’s safety or defeat depends on their standing before God.
Understanding the passage
Understanding the passage
This is an embedded speech in the Catholic additional book of Judith. Achior, leader of the children of Ammon, speaks to his master about the people in the hill country. He promises truth, then traces their story from their ancestors to their present return and settlement.
Judith 5:5–21Main takeaway
Achior presents Israel’s history as evidence that their condition changes when they turn toward God or away from him.
Explore the teaching
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01Achior promises truthful counselAchior begins by asking to be heard and by saying he will tell the truth about the people living in the hill country.
Explanation
Achior begins by asking to be heard and by saying he will tell the truth about the people living in the hill country. His speech is not casual opinion. He presents it as reliable counsel from a servant to his master, preparing the hearer to weigh his warning seriously.
02From Chaldeans to Canaan and EgyptAchior says these people are descended from the Chaldeans. He explains that they left the gods of their fathers and worshipped the God of heaven.
Explanation
Achior says these people are descended from the Chaldeans. He explains that they left the gods of their fathers and worshipped the God of heaven. Their God then commanded them to go to Canaan, where they prospered. Later, famine brought them to Egypt, where they became a great multitude.
03Oppression, rescue and settlementIn Achior’s account, Egypt’s king made them slaves with brick labour. When they cried to God, Egypt was struck with plagues, and God dried up the Red sea before them.
Explanation
In Achior’s account, Egypt’s king made them slaves with brick labour. When they cried to God, Egypt was struck with plagues, and God dried up the Red sea before them. Achior then describes their movement through the wilderness and into the hill country, where they possessed the land and lived there.
04The pattern and the warningAchior states the pattern plainly. When they did not sin before God, they prospered. When they departed from his appointed way, they suffered battles, captivity and the razing of the temple.
Explanation
Achior states the pattern plainly. When they did not sin before God, they prospered. When they departed from his appointed way, they suffered battles, captivity and the razing of the temple. Now they have returned to God and resettled. So Achior warns that only their lawlessness would make them vulnerable.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01How does Achior present himself at the start of his speech?
Notice the words about hearing him and his promise to speak truthfully without lying.
02What main stages of Israel’s story does Achior choose to include?
Track the movement from Chaldeans and Mesopotamia to Canaan, Egypt, the Red sea, the hill country, captivity and return.
03What test does Achior set before his master at the end?
Compare the outcome he expects if the people are sinning with the outcome if there is no lawlessness in them.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Judith 5:5–21
5Then Achior, the leader of all the children of Ammon, said to him, “Let my lord now hear a word from the mouth of your servant, and I will tell you the truth concerning these people who dwell in this hill country, near to the place where you dwell. No lie will come out of the mouth of your servant.
6These people are descended from the Chaldeans.
7They sojourned before this in Mesopotamia, because they didn’t want to follow the gods of their fathers, which were in the land of the Chaldeans.
8They departed from the way of their parents, and worshiped the God of heaven, the God whom they knew. Their parents cast them out from the face of their gods, and they fled into Mesopotamia and sojourned there many days.
9Then their God commanded them to depart from the place where they sojourned, and to go into the land of Canaan. They lived there, and prospered with gold and silver, and with exceedingly much cattle.
10Then they went down into Egypt, for a famine covered all the land of Canaan. They sojourned there until they had grown up. They became a great multitude there, so that one could not count the population of their nation.
11Then the king of Egypt rose up against them, and dealt subtly with them, and brought them low, making them labor in brick, and made them slaves.
12They cried to their God, and he struck all the land of Egypt with incurable plagues; so the Egyptians cast them out of their sight.
13God dried up the Red sea before them,
14and brought them into the way of Sinai Kadesh-Barnea and they cast out all that lived in the wilderness.
15They lived in the land of the Amorites, and they destroyed by their strength everyone in Heshbon. Passing over Jordan, they possessed all the hill country.
16They cast out before them the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, the Shechemite, and all the Girgashites, and they lived in that country many days.
17And while they didn’t sin before their God, they prospered, because God who hates iniquity was with them.
18But when they departed from the way which he appointed them, they were destroyed in many severe battles, and were led captives into a land that was not theirs. The temple of their God was razed to the ground, and their cities were taken by their adversaries.
19And now they have returned to their God, and have come up from the dispersion where they were dispersed, and have possessed Jerusalem, where their sanctuary is, and are settled in the hill country; for it was desolate.
20And now, my lord and master, if there is any error in this people, and they sin against their God, we will find out what this thing is in which they stumble, and we will go up and overcome them.
21But if there is no lawlessness in their nation, let my lord now pass by, lest their Lord defend them, and their God be for them, and we will be a reproach before all the earth.”