Chapter IX.
Why are powerful people prohibited from drinking wine? Judith, while fasting, kills Holofernes and with the same tactics liberates her people. Esther, to whom the drunk Aman pays the price, does the same. Finally, the praises of various fasting are enumerated.
28. 'Thorns,' he says, 'are born in the hand of the drunkard' (Prov. 26:9), because he wounds himself with his own hands and throws wounds upon his chest. With these thorns he tears the garment of faith that he received, and he will not be able to preserve his treasure. For every drunkard and fornicator will lack, and he will clothe himself with torn garments of foolishness. And therefore the powerful are prohibited from drinking wine, lest when they drink, they forget wisdom (Prov. 31:4).
Finally, those powerful men who desired to surrender themselves to Holophernes, the prince of the Assyrian army, were drinking wine in drunkenness. But Judith, fasting all the days of her widowhood, did not drink wine except on the solemnities of feast days. Armed with these weapons, she went forth and surrounded the entire Assyrian army. Sober in the strength of her wisdom, she took off the head of Holophernes, preserved her chastity, and brought back victory. For she pretended before others in the camp that she was girded with fasting, while he, buried in wine, lay unconscious, unable to feel the blow of her weapon. Therefore the fasting of one woman laid low countless armies of drunk men.
Esther also became more beautiful through fasting; for the Lord increased the grace of a sober mind. He delivered his own, that is, the whole people of the Jews, from the bitterness of persecution, so that he made the king subject to him, not inflamed by lust, but converted by heavenly mercy; so that punishment was turned against the wicked, and honor was restored to the sacred altars. Therefore, what she fasted for three days in a row, and washed her body with water, pleased more, and avenged herself. However, while he was boasting at a royal feast, he paid the price of his own drunkenness among the very wines.
31. Therefore, fasting is a sacrifice of reconciliation, an increase of virtue, which has also made women stronger by the addition of grace. Fasting does not know the moneylender, it does not know the interest of loans, the table of the fasting does not smell of usury: it does not strangle the son of a chaste man with the father's hundredth part: it does not torment the widow with the rights of a sober man whose property has been pledged: it does not exclude the heir from the court of fasting if he has not repaid.
32. Even fasting gives grace to feasts themselves. The meals are made sweeter after hunger, which becomes weary with constant repetition and loses value with prolonged continuation. Fasting is the seasoning of food. The hungrier the desire, the more enjoyable the food. Thirst commends the cup, it does not seek the age of wine. Whatever a fasting person drinks, it is transmitted to satisfaction, not to judgment, it floats. Precious things also deteriorate with use: but the difficult possession of them is the enjoyable experience of them. The sun itself is more pleasing after the night, light itself is brighter after darkness, and sleep is sweeter after vigilance, health itself is more enjoyable after the trials of sickness. From the very creator of the world, we have learned that grace often increases with diversity. Therefore, hunger accompanies a feast, so that the meal is more pleasing after periods of fasting.