JUDITH. I am Judith.
OZIAS (with a fresh access of violence). Thou hungerest for Achior. Wouldst thou marry a heathen, thou a Hebrew woman?
JUDITH. And thou, if I had not accomplished the will of the Lord, and if thou hadst been carried to Babylon as thou saidst, wouldst thou not have denied the Most High and gone after other gods? But Achior believeth in our God, and this day will be joined into the house of Israel.
OZIAS (savagely scornful). What is Achior but a simpleton!
JUDITH. It may be. But I love him and he shall rule me ... for he came hither for a sign from the Lord.
OZIAS (savagely resentful). Oh! If I did not love thee, would I not undo thee!
JUDITH. Thou! Thou art Ozias, but I am she who cut off the head of a mightier than thou, even Holofernes in his tent. Go thy ways and fulfil greatness. As for me I will remain obediently in my house, and truth and righteousness shall reign in my house.
(The procession returns, the women bearing the banners of the Assyrians. Achior enters from the house.)
(Judith is crowned with olives.)
JUDITH. And now let the priests and the elders enter with me into my house, and Achior shall follow them, so that he may be received into Israel, and I will be betrothed to him with all the ceremonies of the law, for he came to me as a messenger from God. And when the marriage has been performed, I will submit myself to him as a wife to her husband.