1For her part, Anna, his wife, lamented and grieved doubly, saying: 'I mourn my widowhood and my barrenness.'
2Then came the great feast of the Lord, and Judith, her maidservant, said to her: 'How long will you mortify your soul? It is not right for you to lament so, since the great feast of God has arrived. Take this mantle that the mistress of the workshop gave me. I am not permitted to wear it, because I am a slave and it is aureolед with royal dignity.'
3To which Anna replied: 'Depart from me, because I do none of this. It is God who has humbled me to the extreme. Go, lest a tempter has given you the mantle and you come to make me a partaker of your sin.'
4Judith replied: 'What thing shall I wish for you, since the Lord has closed your womb so that you cannot bear fruit in Israel?' Anna felt deeply hurt.