It is about the-ends-justify-the-means; Judith and the power of God versus the power of a human military. The story takes place during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar (605–562 B.C.E.), though the book was written a few hundred years later, perhaps in the first century B.C.E. In the book, Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army have conquered Nineveh and the rest of Assyria. The book of Judith takes place in Nineveh, but it was a Babylonian province at that time.