3:6. Come to us a peaceable lord, and use our service as it shall please thee,
3:7. Then he came down from the mountains with hors.e.m.e.n, in great power, and made himself master of every city, and all the inhabitants of the land.
3:8. And from all the cities he took auxiliaries valiant men, and chosen for war,
3:9. And so great a fear lay upon all those provinces, that the inhabitants of all the cities, both princes and n.o.bles, as well as the people, went out to meet him at his coming.
3:10. And received him with garlands, and lights, and dances, and timbrels, and flutes.
3:11. And though they did these things, they could not for all that mitigate the fierceness of his heart:
3:12. For he both destroyed their cities, and cut down their groves.
3:13. For Nabuchodonosor the king had commanded him to destroy all the G.o.ds of the earth, that he only might be called G.o.d by those nations which could be brought under him by the power of Holofernes.
3:14. And when he had pa.s.sed through all Syria Sobal, and all Apamea, and all Mesopotamia, he came to the Idumeans into the land of Gabaa,
3:15. And he took possession of their cities, and stayed there for thirty days, in which days he commanded all the troops of his army to be united.
Judith Chapter 4
The children of Israel prepare themselves to resist Holofernes. They cry to the Lord for help.
4:1. Then the children of Israel, who dwelt in the land of Juda, hearing these things, were exceedingly afraid of him.
4:2. Dread and horror seized upon their minds, lest he should do the same to Jerusalem and to the temple of the Lord, that he had done to other cities and their temples.
4:3. And they sent into all Samaria round about, as far as Jericho, and seized upon all the tops of the mountains:
4:4. And they compa.s.sed their towns with walls and gathered together corn for provision for war.
4:5. And Eliachim the priest wrote to all that were over against Esdrelon, which faceth the great plain near Dothain, and to all by whom there might be a pa.s.sage of way, that they should take possession of the ascents of the mountains, by which there might be any way to Jerusalem, and should keep watch where the way was narrow between the mountains.
4:6. And the children of Israel did as the priests of the Lord Eliachim had appointed them.
4:7. And all the people cried to the Lord with great earnestness, and they humbled their souls in fastings, and prayers, both they and their wives.
4:8. And the priests put on haircloths, and they caused the little children to lie prostrate before the temple of the Lord, and the altar of the Lord they covered with haircloth.
4:9. And they cried to the Lord the G.o.d of Israel with one accord, that their children might not be made a prey, and their wives carried off, and their cities destroyed, and their holy things profaned, and that they might not be made a reproach to the Gentiles.
4:10. Then Eliachim the high priest of the Lord went about all Israel and spoke to them,
4:11. Saying: Know ye that the Lord will hear your prayers, if you continue with perseverance in fastings and prayers in the sight of the Lord.
4:12. Remember Moses the servant of the Lord overcame Amalec that trusted in his own strength, and in his power, and in his army, and in his shields, and in his chariots, and in his hors.e.m.e.n, not by fighting with the sword, but by holy prayers:
4:13. So all the enemies of Israel be, if you persevere in this work which you have begun.
4:14. So they being moved by this exhortation of his, prayed to the Lord, and continued in the sight of the Lord.
4:15. So that even they who offered the holocausts to the Lord, offered the sacrifices to the Lord girded with haircloths, and with ashes upon their head.
4:16. And they all begged of G.o.d with all their heart, that he would visit his people Israel.
Judith Chapter 5
Achior gives Holofernes an account of the people of Israel.
5:1. And it was told Holofernes the general of the army of the a.s.syrians, that the children of Israel prepared themselves to resist, and had shut up the ways of the mountains.
5:2. And he was transported with exceeding great fury and indignation, and he called all the princes of Moab and the leaders of Ammon.
5:3. And he said to them: Tell me what is this people that besetteth the mountains: or what are their cities, and of what sort, and how great: also what is their power, or what is their mult.i.tude: or who is the king over their warfare:
5:4. And why they above all that dwell in the east, have despised us, and have not come out to meet us, that they might receive us with peace?
5:5. Then Achior captain of all the children of Ammon answering, said; If thou vouchsafe, my lord, to hear, I will tell the truth in thy sight concerning this people, that dwelleth in the mountains, and there shall not a false word come out of my mouth.
5:6. This people is of the offspring of the Chaldeans.
5:7. They dwelt first in Mesopotamia, because they would not follow the G.o.ds of their fathers, who were in the land of the Chaldeans.
5:8. Wherefore forsaking the ceremonies of their fathers, which consisted in the worship of many G.o.ds,
5:9. They worshipped one G.o.d of heaven, who also commanded them to depart from thence, and to dwell in Charan. And when there was a famine over all the land, they went down into Egypt, and there for four hundred years were so multiplied, that the army of them could not be numbered.
5:10. And when the king of Egypt oppressed them, and made slaves of them to labour in clay and brick, in the building of his cities, they cried to their Lord, and he struck the whole land of Egypt with divers plagues.
5:11. And when the Egyptians had cast them out from them, and the plague had ceased from them, and they had a mind to take them again, and bring them back to their service,
5:12. The G.o.d of heaven opened the sea to them in their flight, so that the waters were made to stand firm as a wall on either side, and they walked through the bottom of the sea and pa.s.sed it dry foot.
5:13. And when an innumerable army of the Egyptians pursued after them in that place, they were so overwhelmed with the waters, that there was not one left, to tell what had happened to posterity.
5:14. After they came out of the Red Sea, they abode in the deserts of mount Sina, in which never man could dwell, or son of man rested.
5:15. There bitter fountains were made sweet for them to drink, and for forty years they received food from heaven.
5:16. Wheresoever they went in without bow and arrow, and without shield and sword, their G.o.d fought for them and overcame.
5:17. And there was no one that triumphed over this people, but when they departed from the worship of the Lord their G.o.d.
5:18. But as often as beside their own G.o.d, they worshipped any other, they were given to spoil and to the sword, and to reproach.
5:19. And as often as they were penitent for having revolted from the worship of their G.o.d, the G.o.d of heaven gave them power to resist.
5:20. So they overthrew the king of the Chanaanites, and of the Jebusites, and of the Pherezites, and of the Hethites, and of the Hevites, and of the Amorrhites, and all the mighty ones in Hesebon, and they possessed their lands, and their cities: