Judith 3

¹ They therefore sent envoys to him to sue for peace and say,

² ‘We are servants of the great King Nebuchadnezzar and we lie prone before you. Treat us as you think fit.

³ Our cattle farms, all our land, all our wheat fields, our flocks and herds, all the sheep-runs in our encampments are at your disposal. Do with them as you please.

⁴ ‘Our towns and their inhabitants, too, are at your service; go and advance against them if such is your good pleasure.’

⁵ These men came to Holofernes and delivered the message as above.

⁶ He then made his way down to the coast with his army and stationed garrisons in all the fortified towns, levying outstanding men there as auxiliaries.

⁷ The people of these cities and of all the other towns in the neighbourhood welcomed him, wearing garlands and dancing to the sound of tambourines.

⁸ Notwithstanding this, he demolished their shrines and cut down their sacred trees, carrying out his commission to destroy all local gods and to force the nations to worship Nebuchadnezzar alone and to compel men of every language and nationality to hail him as a god[*a].

⁹ Thus he reached the edge of Esdraelon, in the neighbourhood of Dothan, a village facing the great ridge of Judaea.

¹⁰ He pitched camp between Geba and Scythopolis and stayed there a full month to replenish his supplies.