Judith 3

KING JAMES BIBLE	NEW AMERICAN BIBLE
1 So they sent ambassadors unto him to treat of peace, saying,	1 They therefore sent messengers to him to sue for peace in these words:
2 Behold, we the servants of Nabuchodonosor the great king lie before thee; use us as shall be good in thy sight.	2 "We, the servants of Nebuchadnezzar the great king, lie prostrate before you; do with us as you will.
3 Behold, our houses, and all our places, and all our fields of wheat, and flocks, and herds, and all the lodges of our tents lie before thy face; use them as it pleaseth thee.	3 Our dwellings and all our wheat fields, our flocks and herds, and all our encampments are at your disposal; make use of them as you please.
4 Behold, even our cities and the inhabitants thereof are thy servants; come and deal with them as seemeth good unto thee.	4 Our cities and their inhabitants are also at your service; come and deal with them as you see fit."
5 So the men came to Holofernes, and declared unto him after this manner.	5 After the spokesmen had reached Holofernes and given him this message,
6 Then came he down toward the sea coast, both he and his army, and set garrisons in the high cities, and took out of them chosen men for aid.	6 he went down with his army to the seacoast, and stationed garrisons in the fortified cities; from them he impressed picked troops as auxiliaries.
7 So they and all the country round about received them with garlands, with dances, and with timbrels.	7 The people of these cities and all the inhabitants of the countryside received him with garlands and dancing to the sound of timbrels.
8 Yet he did cast down their frontiers, and cut down their groves: for he had decreed to destroy all the gods of the land, that all nations should worship Nabuchodonosor only, and that all tongues and tribes should call upon him as god.	8 Nevertheless, he devastated their whole territory and cut down their sacred groves, for he had been commissioned to destroy all the gods of the earth, so that every nation might worship Nebuchadnezzar alone, and every people and tribe invoke him as a god.
9 Also he came over against Esdraelon near unto Judea, over against the great strait of Judea.	9 At length Holofernes reached Esdraelon in the neighborhood of Dothan, the approach to the main ridge of the Judean mountains;
10 And he pitched between Geba and Scythopolis, and there he tarried a whole month, that he might gather together all the carriages of his army.	10 he set up his camp between Geba and Scythopolis, and stayed there a whole month to refurbish all the equipment of his army.