Judith 2

¹ In the eighteenth year, on the twenty-second day of the first month, a rumour ran through the palace thatNebuchadnezzar king of the Assyrians was to have his revenge on al the countries, as he had threatened.

² Summoning his general staff and senior officers, he held a secret conference with them, and with hisown lips pronounced utter destruction on the entire area.

³ It was then decreed that everyone should be put to death who had not answered the king's appeal.

⁴ When the council was over, Nebuchadnezzar king of the Assyrians sent for Holofernes, general-in-chiefof his armies and subordinate only to himself. He said to him,

⁵ 'Thus speaks the Great King, lord of the whole world, "Go; take men of proven valour, about a hundredand twenty thousand foot soldiers and a strong company of horse with twelve thousand cavalrymen;

⁶ then advance against all the western lands, since these people have disregarded my cal .

⁷ Bid them have earth and water ready, because in my rage I am about to march on them; the feet of mysoldiers wil cover the whole face of the earth, and I shal plunder it.

⁸ Their wounded will fil the val eys and the torrents, and rivers, blocked with their dead, wil overflow.

⁹ I shall lead them captive to the ends of the earth.

¹⁰ Now go! Begin by conquering this whole region for me. If they surrender to you, hold them for me untilthe time comes to punish them.

¹¹ But if they resist, look on no one with clemency, hand them over to slaughter and plunder throughoutthe territory entrusted to you.

¹² For by my life and by the living power of my kingdom I have spoken. Al this I shal do by my power.

¹³ And you, neglect none of your master's commands, act strictly according to my orders without furtherdelay." '

¹⁴ Leaving the presence of his sovereign, Holofernes immediately summoned al the marshals, generalsand officers of the Assyrian army

¹⁵ and detailed the picked troops as his master had ordered, about a hundred and twenty thousand menand a further twelve thousand mounted archers.

¹⁶ He organised these in the normal battle formation.

¹⁷ He then secured vast numbers of camels, donkeys and mules to carry the baggage, and innumerablesheep, oxen and goats for food supplies.

¹⁸ Every man received ful rations and a generous sum of gold and silver from the king's purse.

¹⁹ He then set out for the campaign with his whole army, in advance of King Nebuchadnezzar, tooverwhelm the whole western region with his chariots, his horsemen and his picked body of foot.

²⁰ A motley gathering fol owed in his rear, as numerous as locusts or the grains of sand on the ground;there was no counting their multitude.

²¹ Thus they set out from Nineveh and marched for three days towards the Plain of Bectileth. FromBectileth they went on to pitch camp near the mountains that lie to the north of Upper Cilicia.

²² From there Holofernes advanced into the highlands with his whole army, infantry, horsemen, chariots.

²³ He cut his way through Put and Lud, carried away captive al the sons of Rassis and sons of Ishmaelliving on the verge of the desert south of Cheleon,

²⁴ marched along the Euphrates, crossed Mesopotamia, rased al the fortified towns controlling the WadiAbron and reached the sea.

²⁵ Next he attacked the territories of Cilicia, butchering al who offered him resistance, advanced on thesouthern frontiers of Japheth, facing Arabia,

²⁶ completely encircled the Midianites, burned their tents and plundered their sheep-folds,

²⁷ made his way down to the Damascus plain at the time of the wheat harvest, set fire to the fields,destroyed the flocks and herds, sacked the towns, laid the countryside waste and put al the young men to thesword.

²⁸ Fear and trembling seized al the coastal peoples; those of Sidon and Tyre, those of Sur, Ocina andJamnia. The populations of Azotos and Ascalon were panic-stricken.