Judith 3

NEW JERUSALEM	DOUAI-RHEIMS
1 They therefore sent envoys to him to sue for peace, to say,	1 Then the kings and the princes of all the cities and provinces, of Syria, Mesopotamia, and Syria Sobal, and Libya, and Cilicia sent their ambassadors, who coming to Holofernes, said:
2 'We are servants of the great King Nebuchadnezzar; we lie prostrate before you. Treat us as you thinkfit.	2 Let thy indignation towards us cease: for it is better for us to live and serve Nabuchodonosor the great king, and be subject to thee, than to die and to perish, or suffer the miseries of slavery.
3 Our cattle-farms, al our land, al our wheat fields, our flocks and herds, all the sheep-folds in ourencampments are at your disposal. Do with them as you please.	3 All our cities and our possessions, all mountains and hills, and fields, and herds of oxen, and flocks of cheep, and goats, and horses, and camels, and all our goods, and families are in thy sight:
4 Our towns and their inhabitants too are at your service; go and treat them as you think fit.'	4 Let all we have be subject to thy law.
5 These men came to Holofernes and delivered the message as above.	5 Both we and our children are thy servants.
6 He then made his way down to the coast with his army and stationed garrisons in al the fortified towns,levying outstanding men there as auxiliaries.	6 Come to us a peaceable lord, and use our service as it shall please thee.
7 The people of these cities and of al the other towns in the neighbourhood welcomed him, wearinggarlands and dancing to the sound of tambourines.	7 Then he came down from the mountains with horsemen, in great power, and made himself master of every city, and all the inhabitants of the land.
8 But he demolished their shrines and cut down their sacred trees, carrying out his commission to destroyal local gods so that the nations should worship Nebuchadnezzar alone and people of every language andnationality should hail him as a god.	8 And from all the cities he took auxiliaries valiant men, and chosen for war.
9 Thus he reached the edge of Esdraelon, in the neighbourhood of Dothan, a vil age facing the great ridgeof Judaea.	9 And so great a fear lay upon all those provinces, that the inhabitants of all the cities, both princes and nobles, as well as the people, went out to meet him at his coming.
10 He pitched camp between Geba and Scythopolis and stayed there a ful month to re-provision hisforces.	10 And received him with garlands, and lights, and dances, and tumbrels, and flutes.
	11 And though they did these things, they could not for all that mitigate the fierceness of his heart:
	12 For he both destroyed their cities and cut down their groves.
	13 For Nabuchodonosor the king had commanded him to destroy all the gods of the earth, that he only might be called God by those nations which could be brought under him by the power of Holofernes.
	14 And when he had passed through all Syria Sobal, and all Apamea, and all Mesopotamia, he came to the Idumeans into the land of Gabaa,
	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.