Judith 4

NEW JERUSALEM	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 When the Israelites living in Judaea heard how Holofernes, general-in-chief of Nebuchadnezzar king ofthe Assyrians, had treated the various nations, plundering their temples and destroying them,	1 Then, upon hearing these things, the sons of Israel, who dwelt in the land of Judah, were very afraid before his face.
2 they were thoroughly alarmed at his approach and trembled for Jerusalem and the Temple of the Lordtheir God.	2 Trembling and horror invaded their senses, lest he should do the same thing to Jerusalem and to the temple of the Lord that he had done to other cities and their temples.
3 They had returned from captivity only a short time before, and the resettlement of the people in Judaeaand the reconsecration of the sacred furnishings, of the altar, and of the Temple, which had been profaned, wereof recent date.	3 And they sent into all of Samaria, and by an indirect route even to Jericho, and they seized in advance all the tops of the mountains.
4 They therefore alerted the whole of Samaria, Kona, Beth-Horon, Belmain, Jericho, Choba, Aesora andthe Salem val ey.	4 And they surrounded their villages with walls, and they gathered together grain in preparation for the fight.
5 They occupied the summits of the highest mountains and fortified the vil ages on them; they laid insupplies for the coming war, as the fields had just been harvested.	5 And then Eliachim the priest wrote to all who were opposite Esdrelon, which is opposite the face of the great plain near Dothain, and to all whom he would be able to reach through a passable way:
6 Joakim the high priest, resident in Jerusalem at the time, wrote to the inhabitants of Bethulia and ofBetomesthaim, two towns facing Esdraelon, towards the plain of Dothan.	6 that they should hold the ascents of the mountains, through which there might be any passage able to reach Jerusalem, and that they should keep watch where the passage was narrow, wherever possible, between the mountains.
7 He ordered them to occupy the mountain passes, the only means of access to Judaea, for there it wouldbe easy for them to halt an attacking force, the narrowness of the approach not al owing men to advance morethan two abreast.	7 And the sons of Israel did just as Eliachim, the priest of the Lord, had appointed them.
8 The Israelites carried out the orders of Joakim the high priest and of the people's Council of Elders insession at Jerusalem.	8 And all the people cried out to the Lord with great urgency, and they humbled their souls with fastings, and prayers, both they and their wives.
9 All the men of Israel cried most fervently to God and humbled themselves before him.	9 And the priests clothed themselves with haircloths, and they prostrated the little children opposite the face of the temple of the Lord, and they covered the altar of the Lord with haircloth.
10 They, their wives, their children, their cattle, al their resident aliens, hired or slave, wrapped sackclothround their loins.	10 And they cried out to the Lord God of Israel with one accord, lest their children should be given over as prey, and their wives into distribution, and their cities into extermination, and their holy things into defilement, and so that they might not become the disgrace of the Gentiles.
11 Al the Israelites in Jerusalem, including women and children, lay prostrate in front of the Temple, andwith ashes on their heads stretched out their hands before the Lord.	11 Then Eliachim, the high priest of the Lord, traveled all around Israel, and he was talking to them,
12 They draped the altar itself in sackcloth and fervently joined together in begging the God of Israel not tolet their children be carried off, their wives distributed as booty, the towns of their heritage destroyed, the Templeprofaned and desecrated for the heathen to gloat over.	12 saying: “Know that the Lord will heed your prayers, if you continue to persevere in fastings and prayers in the sight of the Lord.
13 The Lord heard them and looked kindly on their distress. The people fasted for many days throughoutJudaea as wel as in Jerusalem before the sanctuary of the Lord Almighty.	13 Recall that Moses, the servant of the Lord, overcame Amalek, who trusted in his own strength, and in his power, and in his army, and in his bronze shields, and in his swift chariots, and in his horsemen. He overcame him, not by fighting with iron, but by pleading with holy prayers.
14 Joakim the high priest and al who stood before the Lord, the Lord's priests and ministers, woresackcloth round their loins as they offered the perpetual burnt offering and the votive and voluntary offerings ofthe people.	14 So will it be with all the enemies of Israel, if you persevere in this work that you have begun.”
15 With ashes on their turbans they earnestly cal ed on the Lord to look kindly on the House of Israel.	15 Therefore, by this exhortation and his prayer to the Lord, they continued in the sight of the Lord,
	16 so that even those who offered holocausts to the Lord, offered the sacrifices to the Lord girded with haircloths, and there were ashes upon their heads.
	17 And they all begged God with their whole heart, that he would visit his people Israel.