Judith 5

¹ Holofernes, general-in-chief of the Assyrian army, received the intel igence that the Israelites werepreparing for war, that they had closed the mountain passes, fortified al the high peaks and laid obstructions inthe plains.

² Holofernes was furious. He summoned al the princes of Moab, al the generals of Ammon and al thesatraps of the coastal regions.

³ 'Men of Canaan,' he said, 'tel me: what people is this that occupies the hill-country? What towns does itinhabit? How large is its army? What are the sources of its power and strength? Who is the king who rules it andcommands its army?

⁴ Why have they disdained to wait on me, as all the western peoples have?'

⁵ Achior, leader of al the Ammonites, replied, 'May my lord be pleased to listen to what your servant isgoing to say. I shall give you the facts about these mountain folk whose home lies close to you. You wil hear nolie from the mouth of your servant.

⁶ These people are descended from the Chaldaeans.

⁷ They once came to live in Mesopotamia, because they did not want to fol ow the gods of their ancestorswho lived in Chaldaea.

⁸ They abandoned the way of their ancestors to worship the God of heaven, the God they learnt toacknowledge. Banished from the presence of their own gods, they fled to Mesopotamia where they lived for along time.

⁹ When God told them to leave their home and set out for Canaan, they settled there and accumulatedgold and silver and great herds of cattle.

¹⁰ Next, famine having overwhelmed the land of Canaan, they went down to Egypt where they stayed tilthey were well nourished. There they became a great multitude, a race beyond counting.

¹¹ But the king of Egypt turned against them and exploited them by forcing them to make bricks; hedegraded them, reducing them to slavery.

¹² They cried to their God, who struck the entire land of Egypt with incurable plagues, and the Egyptiansexpel ed them.

¹³ God dried up the Red Sea before them

¹⁴ and led them forward by way of Sinai and Kadesh-Barnea. Having driven off all the inhabitants of thedesert,

¹⁵ they settled in the land of the Amorites and in their strength exterminated the entire population ofHeshbon. Then, having crossed the Jordan, they took possession of al the hil -country,

¹⁶ driving out the Canaanites before them and the Perizzites, Jebusites, Shechemites and all theGirgashites, and lived there for many years.

¹⁷ Al the while they did not sin before their God, prosperity was theirs, for they have a God who hateswickedness.

¹⁸ But when they turned from the path he had marked out for them some were exterminated in a series ofbattles, others were taken captive to a foreign land. The Temple of their God was rased to the ground and theirtowns were seized by their enemies.

¹⁹ Then having turned once again to their God, they came back from the places to which they had beendispersed and scattered, regained possession of Jerusalem, where they have their Temple, and reoccupied thehil -country which had been left deserted.

²⁰ So, now, master and lord, if this people has committed any fault, if they have sinned against their God,let us first be sure that they real y have this reason to fail, then advance and attack them.

²¹ But if their nation is guiltless, my lord would do better to abstain, for fear that their Lord and God shouldprotect them. We should then become the laughing-stock of the whole world.'

²² When Achior had ended this speech, all the people crowding round the tent began protesting.Holofernes' own senior officers, as wel as al the coastal peoples and the Moabites, threatened to tear him limbfrom limb.

²³ 'Why should we be afraid of the Israelites? They are a weak and powerless people, quite unable tostand a stiff attack.

²⁴ Forward! Advance! Your army, Holofernes our master, wil swal ow them in one mouthful!'