Judith 6

¹ When the uproar of those crowding round the council had subsided, Holofernes, general-in-chief of theAssyrian army, reprimanded Achior in front of the whole crowd of foreigners and Ammonites.

² 'Achior, who do you think you are, you and the Ephraimite mercenaries, playing the prophet like this withus today, and trying to dissuade us from making war on the people of Israel? You claim their God wil protectthem. And who is God if not Nebuchadnezzar? He himself wil display his power and wipe them off the face ofthe earth, and their God wil certainly not save them.

³ But we, his servants, shal destroy them as easily as a single individual. They can never resist thestrength of our cavalry.

⁴ We shal burn them all. Their mountains will be drunk with their blood and their plains filled with theircorpses. Far from being able to resist us, every one of them wil die; thus says King Nebuchadnezzar, lord of thewhole world. For he has spoken, and his words will not prove empty.

⁵ As for you, Achior, you Ammonite mercenary, who in a rash moment said these words, you wil not seemy face again until the day when I have taken my revenge on this brood from Egypt.

⁶ And then the swords of my soldiers and the spears of my officers wil pierce your sides. You wil falamong their wounded, the moment I turn on Israel.

⁷ My servants wil now take you into the hill-country and leave you near one of the towns in the passes;

⁸ you wil not die, until you share their ruin.

⁹ No need to look so sad if you cherish the secret hope that they wil not be captured! I have spoken; noneof my words will prove idle.'

¹⁰ Holofernes having commanded his tent-orderlies to seize Achior, to take him to Bethulia and to handhim over to the Israelites,

¹¹ the orderlies took him, escorted him out of the camp and across the plain, and then, making for the hil -country, reached the springs below Bethulia.

¹² As soon as the men of the town sighted them, they snatched up their weapons, left the town and madefor the mountain tops, while al the slingers pelted them with stones to prevent them from coming up.

¹³ However, they managed to take cover at the foot of the slope, where they bound Achior and left himlying at the bottom of the mountain and returned to their master.

¹⁴ The Israelites then came down from their town, stopped by him, unbound him and took him to Bethulia,where they brought him before the chief men of the town,

¹⁵ who at that time were Uzziah son of Micah of the tribe of Simeon, Chabris son of Gothoniel andCharmis son of Melchiel.

¹⁶ These summoned al the elders of the town. The young men and the women also hurried to theassembly. Achior was made to stand with al the people surrounding him, and Uzziah questioned him about whathad happened.

¹⁷ He answered by tel ing them what had been said at Holofernes' council, and what he himself had saidin the presence of the Assyrian leaders, and how Holofernes had bragged of what he would do to the House ofIsrael.

¹⁸ At this the people fel to the ground and worshipped God.

¹⁹ 'Lord God of heaven,' they cried, 'take notice of their arrogance and have pity on the humiliation of ourrace. Look kindly today on those who are consecrated to you.'

²⁰ They then spoke reassuringly to Achior and praised him warmly.

²¹ After the assembly Uzziah took him home and gave a banquet for the elders; al that night they cal edon the God of Israel for help.