Judith 3

¹ Then the kings as well as the princes of the provinces sent their emissaries from all of the cities: from Syria, particularly Mesopotamia, and Syria Sobal, and Libya as well as Cilicia. These, upon coming to Holofernes, said:

² “Let your indignation concerning us cease. For it is better for us to live in service to Nebuchadnezzar, the great king, and to become subject to you, rather than to die, even though we may have to suffer our condemnation into the annihilation of slavery.

³ All our cities and all our possessions, all mountains, and hills, and fields, and herds of cattle, and flocks of sheep, and goats, and horses, and camels, and all our resources and families are in your sight.

⁴ Let all that we have be subject to your law.

⁵ We, and our sons, are your servants.

⁶ Come to us as a peaceful lord, and use our service, just as it pleases you.”

⁷ Then he descended from the mountains with horsemen, in great power, and he took charge of every city and of every inhabitant of the land.

⁸ And, from all the cities, he took for himself auxiliaries: strong men and well-chosen for war.

⁹ And such a dread lay upon those provinces, that the leading and honored inhabitants of all the cities, together with the people, went out to meet him at his arrival.

¹⁰ They received him with garlands and lamps; they were led by choirs with timbrels and flutes.

¹¹ Yet, not even by doing these things were they able to mitigate the ferocity of his chest.

¹² For he both destroyed their cities and cut down their sacred groves.

¹³ For king Nebuchadnezzar had instructed him to exterminate all the gods of the earth, evidently so that he alone might be called ‘god’ by those nations which were able to be subjugated by the power of Holofernes.

¹⁴ But when he had passed through Syria Sobal, and all of Apamea, and all Mesopotamia, he came to the Idumeans in the land of Gibeah.

¹⁵ And he took their cities, and he sat there for thirty days, during which days he instructed all the troops of his army to regroup.