Judith 3

DOUAI-RHEIMS	NEW AMERICAN BIBLE
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:	1 They therefore sent messengers to him to sue for peace in these words:
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.	2 "We, the servants of Nebuchadnezzar the great king, lie prostrate before you; do with us as you will.
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:	3 Our dwellings and all our wheat fields, our flocks and herds, and all our encampments are at your disposal; make use of them as you please.
4 Let all we have be subject to thy law.	4 Our cities and their inhabitants are also at your service; come and deal with them as you see fit."
5 Both we and our children are thy servants.	5 After the spokesmen had reached Holofernes and given him this message,
6 Come to us a peaceable lord, and use our service as it shall please thee.	6 he went down with his army to the seacoast, and stationed garrisons in the fortified cities; from them he impressed picked troops as auxiliaries.
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.	7 The people of these cities and all the inhabitants of the countryside received him with garlands and dancing to the sound of timbrels.
8 And from all the cities he took auxiliaries valiant men, and chosen for war.	8 Nevertheless, he devastated their whole territory and cut down their sacred groves, for he had been commissioned to destroy all the gods of the earth, so that every nation might worship Nebuchadnezzar alone, and every people and tribe invoke him as a god.
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.	9 At length Holofernes reached Esdraelon in the neighborhood of Dothan, the approach to the main ridge of the Judean mountains;
10 And received him with garlands, and lights, and dances, and tumbrels, and flutes.	10 he set up his camp between Geba and Scythopolis, and stayed there a whole month to refurbish all the equipment of his army.
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.