| 1 Nel terzo decimo anno di Nabucodonosor re, nel vigesimo secondo di del mese primo, fu fatto parlamento nel palazzo di Nabucodonosor re degli Assirii, per provvedere di vendicarsi (contro a quelli i quali gli avean risposto non secondo la sua volontade). | 1 In the eighteenth year, on the twenty-second day of the first month, there was talk in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar king of the Assyrians about carrying out his revenge on the whole region, just as he said. |
| 2 E chiamò a sè tutti li principali onorati e tutti li suoi duchi e combattitori, e fece consiglio secreto. | 2 He called together all his officers and all his nobles and set forth to them his secret plan and recounted fully, with his own lips, all the wickedness of the region; |
| 3 E disse questo esser lo suo pensiero, di sottometter tutta la terra al suo imperio. | 3 and it was decided that every one who had not obeyed his command should be destroyed. |
| 4 Lo qual detto essendo piaciuto a tutti, chiamò Nabucodonosor re Oloferne principe del suo esercito. | 4 When he had finished setting forth his plan, Nebuchadnezzar king of the Assyrians called Holofernes, the chief general of his army, second only to himself, and said to him, |
| 5 E dissegli esci fuori contro a ogni reame dell' occidente, e massimamente contro a quelli i quali hanno disprezzato il mio imperio. | 5 "Thus says the Great King, the lord of the whole earth: When you leave my presence, take with you men confident in their strength, to the number of one hundred and twenty thousand foot soldiers and twelve thousand cavalry. |
| 6 Non perdonare ad alcuno regno, ma ogni città armata sottometterai allo mio imperio. | 6 Go and attack the whole west country, because they disobeyed my orders. |
| 7 Allora Oloferne chiamò li duchi e li magistrati della potenza degli Assirii; e numeroe gli uomini per la espedizione, come per lo re li fu comandato, i quali furono cento ventimiglia di pedoni per combattere, e cavalieri sagittarii duo diecimiglia. | 7 Tell them to prepare earth and water, for I am coming against them in my anger, and will cover the whole face of the earth with the feet of my armies, and will hand them over to be plundered by my troops, |
| 8 E tutto questo esercito fece andare dinanzi con una (grande e) innumerabile moltitudine di cammelli, con tutte quelle cose che bastasseno (sufficientemente) allo esercito, armenti di buoi, greggie di pecore, delle quali non v'era numero. | 8 till their wounded shall fill their valleys, and every brook and river shall be filled with their dead, and overflow; |
| 9 Ordinò per tutta la Siria, che fosse preparato lo frumento (per lo pane) nel suo passare. | 9 and I will lead them away captive to the ends of the whole earth. |
| 10 Oro e ariento della casa del re ebbe in grande quantità. | 10 You shall go and seize all their territory for me in advance. They will yield themselves to you, and you shall hold them for me till the day of their punishment. |
| 11 E andossi Oloferne, e tutto lo esercito, con li carri e cavalieri e sagittarii, li quali copersono la faccia della terra, come grilli. | 11 But if they refuse, your eye shall not spare and you shall hand them over to slaughter and plunder throughout your whole region. |
| 12 E avendo passato li termini degli Assirii, vennero alli monti grandi di Ange, i quali sono alla parte sinistra della Cilicia; e andossene a tutte le loro castella, e prese tutte le munizioni. | 12 For as I live, and by the power of my kingdom, what I have spoken my hand will execute. |
| 13 E debellò la città opulentissima di Meloti, e pigliò (Oloferne) tutti i figliuoli di Tarso e i figliuoli di Ismael, i quali erano verso la faccia del deserto, e dalla parte dell' austro della terra di Cellon. | 13 And you--take care not to transgress any of your sovereign's commands, but be sure to carry them out just as I have ordered you; and do not delay about it." |
| 14 E passò Eufrate, e venne in Mesopotamia; e disfece tutte le città grandi, le quali erano ivi, dal torrente di Mambre persino al mare. | 14 So Holofernes left the presence of his master, and called together all the commanders, generals, and officers of the Assyrian army, |
| 15 E occupò li termini suoi, da Cilicia persino alli confini di Iafet, i quali sono verso l' austro. | 15 and mustered the picked troops by divisions as his lord had ordered him to do, one hundred and twenty thousand of them, together with twelve thousand archers on horseback, |
| 16 E menò tutti i figliuoli di Madian, e prese tutte le loro facoltadi, e tutti coloro che li fecero resistenza uccise con le coltella. | 16 and he organized them as a great army is marshaled for a campaign. |
| 17 E dopo questo scese nel campo di Damasco, nel tempo che si tagliava le biade, e tagliò tutte le biade; e tutti gli arbori e tutte le vigne fece tagliare. | 17 He collected a vast number of camels and asses and mules for transport, and innumerable sheep and oxen and goats for provision; |
| 18 E furono per questo ispaventati tutti gli abitatori della terra. | 18 also plenty of food for every man, and a huge amount of gold and silver from the royal palace. |
| 19 So he set out with his whole army, to go ahead of King Nebuchadnezzar and to cover the whole face of the earth to the west with their chariots and horsemen and picked troops of infantry. |
| 20 Along with them went a mixed crowd like a swarm of locusts, like the dust of the earth--a multitude that could not be counted. |
| 21 They marched for three days from Nineveh to the plain of Bectileth, and camped opposite Bectileth near the mountain which is to the north of Upper Cilicia. |
| 22 From there Holofernes took his whole army, his infantry, cavalry, and chariots, and went up into the hill country |
| 23 and ravaged Put and Lud, and plundered all the people of Rassis and the Ishmaelites who lived along the desert, south of the country of the Chelleans. |
| 24 Then he followed the Euphrates and passed through Mesopotamia and destroyed all the hilltop cities along the brook Abron, as far as the sea. |
| 25 He also seized the territory of Cilicia, and killed every one who resisted him, and came to the southern borders of Japheth, fronting toward Arabia. |
| 26 He surrounded all the Midianites, and burned their tents and plundered their sheepfolds. |
| 27 Then he went down into the plain of Damascus during the wheat harvest, and burned all their fields and destroyed their flocks and herds and sacked their cities and ravaged their lands and put to death all their young men with the edge of the sword. |
| 28 So fear and terror of him fell upon all the people who lived along the seacoast, at Sidon and Tyre, and those who lived in Sur and Ocina and all who lived in Jamnia. Those who lived in Azotus and Ascalon feared him exceedingly. |
