Judith 2

1And in the eighteenth year, on the twenty-second day of the first month, a word came in the house of Nebuchodonosor king of the Assyrians, to take vengeance on all the land, just as he had spoken.

2And he summoned all his attendants and all his nobles, and he set before them the secret of his plan, and from his own mouth he declared all the evil of the land.

3And they too decided to destroy all flesh who had not followed the word of his mouth.

4And it happened, when he had finished his plan, that Nebuchadnezzar king of the Assyrians called Holofernes, the commander-in-chief of his forces, who was second after him, and said to him,

5Thus says the great king, the lord of all the earth: Behold, you shall go out from my presence, and you shall take with yourself men confident in their strength, one hundred twenty thousand foot soldiers, and a multitude of horses with riders, one hundred twenty thousand.

6And you shall go out to meet all the land toward the west, because they disobeyed the word of my mouth.

7and to prepare earth and water, because I will go out against them in my wrath, and I will cover the whole face of the earth with the feet of my army, and I will give them over to plunder by them.

8And their wounded will fill their ravines and the wadis, and a river overflowing will be filled with their dead;

9And I will lead their captives to the ends of all the earth.

10But you, after going out, shall seize all their territory in advance for me, and they will surrender themselves to you; and you shall keep them for me until the day of their punishment.

11But against those who disobey, your eye shall not spare; you shall give them over to slaughter and plunder throughout all your land.

12For as I live, and by the power of my kingdom, I have spoken, and I will do these things by my hand.

13And you also must not transgress a single one of your lord’s words, but you shall surely carry out exactly as I have commanded you, and you shall not delay to do them.

14And Holofernes went out from the presence of his lord, and he called all the nobles and the generals and overseers of the Assyrian army,

15And he counted chosen men for battle formation, just as his lord had commanded him: one hundred twenty thousand, and twelve thousand mounted archers,

16And he arranged them in the way a multitude is drawn up for war.

17And he took camels and donkeys and mules for their baggage, a very great multitude, and sheep and cattle and goats for their provisions, of which there was no number,

18and provisions for every man in abundance, and very much gold and silver from the king’s house.

19And he himself and all his force set out on the march to go before King Nebuchadnezzar and to cover the whole face of the land toward the west with his chariots and horsemen and his chosen foot soldiers.

20And a great mixed multitude went out with them, like locusts and like the sand of the earth, for there was no number because of their multitude.

21And they advanced from Nineveh a journey of three days to the front of the plain of Baikteileth, and they encamped from Baikteileth near the mountain that is at the left hand of upper Cilicia.

22of the strongholds of upper Cilicia. And he took all his forces, the foot soldiers and the horsemen and his chariots, and went away into the hill country.

23And he cut down Phud and Lud, and he plundered all the sons of Rasses and the sons of Ishmael who were opposite the wilderness, toward the south of the Chaldeans.

24And he crossed the Euphrates and passed through Mesopotamia, and he tore down all the high cities along the torrent Abrona, until he came to the sea.

25And he seized the territory of Cilicia, and cut down all who resisted him, and came as far as the borders of Japheth, to the south, opposite Arabia.

26And he encircled all the sons of Midian, and burned their encampments, and plundered their sheepfolds.

27And he went down into the plain of Damascus in the days of the wheat harvest, and he set all their fields on fire; their flocks and herds he gave over to destruction, and he plundered their cities and stripped bare their plains, and struck down all their young men with the edge of the sword.

28And fear and dread of him fell upon those living along the coast—those in Sidon and Tyre, those living in Assur and Ocina, and all those living in Jamnia; and those living in Azotus and Ascalon were very greatly afraid of him.