Judith 3

1And they sent messengers to him with peaceful words, saying,

2Look, we, the servants of Nebuchodonosor the great king, lie before you; deal with us as is pleasing in your sight.

3Look, our homesteads and every field of wheat and the flocks and the herds and all the enclosures of our tents lie before you; use them as pleases you.

4Look, our cities also, and those who live in them, are your servants; come and deal with them as is good in your eyes.

5And the men came to Holofernes and reported to him according to these words.

6And he and his force went down to the coast, and he garrisoned the high cities, and they took chosen men from them into alliance.

7And they themselves, and all their surrounding region, received him with garlands and dances and tambourines.

8And he tore down all their borders and cut down their sacred groves; and it had been granted to him to destroy all the gods of the land, so that all the nations might worship him alone—Nebuchadnezzar—and that all their tongues and all their tribes might call on him as god.

9And he came to the front of Esdrelon, near Dothaia, which is opposite the great ridge of Judea,

10And they encamped between Gaibai and the city of the Scythians, and he was there for a full month, to gather all the full complement of his forces.