Judith 4

1And the sons of Israel who lived in Judea heard all that Holofernes, the commander-in-chief of King Nebuchadnezzar of the Assyrians, had done to the nations, and how he had plundered all their sanctuaries and given them over to destruction.

2And they were very, very afraid because of him, and they were troubled about Jerusalem and the temple of the Lord their God.

3for they had only recently come up from the captivity, and all the people of Judea had only recently been gathered together, and the vessels and the altar and the house had been consecrated from the defilement.

4And they sent word into all the territory of Samaria, and to Kona, and Beth-horon, and Belmaim, and Jericho, and to Choba, and Aisora, and the valley of Salem,

5And they occupied all the summits of the high mountains,

6And they fortified the villages among them, and they stored up food supplies in preparation for war, because their fields had been newly harvested.

7And Joakim the high priest, who was in Jerusalem in those days, wrote to those living in Bethulia and Betomesthaim, which is opposite Esdraelon, facing the plain near Dothaim,

8telling them to seize the mountain passes, because through them was the entrance into Judea; and it was easy to hold them back as they came up, since the approach was narrow enough for all the men to go two abreast.

9And the sons of Israel did as Joakim the high priest and the council of the whole people of Israel, who sat in Jerusalem, instructed them.

10And every man of Israel cried out to God with great intensity, and they humbled themselves with great intensity,

11They themselves and their wives and their little children and their livestock—and every resident alien or hired worker or purchased servant among them—put sackcloth on their waists.

12And every man of Israel, and the women and the children, those dwelling in Jerusalem, fell on their faces before the temple, and put ashes on their heads, and spread out their sackcloth before the Lord,

13And they covered the altar with sackcloth, and they cried out to the God of Israel together with fervor, that he might not give their little children over to plunder, and their women to spoil, and the cities of their inheritance to destruction, and the holy things to defilement and reproach, as something the nations would gloat over.

14And the Lord heard their voice and looked upon their affliction, and the people were fasting for many days throughout all Judea and Jerusalem before the holy things of the Lord Almighty.

15And Joakim the high priest, and all who stood before the Lord—the priests and those ministering to the Lord, with sackcloth girded around their waists—were offering the regular whole burnt offering, and the prayers, and the freewill gifts of the people,

16And there was ashes on their turbans, and they were crying out to the Lord with all their strength, that he might look with favor on the whole house of Israel.