Judith 5

1And it was reported to Holofernes, the commander-in-chief of the forces of Assyria, that the sons of Israel had prepared for war, and had blocked the roads of the hill country and fortified every summit of every high mountain, and had set up obstacles in the plains.

2And he became very angry, and he summoned all the rulers of Moab, the generals of Ammon, and all the satraps of the coastland,

3And he said to them, “Tell me, then, sons of Canaan, who is this people that dwells in the hill country, and which cities they inhabit, and the size of their military force, and in what their power and their strength consist, and who has risen over them as king, leading their army.”

4And why did they refuse to come to meet me, unlike all who dwell in the west?

5And Achior, the leader of all the sons of Ammon, said to him, “Let my lord now hear a word from the mouth of your servant, and I will tell you the truth about the people who dwell in this hill country near you, and no falsehood will come from the mouth of your servant.”

6These people are descendants of the Chaldeans.

7And formerly they lived as sojourners in Mesopotamia, because they were not willing to follow the gods of their fathers, who were in the land of the Chaldeans.

8They departed from the way of their fathers and worshiped the God of heaven, the God whom they had come to know. And they were driven out from before their gods, and fled to Mesopotamia, and lived there as foreigners for many days.

9And their God told them to go out from their sojourning and to go into the land of Canaan; and they settled there, and became very wealthy in gold and silver and in very many livestock.

10And they went down into Egypt, for a famine covered the face of the land of Canaan, and they lived there as sojourners until they were sustained; and there they became a very great multitude, and there was no number to their family line.

11And the king of Egypt rose up against them, and they dealt shrewdly with them in toil and brickmaking; they humbled them and made them servants.

12And they cried out to their God, and he struck the land of Egypt with plagues for which there was no healing; and the Egyptians drove them out from before them.

13And God dried up the Red Sea before them,

14And he led them onto the way of Sinai and Kadesh-barnea; and they drove out all who were living in the wilderness,

15And they lived in the land of the Amorites, and by their strength they destroyed all the Heshbonites; and after crossing the Jordan, they took possession of all the hill country.

16And they drove out from before them the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, the Shechemite, and all the Girgashites, and they lived in it for many days.

17And as long as they did not sin before their God, good things were with them, because a God who hates injustice is with them.

18But when they turned away from the path that he had appointed for them, they were utterly destroyed in many wars, to a very great extent, and they were taken captive into a land not their own, and the temple of their God was laid level with the ground, and their cities were seized by their adversaries.

19And now, having turned back to their God, they came up from the dispersion where they had been scattered there, took possession of Jerusalem, where their sanctuary was, and settled in the hill country, because it had been deserted.

20And now, master lord, if indeed there is an offense in this people and they are sinning against their God, and if we ascertain that this stumbling block is among them, then we will go up and make war against them;

21But if there is no lawlessness in their nation, let my lord pass by, lest perhaps their Lord and their God defend them, and we become a reproach before all the earth.

22And it happened, when Achior had stopped speaking these words, that all the people around the tent and standing about began to grumble, and the nobles of Holofernes and all who lived by the seacoast and in Moab said to strike him down.

23For we will not be helped by the sons of Israel; for look, they are a people in whom there is neither strength nor might for strong battle formation.

24Therefore we will indeed go up, and they will become food for all your army, master Holofernes.