Judith, 5

1. When Holofernes, the general of the Assyrian army, heard that the people of Israel had prepared for war and had closed the passes in the hills and fortified all the high hilltops and set up barricades in the plains,

2. he was very angry. So he called together all the princes of Moab and the commanders of Ammon and all the governors of the coastland,

3. and said to them, "Tell me, you Canaanites, what people is this that lives in the hill country? What cities do they inhabit? How large is their army, and in what does their power or strength consist? Who rules over them as king, leading their army?

4. And why have they alone, of all who live in the west, refused to come out and meet me?"

5. Then Achior, the leader of all the Ammonites, said to him, "Let my lord now hear a word from the mouth of your servant, and I will tell you the truth about this people that dwells in the nearby mountain district. No falsehood shall come from your servant's mouth.

6. This people is descended from the Chaldeans.

7. At one time they lived in Mesopotamia, because they would not follow the gods of their fathers who were in Chaldea.

8. For they had left the ways of their ancestors, and they worshiped the God of heaven, the God they had come to know; hence they drove them out from the presence of their gods; and they fled to Mesopotamia, and lived there for a long time.

9. Then their God commanded them to leave the place where they were living and go to the land of Canaan. There they settled, and prospered, with much gold and silver and very many cattle.

10. When a famine spread over Canaan they went down to Egypt and lived there as long as they had food; and there they became a great multitude -- so great that they could not be counted.

11. So the king of Egypt became hostile to them; he took advantage of them and set them to making bricks, and humbled them and made slaves of them.

12. Then they cried out to their God, and he afflicted the whole land of Egypt with incurable plagues; and so the Egyptians drove them out of their sight.

13. Then God dried up the Red Sea before them,

14. and he led them by the way of Sinai and Kadesh-barnea, and drove out all the people of the wilderness.

15. So they lived in the land of the Amorites, and by their might destroyed all the inhabitants of Heshbon; and crossing over the Jordan they took possession of all the hill country.

16. And they drove out before them the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Jebusites and the Shechemites and all the Gergesites, and lived there a long time.

17. As long as they did not sin against their God they prospered, for the God who hates iniquity is with them.

18. But when they departed from the way which he had appointed for them, they were utterly defeated in many battles and were led away captive to a foreign country; the temple of their God was razed to the ground, and their cities were captured by their enemies.

19. But now they have returned to their God, and have come back from the places to which they were scattered, and have occupied Jerusalem, where their sanctuary is, and have settled in the hill country, because it was uninhabited.

20. Now therefore, my master and lord, if there is any unwitting error in this people and they sin against their God and we find out their offense, then we will go up and defeat them.

21. But if there is no transgression in their nation, then let my lord pass them by; for their Lord will defend them, and their God will protect them, and we shall be put to shame before the whole world."

22. When Achior had finished saying this, all the men standing around the tent began to complain; Holofernes' officers and all the men from the seacoast and from Moab insisted that he must be put to death.

23. "For," they said, "we will not be afraid of the Israelites; they are a people with no strength or power for making war.

24. Therefore let us go up, Lord Holofernes, and they will be devoured by your vast army."