Judith 6
1 And when the tumult of men that were
about the council was ceased, Holofernes the chief captain of the army of
Assur said unto Achior and all the Moabites before all the company of other
nations, 2 And who art thou, Achior,
and the hirelings of Ephraim, that thou hast prophesied among us as to day,
and hast said, that we should not make war with the people of Israel, because
their God will defend them? and who is God but Nabuchodonosor?
3 He will send his power, and will
destroy them from the face of the earth, and their God shall not deliver them:
but we his servants will destroy them as one man; for they are not able to
sustain the power of our horses. 4 For
with them we will tread them under foot, and their mountains shall be drunken
with their blood, and their fields shall be filled with their dead bodies, and
their footsteps shall not be able to stand before us, for they shall utterly
perish, saith king Nabuchodonosor, lord of all the earth: for he said, None of
my words shall be in vain.
5 And thou, Achior, an hireling of
Ammon, which hast spoken these words in the day of thine iniquity, shalt see
my face no more from this day, until I take vengeance of this nation that came
out of Egypt. 6 And then shall the
sword of mine army, and the multitude of them that serve me, pass through thy
sides, and thou shalt fall among their slain, when I return.
7 Now therefore my servants shall
bring thee back into the hill country, and shall set thee in one of the cities
of the passages: 8 and thou shalt not
perish, till thou be destroyed with them.
9 And if thou persuade thyself in thy
mind that they shall not be taken, let not thy countenance fall: I have spoken
it, and none of my words shall be in vain.
10 Then Holofernes commanded his
servants, that waited in his tent, to take Achior, and bring him to Bethulia,
and deliver him into the hands of the children of Israel.
11 So his servants took him, and
brought him out of the camp into the plain, and they went from the midst of
the plain into the hill country, and came unto the fountains that were under
Bethulia. 12 And when the men of the
city saw them, they took up their weapons, and went out of the city to the top
of the hill: and every man that used a sling kept them from coming up by
casting of stones against them.
13 Nevertheless having gotten privily
under the hill, they bound Achior, and cast him down, and left him at the foot
of the hill, and returned to their lord.
14 But the Israelites descended from
their city, and came unto him, and loosed him, and brought him into Bethulia,
and presented him to the governors of the city:
15 which were in those days Ozias the
son of Micha, of the tribe of Simeon, and Chabris the
son of Gothoniel, and Charmis the son of Melchiel.
16 And they called together all the
ancients of the city, and all their youth ran together, and their women, to
the assembly, and they set Achior in the midst of all their people. Then Ozias
asked him of that which was done.
17 And he answered and declared unto
them the words of the council of Holofernes, and all the words that he had
spoken in the midst of the princes of Assur, and whatsoever Holofernes had
spoken proudly against the house of Israel.
18 Then the people fell down and
worshipped God, and cried unto God, saying,
19 O Lord God of heaven, behold their
pride, and pity the low estate of our nation, and look upon the face of those
that are sanctified unto thee this day.
20 And they comforted Achior, and
praised him greatly. 21 And Ozias
took him out of the assembly unto his house, and made a feast to the elders;
and they called on the God of Israel all that night for help.