ng, "Behold, we the servants of
Nebuchadnezzar the great king lie before thee: use us as it is
pleasing in thy sight. Behold, our dwellings, and all our country, and
all our fields of wheat, and our flocks and herds, and all the
sheepcotes {82} of our tents, lie before thy face: use them as it may
please thee. Behold, even our cities and they that dwell in them are
thy servants: come and deal with them as it is good in thine eyes."
And the men came to Holofernes, and spoke to him according to these
words.

And he came down toward the sea coast, he and his host, and set
garrisons in the great cities, and took out of them chosen men for
allies. And they received him, they and all the country round about
them, with garlands and dances and timbrels. And he cast down all
their defenses, and cut down their sacred groves: and it had been
given to him to destroy all the gods of the land, that all the nations
should worship Nebuchadnezzar only, and that all their tongues and
their tribes should call upon him as god. And he came towards
Esdraelon near to Dotaea, which is over against the great ridge of
Judaea. And he encamped between Geba and Scythopolis, and he was there
a whole month, that he might gather together all the baggage of his
host.

_The Siege of Bethulia_.

(After ravaging the coast, Holofernes pushed up into the hill country
to attack the cities of Israel.)

But the next day Holofernes gave command to all his army and to all
his people which were come to be his allies, that they should remove
their camp toward Bethulia, and take aforehand the ascents of the hill
country, and make war against the children of Israel. And every mighty
man of them removed that day, and the host of their men of {83} war
was a hundred and seventy thousand footmen, and twelve thousand
horsemen, beside the baggage, and the men that were afoot among them,
an exceeding great multitude. And they encamped in the valley near
unto Bethulia, by the fountain, and they spread out over all the land.

But the children of Israel, when they saw the multitude of them, were
troubled exceedingly, and said every one to his neighbor, "Now shall
these men lick up the face of all the earth; and neither the high
mountains, nor the valleys, nor the hills, shall be able to bear their
weight."

And every man took up his weapons of war, and when they had kindled
fires upon their towers, they remained and watched all that night.

But on the second day H