PLACE OF THE STORY.
Bethulia.
Camp of Holofernes.
Tent of Holofernes.
JUDITH.
(The story of Judith, and how she delivered Israel by cutting off the head of Holofernes, a great captain of the armies of King Nebuchadnezzar, is told in the Apocrypha.
According to the story, King Nebuchadnezzar made war upon Arphaxad, king of the Medes. He summoned all nations to aid him, and having been victorious, he sent an army of 132,000 men to take vengeance upon those nations which refused to come at his call. This great army swept down from the North, destroying everything in its path.)
The March of Holofernes.
And Holofernes went forth from the presence of his lord, and called all the governors and the captains and [{81}] officers of the host of Asshur; and he numbered chosen men for the battle, as his lord had commanded him, up to a hundred and twenty thousand, and twelve thousand archers on horseback; and he ranged them, as a great army is ordered for the war. And he took camels and asses and mules for their baggage, an exceeding great multitude; and sheep and oxen and goats without number for their provision; and great stores of food for every man, and exceeding much gold and silver out of the king's house. And he went forth, he and all his host, on their journey, to go before King Nebuchadnezzar, and to cover all the face of the earth westward with their chariots and horsemen and chosen footmen. And a great company of many nations went forth with them like locusts, and like the sand of the earth: for they could not be numbered by reason of their multitude.
And they went out of Nineveh three days' journey toward the plain of Bectileth, and encamped from Bectileth near the mountain which is at the left hand of the upper Cilicia. And he took all his host, his footmen and horsemen and chariots, and went away from thence into the hill country, and destroyed many peoples.
And the fear and the dread of him fell upon them that dwelt on the sea coast, from the north to the south. And they sent to him messengers with words of peace, saying, "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.