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,
6:2 And who art thou, Achior, and the hirelings of Ephraim, that thou hast
prophesied against 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?
6:3 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.
6:4 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.
6:5 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.
6:6 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.
6:7 Now therefore my servants shall bring thee back into the hill country,
and shall set thee in one of the cities of the passages:
6:8 And thou shalt not perish, till thou be destroyed with them.
6:9 And if thou persuade thyself in thy mind that they shall be taken, let
not thy countenance fall: I have spoken it, and none of my words shall
be in vain.
6:10 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.
6:11 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.
6:12 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.
6:13 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.
6:14 But the Israelites descended from their city, and came unto him, and
loosed him, and brought him to Bethulia, and presented him to the
governors of the city:
6:15 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.
6:16 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.
6:17 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.
6:18 Then the people fell down and worshipped God, and cried unto God.
saying,
6:19 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.
6:20 Then they comforted Achior, and praised him greatly.
6:21 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.
