Jdt 6

1 And when the tumult of men that were about the council was ceased, Holofernes the chiefcaptain of the army of Assur said to Achior and all the Moabites before all the company of other nations, 2 And who are you, Achior, and the hirelings of Ephraim, that you have prophesied againstus as to day, and have said, that we should not make war with the people of Israel, because their Godwill 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 Godshall not deliver them: but we his servants will destroy them as one man; for they are not able to sustainthe power of our horses. 4 For with them we will tread them under foot, and their mountains shall be drunken withtheir blood, and their fields shall be filled with their dead bodies, and their footsteps shall not beable to stand before us, for they shall utterly perish, says king Nabuchodonosor, lord of all the earth:for he said, None of my words shall be in vain. 5 And you, Achior, an hireling of Ammon, which have spoken these words in the day of youriniquity, shall see my face no more from this day, until I take vengeance of this nation that came outof Egypt. 6 And then shall the sword of mine army, and the multitude of them that serve me, pass throughyour sides, and you shall fall among their slain, when I return. 7 Now therefore my servants shall bring you back into the hill country, and shall set youin one of the cities of the passages: 8 And you shall not perish, till you be destroyed with them. 9 And if you persuade yourself in your mind that they shall be taken, let not your countenancefall: 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, andbring 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 wentfrom the midst of the plain into the hill country, and came to 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 thecity to the top of the hill: and every man that used a sling kept them from coming up by casting of stonesagainst 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 to him, and loosed him, and broughthim to 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 Chabristhe 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 askedhim of that which was done. 17 And he answered and declared to them the words of the council of Holofernes, and allthe words that he had spoken in the midst of the princes of Assur, and whatever Holofernes had spokenproudly against the house of Israel. 18 Then the people fell down and worshipped God, and cried to God. saying, 19 O Lord God of heaven, behold their pride, and pity the low estate of our nation, andlook upon the face of those that are sanctified to you this day. 20 Then they comforted Achior, and praised him greatly. 21 And Ozias took him out of the assembly to his house, and made a feast to the elders;and they called on the God of Israel all that night for help.