Entreaties for Peace

1They therefore sent messengers to him to sue for peace in these words: 2‘We, the servants of Nebuchadnezzar, the Great King, lie prostrate before you. Do with us whatever you will. 3See, our buildings and all our land and all our wheat fields and our flocks and herds and all our encampments3.3 Gk all the sheepfolds of our tents lie before you; do with them as you please. 4Our towns and their inhabitants are also your slaves; come and deal with them as you see fit.’

5The men came to Holofernes and told him all this. 6Then he went down to the sea coast with his army and stationed garrisons in the fortified towns and took picked men from them as auxiliaries. 7These people and all in the countryside welcomed him with garlands and dances and tambourines. 8Yet he demolished all their shrines3.8 Syr: Gk borders and cut down their sacred groves; for he had been commissioned to destroy all the gods of the land, so that all nations should worship Nebuchadnezzar alone, and that all their dialects and tribes should call upon him as a god.

9Then he came towards Esdraelon, near Dothan, facing the great ridge of Judea; 10he camped between Geba and Scythopolis, and remained for a whole month in order to collect all the supplies for his army.