1In the eighteenth year, on the twenty-second day of the first month, there was talk in the palace of Nebuchadnez'zar king of the Assyrians about carrying out his revenge on the whole region, just as he had said. 2He called together all his officers and all his nobles and set forth to them his secret plan and recounted fully, with his own lips, all the wickedness of the region;2.2 The meaning of the Greek of the last clause of this verse is uncertain 3and it was decided that every one who had not obeyed his command should be destroyed. 4When he had finished setting forth his plan, Nebuchadnez'zar king of the Assyrians called Holofer'nes, the chief general of his army, second only to himself, and said to him,

5“Thus says the Great King, the lord of the whole earth: When you leave my presence, take with you men confident in their strength, to the number of one hundred and twenty thousand foot soldiers and twelve thousand cavalry. 6Go and attack the whole west country, because they disobeyed my orders. 7Tell them to prepare earth and water, for I am coming against them in my anger, and will cover the whole face of the earth with the feet of my armies, and will hand them over to be plundered by my troops,2.7 Gk them 8till their wounded shall fill their valleys, and every brook and river shall be filled with their dead, and overflow; 9and I will lead them away captive to the ends of the whole earth. 10You shall go and seize all their territory for me in advance. They will yield themselves to you, and you shall hold them for me till the day of their punishment. 11But if they refuse, your eye shall not spare and you shall hand them over to slaughter and plunder throughout your whole region. 12For as I live, and by the power of my kingdom, what I have spoken my hand will execute. 13And you — take care not to transgress any of your sovereign's commands, but be sure to carry them out just as I have ordered you; and do not delay about it.”

14So Holofer'nes left the presence of his master, and called together all the commanders, generals, and officers of the Assyrian army, 15and mustered the picked troops by divisions as his lord had ordered him to do, one hundred and twenty thousand of them, together with twelve thousand archers on horseback, 16and he organized them as a great army is marshalled for a compaign. 17He collected a vast number of camels and asses and mules for transport, and innumerable sheep and oxen and goats for provision; 18also plenty of food for every man, and a huge amount of gold and silver from the royal palace. 19So he set out with his whole army, to go ahead of King Nebuchadnez'zar and to cover the whole face of the earth to the west with their chariots and horsemen and picked troops of infantry. 20Along with them went a mixed crowd like a swarm of locusts, like the dust of the earth — a multitude that could not be counted.

21They marched for three days from Nin'eveh to the plain of Becti'leth, and camped opposite Becti'leth near the mountain which is to the north of Upper Cili'cia. 22From there Holofer'nes2.22 Gk he took his whole army, his infantry, cavalry, and chariots, and went up into the hill country 23and ravaged Put and Lud, and plundered all the people or Rassis and the Ish'maelites who lived along the desert, south of the country of the Chel'leans. 24Then he followed2.24 Or crossed the Eu-phra'tes and passed through Mesopota'mia and destroyed all the hilltop cities along the brook Abron, as far as the sea. 25He also seized the territory of Cili'cia, and killed every one who resisted him, and came to the southern borders of Japheth, fronting toward Arabia. 26He surrounded all the Mid'ianites, and burned their tents and plundered their sheepfolds. 27Then he went down into the plain of Damascus during the wheat harvest, and burned all their fields and destroyed their flocks and herds and sacked their cities and ravaged their lands and put to death all their young men with the edge of the sword.

28So fear and terror of him fell upon all the people who lived along the seacoast, at Sidon and Tyre, and those who lived in Sur and Oci'na and all who lived in Jam'nia. Those who lived in Azo'tus and As'calon feared him exceedingly.