Judith 4

1 And the children of Israel who lived in Judah heard all that Holofernes, the commander of the army of Nebuchadnezzar king of the Assyrians, had done to the nations, and how he had plundered all their temples and given them over to ruin. [a] 2 They were very greatly afraid of him, and they were shaken for Jerusalem and for the temple of the Lord their God. 3 For they had only lately come up from the captivity, and all the people of Judah had only recently been gathered together, and the vessels and the altar and the house had been made holy again after being treated as common.

4 So they sent word into every district of Samaria, and to Kona, and Beth-horon, and Belmain, and Jericho, and to Choba and Aesora and the valley of Salem; [b] 5 and they seized the tops of all the high mountains ahead of time, and walled the villages that were in them, and stored up food in preparation for war, since their fields had just been harvested.

6 And Joakim the great priest, who was in Jerusalem in those days, wrote to the people living in Bethulia and Betomesthaim, which lies opposite Esdrelon, facing the plain that is near Dothan, [c] 7 telling them to hold the passes up into the hill country, since the way into Judah lay through them, and it was easy to stop men coming up, because the approach was narrow — wide enough for two men at the most. 8 And the children of Israel did as Joakim the great priest had ordered them, he and the council of elders of the whole people of Israel, who sat in Jerusalem.

9 Then every man of Israel cried out to God with great earnestness, and with great earnestness they brought their souls low — 10 they and their wives and their little children and their cattle; and every foreigner living among them, and every hired worker, and every slave they had bought, put sackcloth around their waists. [d]

11 And every man of Israel and every woman and the children, those who lived in Jerusalem, fell down before the temple and put ashes on their heads and spread out their sackcloth before the Lord. [e] 12 And they wrapped the altar in sackcloth, and cried out to the God of Israel with one mind, earnestly, that he would not give their little children up to plunder, or their wives as spoil, or the cities of their inheritance to ruin, or the holy place to be treated as common and shamed, a thing for the nations to gloat over. 13 And the Lord listened to their voice and looked on their affliction. And the people went on fasting many days in all Judah and Jerusalem before the holy place of the Lord Almighty. [f] †

14 And Joakim the great priest, and all the priests who stood before the Lord, and those who served the Lord, had sackcloth wrapped around their waists as they offered the daily whole burnt offering and the vows and the freewill gifts of the people; 15 and there were ashes on their turbans, and they cried out to the Lord with all their strength, that he would look on the whole house of Israel for good. [g]