Judith 5

1 Word was brought to Holofernes, commander of the army of Assyria, that the children of Israel had made ready for war, and had closed the passes of the hill country, and had walled every high hilltop, and had laid stumbling blocks in the plains. [a] 2 He was very angry, and he called together all the rulers of Moab and the commanders of Ammon and all the governors of the coastland, 3 and he said to them, “Tell me now, you children of Canaan: who are these people who live in the hill country? What cities do they hold? How large is their army? Where do their power and their strength lie? And who has risen up over them as king, leading their army? [b] 4 And why have they turned their backs on me and not come out to meet me, alone of all who live in the west?”

5 Then Achior, the leader of all the children of Ammon, said to him, “Let my lord hear a word from the mouth of your servant, and I will tell you the truth about this people who live in this hill country, close to where you are. No lie will come out of the mouth of your servant. 6 These people are descendants of the Chaldeans. 7 Long ago they lived as strangers in Mesopotamia, because they were not willing to follow the gods of their fathers, who were in the land of the Chaldeans. 8 They stepped off the road their parents walked and bowed down to the God of heaven, the God they had come to know. So their own people drove them out from before their gods, and they fled into Mesopotamia and lived there as strangers for many days. 9 Then their God told them to leave the place where they were living as strangers and to go into the land of Canaan. They settled there, and they multiplied, with gold and silver and a great many cattle.

10 Then they went down into Egypt, for a famine had covered the face of the land of Canaan; and they lived there as strangers as long as they were fed. And there they became a great multitude, and their nation could not be counted. 11 So the king of Egypt rose up against them and outwitted them with hard labor and brick. The Egyptians brought them low and made them slaves. [c] 12 Then they cried out to their God, and he struck the whole land of Egypt with blows for which there was no healing; and the Egyptians drove them out from before their faces.

13 And God dried up the Red Sea in front of them, 14 and led them along the road to Sinai and Kadesh-barnea; and they drove out everyone who lived in the wilderness. [d] 15 They settled in the land of the Amorites, and by their own strength they destroyed all the people of Heshbon. Then they crossed the Jordan and took the whole hill country as their inheritance, 16 and they drove out before them the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Jebusite and the Shechemite and all the Girgashites, and they lived in that country for many days. [e]

17 As long as they did not sin before their God, good things were with them, because a God who hates what is wrong is with them. 18 But when they turned aside from the way he had laid down for them, they were destroyed in war after war, again and again, and were carried off captive into a land that was not their own; and the temple of their God was leveled to the ground, and their cities were seized by their enemies. 19 And now they have turned back to their God, and they have come up out of the scattering where they were scattered, and have taken hold of Jerusalem, where their sanctuary is, and have settled again in the hill country, because it was left empty. [f]

20 And now, Master and Lord, if there is a wrong done in ignorance among this people, and they are sinning against their God, and we see that this stumbling block is in them, then let us go up and make war on them. [g] 21 But if there is no lawlessness in their nation, then let my lord pass them by, or their Lord and their God may hold a shield over them, and we will become a reproach in front of the whole earth.”

22 When Achior had finished saying these words, all the people who ringed the tent and stood around it grumbled, and the great men of Holofernes and all who lived along the coastland and in Moab said to cut him to pieces. 23 “We are not going to be afraid of the children of Israel! Look at them — a people with no army and no power to hold a strong battle line. 24 So let us go up, and they will be food for your whole army to eat, Master Holofernes.”