Judith 7

1 The next day Holofernes ordered his whole army, and all the people who had come to fight alongside him, to break camp and move against Bethulia, to seize the ways up into the hill country in advance, and to make war on the children of Israel. 2 So every fighting man among them broke camp that day. Their force was 170,000 foot soldiers and 12,000 horsemen, besides the baggage and the men who went on foot among them — a very great multitude. [a] 3 They camped in the valley near Bethulia, by the spring, and they spread out in width from Dothan as far as Belbaim, and in length from Bethulia to Kyamon, which faces Esdrelon. [b]

4 When the children of Israel saw how many they were, they were badly shaken, and each said to his neighbor, “Now these men will lick clean the face of the whole earth. Neither the high mountains nor the ravines nor the hills can bear their weight.” 5 Then each man took up his weapons of war, and they lit fires on their towers and stayed on watch all that night.

6 On the second day Holofernes led out all his horsemen in full view of the children of Israel who were in Bethulia, 7 and he surveyed the ways up to their city, and went round to the springs of their water and seized them first, and stationed posts of fighting men over them; and he himself went back to his own people.

8 Then all the rulers of the children of Esau, and all the leaders of the people of Moab, and the commanders of the seacoast came to him and said, 9 “Let our master hear a word, so that there may be no shattering in your force. 10 This people, the children of Israel, do not trust in their spears, but in the heights of the mountains where they live; for it is not easy to climb to the tops of their mountains. 11 And now, master, do not fight them the way a war of battle lines is fought, and not one man of your people will fall. 12 Stay in your camp, keeping every man of your force safe, and let your servants take hold of the spring of water that flows out from the foot of the mountain, 13 because that is where everyone who lives in Bethulia draws water. Thirst will destroy them, and they will hand over their city. And we and our people will go up onto the mountaintops nearby and camp on them as a watch, so that not one man gets out of the city. 14 They will melt away with famine — they and their wives and their children — and before the sword ever reaches them they will be laid low in the streets where they live. [c] 15 So you will pay them back an evil payment, because they rebelled and did not come out to meet you in peace.”

16 Their words pleased Holofernes and all his servants, and he gave orders to do as they had said. 17 So the camp of the children of Ammon set out, and with them 5,000 of the children of Assyria, and they camped in the valley and took the waters and the springs of the water of the children of Israel. 18 And the children of Esau and the children of Ammon went up and camped in the hill country opposite Dothan. They sent some of their men south and east, opposite Egrebel, which is near Chous on the brook Mochmur. The rest of the army of the Assyrians camped in the plain and covered the whole face of the land; their tents and their gear were pitched there in a great throng, and they were an exceedingly great multitude. [d]

19 Then the children of Israel cried out to the Lord their God, for their spirit had grown faint, because all their enemies had surrounded them and there was no getting out from among them. 20 The whole army of Assyria stayed around them — their foot soldiers, their chariots and their horsemen — for thirty-four days, and every water jar of everyone who lived in Bethulia gave out. 21 The cisterns were emptied, and they had no water to drink their fill for even one day, because what they drank was given out to them by measure. 22 Their little children lost heart, and the women and the young men fainted from thirst and fell down in the streets of the city and in the passages of the gates, and there was no strength left in them.

23 Then all the people gathered against Uzziah and the rulers of the city — the young men, the women and the children — and they cried out with a loud voice and said in front of all the elders, 24 “Let God judge between you and us, for you have done us a great wrong in not speaking peaceable words with the children of Assyria. 25 And now there is no one to help us. God has sold us into their hands, to be laid low in front of them in thirst and great destruction. 26 So call them now, and hand the whole city over as plunder to the people of Holofernes and to his whole force. 27 For it is better for us to become their spoil. We will be slaves, and our life will go on, and we will not see the death of our little children with our own eyes, nor our wives and our children with the life failing out of them. [e] 28 We call heaven and earth to witness against you, and our God, the Lord of our fathers, who punishes us for our sins and for the sins of our fathers, so that he may not act according to these words today.” [f]

29 Then great weeping broke out in the middle of the assembly, all of them together, and they cried out to the Lord God with a loud voice. 30 And Uzziah said to them, “Take courage, brothers. Let us hold out five days more. In them the Lord our God will turn his mercy back to us, for he will not abandon us to the end. 31 But if these days pass and no help comes to us, I will do what you have said.” 32 Then he sent the people away, each to his own post, and they went off to the walls and the towers of their city, and sent the women and the children into their houses. And they were in great humiliation in the city. †