Chapter 3

And now from every city and province, from the Syrians of Mesopotamia and Sobal and from (Libya1 and) Cilicia, king and chieftain sent envoys to Holofernes.

Spare us thy further vengeance, they said; better we should live as slaves to the great king Nabuchodonosor, under thy commands, than be reduced by slaughter, undergoing massacre and slavery both.

Cities and lands, mountain and hill and plain, ox and sheep and goat and horse and camel, all that we have, and our own households too, lie at thy mercy;

dispose of them all as thou wilt;

we, and our children with us, are thy slaves.

Come to us as our master, so thou come to us in peace, and make what use thou wilt of our surrender.

Then, with his horsemen and all his armed strength, he came down from the hill-country and made city and citizen his own,

levying from their townships all the bravest men, all the picked warriors, for his own service.

Such dread of him lay on these provinces, that chiefs and nobles came out from every town, with the common sort at their heels, to meet him,

welcoming him with crowns and processions by torch-light, dancing in his honour to the music of tambour and flute.

Yet might they not, even so, win over that relentless heart;

cities must be razed to the ground, and forest-shrines cut down;

king Nabuchodonosor had bidden him destroy all traces of the countryside gods, so that the nations overpowered by Holofernes might acknowledge no other god but himself.

Then, after traversing the Syrian country of Sobal, and Apamea, and Mesopotamia, he reached the Idumæans that dwelt in the land of Gabaa.

Their cities surrendered to him, and he made a halt of thirty days there, during which he bade all the forces under his command rally to his side.