Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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The War against the Nations in
the West
1 In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar's
reign, on the
twenty-second day of the first
month of that year, he and his advisers
decided to carry out his threat to
take revenge on all those countries
that had refused to help him.
2
3 The
king called his general staff and senior
officers together and reported in
detail how those countries had betrayed
him. He and his officers
agreed that everyone who had refused
to help him in the war should
be put to death. Then he described
to them his plan of attack.
4 At the close of the meeting,
Nebuchadnezzar gave the following
command to Holofernes, who was
the general in command of his
armies and second in command to
the king:
5 “I, Nebuchadnezzar, the
great king and ruler of all the earth,
command you to choose some experienced
soldiers: 120,000 infantry
and 12,000 cavalry.
6 Then attack the
lands to the west because they refused
to respond to my appeal for
help.
7 Warn them that they must
prepare their offerings of earth and
water to show that they have surrendered
unconditionally. I will make
them feel the full force of my anger
and completely destroy them. My
armies will march over every foot of
their land and plunder it as they go.
8 I will fill the valleys with their dead
bodies and will choke up every
stream and river with so many
corpses that they will all overflow.
9 I will take captive all those who are
left alive and carry them off to the
ends of the earth.
10 “But you, Holofernes, are ordered
to go ahead of me and occupy
all their territories in advance. If
they surrender to you, hold them for
me until I come to punish them.
11 But if they resist, do not spare
them. Kill them and loot the entire
region under your control.
12 I have
taken a solemn vow, and at the risk
of my life and my royal power I am
determined to do what I have vowed
to do.
13 Do not disobey me in any
way. I am your king; remember that,
and carry out without delay every
order that I have given you.”
The Campaign of Holofernes
14 So Holofernes left the king and
called together all the commanders,
generals, and officers of the Assyrian
-- --
army.
15 Just as the king had ordered,
he chose 120,000 of the best
infantrymen and 12,000 of the best
mounted archers
16 and arranged
them in battle formation.
17 He also
took along a very large number of
camels, donkeys, and mules to carry
the equipment, as well as many
sheep, cattle, and goats for food.
18 Every soldier received plenty of
rations and a large payment of gold
and silver from the royal treasury.
19 Then Holofernes and his entire
army set out, advancing ahead of
King Nebuchadnezzar. The chariots,
the cavalry, and the infantry
marched out to overrun the entire
western region.
20 Other troops went
with them. There were so many that
it was impossible to count them—
they were like a swarm of locusts or
like grains of sand in the desert. note
21 Three days after they had left
the city of Nineveh, they reached the
plains around Bectileth near the
mountains north of Cilicia, where
they set up camp.
22 From there Holofernes
advanced into the hill country
with his entire army, his infantry,
cavalry, and chariots.
23 He totally
destroyed the countries of Libya and
Lydia, then plundered all the people
of Rassis and the Ishmaelites who
lived on the edge of the desert, south
of the land of the Chelleans.
24 Then Holofernes crossed the Euphrates
River and marched through
the land of Mesopotamia, completely
destroying all the walled
towns along the Abron River as far
as the sea.
25 He seized the territory
of Cilicia, killing everyone who resisted
him, and went as far as the
southern borders of the land of Japheth,
near Arabia.
26 He surrounded
the Midianites, burned down their
tents, and slaughtered their sheep.
27 Holofernes went down into the
plains around Damascus during the
wheat harvest, burned all the fields,
slaughtered the flocks and herds,
looted the towns, devastated the entire
countryside, and killed all the
young men.
28 Panic seized all the
people who lived along the Mediterranean
Sea, and they shook with
fear. Everyone in the towns of Tyre,
Sidon, Sur, Ocina, Jamnia, Ashdod,
and Ashkelon was terrified.
Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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