1   When the Israelites who lived in Judaea heard of all that had been done to the nations by Holophernes, the commander-in-chief of Nebuchadnezzar king of Assyria, and how he had plundered and totally destroyed all their temples, 2   they were terrified at his approach. They were in great alarm for Jerusalem and for the temple of the Lord their God. 3   For they had just returned from captivity, and it was only recently that the people had been re-united in Judaea, and the sacred vessels, the temple, and the altar sanctified after their profanation. 4   So they sent out a warning to the whole of Samaria, Cona, Beth-horon, Belmain and Jericho, Choba and Aesora and the valley of Salem, 5   and occupied the tops of all the high hills. They fortified the villages on them and laid up stores of food in preparation for war; for their fields had just been harvested. 6   Joakim, who was high priest in Jerusalem at the time, wrote to the people of Bethulia and Bethomesthaim, which is opposite Esdraelon facing the plain near Dothan. 7   He ordered them to occupy the passes into the hill-country, because they controlled access to Judaea, and it was easy to hold up an advancing army, for the approach was only wide enough for two men. 8   The Israelites obeyed the orders of the high priest Joakim and the senate of all Israel in Jerusalem. 9   Fervently they sent up a cry to God, every man of Israel, and fervently they humbled themselves before him. 10   They put on sackcloth—they

The Assyrian invasion themselves, their wives, their children, their livestock, and every resident foreigner, 11   hired labourer, and slave—and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, men, women, and children, prostrated themselves in front of the sanctuary, and, with ashes on their heads, spread out their sackcloth before the Lord. They draped the altar in sackcloth, 12   and with one voice they earnestly implored the God of Israel not to allow their children to be captured, their wives carried off, their ancestral cities destroyed, and the temple profaned and dishonoured, to the delight of the heathen. 13   The Lord heard their prayer and pitied their distress.

For many days the whole population of Judaea and Jerusalem fasted before the sanctuary of the Lord Almighty. 14   Joakim the high priest and the priests who stood in the presence of the Lord, and all who served in the temple, wore sackcloth when they offered the regular burnt-offering and the votive and freewill offerings of the people; 15   and with ashes on their turbans they cried aloud to the Lord to look favourably on the whole house of Israel.

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