1   Then Holofernes said to her: Be of good chere, and feare not in thy hart: because I haue neuer hurt man, that would serue Nabuchodonosor the king.

2   And thy people, if they had not contemned me, I would neuer haue lifted vp my speare ouer them.

3   But now tel me, for what cause hast thou departed from them, and it hath pleased thee to come to vs?

4   And Iudith said to him: ^note Take the wordes of thy handmayde, for if thou wilt folow the wordes of thy handmayde, our Lord wil do with thee a perfect thing.

5   For Nabuchodonosor the king of the earth liueth, and his power liueth which is in thee to the chastising of al straying soules: that not onlie men serue him by thee, but also the beastes of the field obey him.

6   For the industrie of thy mind is reported to al nations, and it is declared to al the world, that thou onlie art good, and mightie in al his kingdom, and thy discipline is bruted to al prouinces.

7   Neither is that vnknowne, which Achior spake, neither are we ignorant of that thou hast commanded to come vpon him.

8   For it is certaine that our God is so offended with sinnes, that he hath sent word by his prophetes to the people, that he wil deliuer them for their sinnes.

9   And because the children of Israel know they offended their God, thy dread is vpon them.

10   Moreouer also famine hath inuaded them, and for drought of water they are now estemed among the dead.

11   Finally they ordayne this, to kil their cattel, and to drinke the bloud of them,

12   and the holie thinges of our Lord their God which God commanded not to be touched, in corne, wine, and oile, these haue they purposed to bestow, and they wil consume the thinges which they ought not to touch with their handes: therfore because

they do these thinges, it is sure that they shal be geuen into perdition.

13   Which I thy handmayde knowing, am fled from them, and our Lord hath sent me to tel thee these verie thinges.

14   For I thy handmayde worshippe God, euen now being with thee, and thy handmayde wil goe forth, and I wil pray God,

15   and he wil tel me when he wil repay them their sinnes, and I coming wil tel thee, so that I may bring thee through the middes of Ierusalem, and thou shalt haue al the people of Israel, as sheepe, that haue no pastor, and there shal not so much as one dog barke against thee:

16   because these thinges are told me by the prouidence of God.

17   And because God is angrie with them, I am sent to tel these vetie thinges to thee.

18   And al these wordes pleased Holofernes, and his seruantes, and they maruailed at her wisedom, and one said to an other:

19   There is not such a woman vpon the earth in looke, in beautie, and in sense of wordes.

20   And Holofernes sayd to her: God hath done wel, which sent thee before the people, that thou mightest geue them into our handes:

21   and because thy promise is good, if thy God shal doe this for me, he shal also be my God, and thou shalt be great in the house of Nabuchodonosor, and thy name shal be renowmed in al the earth.

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