Books Jesus Read

Chapter 4: Uncompromising Standards – Judith

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take care not to neglect anything I command you today, and do not delay.”

Holofernes the Commander Holofernes called together all the officers of the Assyrian army, assembling the select troops by divisions as his lord had ordered him to do, 120,000 of them, together with twelve thousand men on horseback, and he marshaled them for the campaign. He also assembled a vast number of camels and pack mules for transport, sheep, oxen, and goats for food, and enough gold and silver from the royal palace to secure any supplies they might require. Then Holofernes and his army set out with their chariots, horsemen, and select soldiers, like a swarm of locusts, like the dust of the earth, a multitude no one could count. Marching westward from Nineveh, the army of Holofernes rolled over every nation in its path, destroying people and plundering temples. 4 When the sons of Israel living in Judea heard about everything that Holofernes was doing, they were alarmed for Jerusalem and the temple of the Lord their God. For they had recently returned from captivity and the sacred vessels, the altar, and the temple had been cleansed and rededicated after having been desecrated. So, they sent word to every district from Samaria to Jericho, commanding them to secure all the hilltops and to fortify all the villages and to store up food in preparation for war, since their fields had recently been harvested. Now Joakim was high priest in Jerusalem at that time. He made plans for defense together with the senate. Then

4 Jdt 2:21–3:9 is omitted.