Ammonite Leader tells the story of Israel to Assyrian general

The general of the Assyrian Army, Holofernes is continuing with the conquest and was approaching Israel. He also learned that the Israelites had begun to fortify the region including the hilltops and the plain.

One of the Ammonites leaders called Achior began to tell the history of the Israelites starting from when Abraham, a Chaldean, left his country and went to Mesopotamia. Achior describes the history of the Israelites including their enslavement in Egypt, their Exodus and including the conquest of the surrounding lands. It seems that Achior and probably his people knew the history of Israel very well, which is also a testimony revealing God at work in His people that others can see.

It is also amazing that Achior also understood that the victories of the Israelites occurred when the Israeliets were obedient to God, and that Israel became weak without the help of God when they were disobedient to God.




Judith 5 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)

Council against the Israelites
When Holofer′nes, the general of the Assyrian army, heard that the people of Israel had prepared for war and had closed the passes in the hills and fortified all the high hilltops and set up barricades in the plains, 2 he was very angry. So he called together all the princes of Moab and the commanders of Ammon and all the governors of the coastland, 3 and said to them, “Tell me, you Canaanites, what people is this that lives in the hill country? What cities do they inhabit? How large is their army, and in what does their power or strength consist? Who rules over them as king, leading their army? 4 And why have they alone, of all who live in the west, refused to come out and meet me?”

Achior’s Report
5 Then Ach′ior, the leader of all the Am′monites, said to him, “Let my lord now hear a word from the mouth of your servant, and I will tell you the truth about this people that dwells in the nearby mountain district. No falsehood shall come from your servant’s mouth. 6 This people is descended from the Chalde′ans. 7 At one time they lived in Mesopota′mia, because they would not follow the gods of their fathers who were in Chalde′a. 8 For they had left the ways of their ancestors, and they worshiped the God of heaven, the God they had come to know; hence they drove them out from the presence of their gods; and they fled to Mesopota′mia, and lived there for a long time. 9 Then their God commanded them to leave the place where they were living and go to the land of Canaan. There they settled, and prospered, with much gold and silver and very many cattle. 10 When a famine spread over Canaan they went down to Egypt and lived there as long as they had food; and there they became a great multitude—so great that they could not be counted. 11 So the king of Egypt became hostile to them; he took advantage of them and set them to making bricks, and humbled them and made slaves of them. 12 Then they cried out to their God, and he afflicted the whole land of Egypt with incurable plagues; and so the Egyptians drove them out of their sight. 13 Then God dried up the Red Sea before them, 14 and he led them by the way of Sinai and Ka′desh-bar′nea, and drove out all the people of the wilderness. 15 So they lived in the land of the Am′orites, and by their might destroyed all the inhabitants of Heshbon; and crossing over the Jordan they took possession of all the hill country. 16 And they drove out before them the Canaanites and the Per′izzites and the Jeb′usites and the She′chemites and all the Ger′gesites, and lived there a long time. 17 As long as they did not sin against their God they prospered, for the God who hates iniquity is with them. 18 But when they departed from the way which he had appointed for them, they were utterly defeated in many battles and were led away captive to a foreign country; the temple of their God was razed to the ground, and their cities were captured by their enemies. 19 But now they have returned to their God, and have come back from the places to which they were scattered, and have occupied Jerusalem, where their sanctuary is, and have settled in the hill country, because it was uninhabited. 20 Now therefore, my master and lord, if there is any unwitting error in this people and they sin against their God and we find out their offense, then we will go up and defeat them. 21 But if there is no transgression in their nation, then let my lord pass them by; for their Lord will defend them, and their God will protect them, and we shall be put to shame before the whole world.”

22 When Ach′ior had finished saying this, all the men standing around the tent began to complain; Holofer′nes’ officers and all the men from the seacoast and from Moab insisted that he must be put to death. 23 “For,” they said, “we will not be afraid of the Israelites; they are a people with no strength or power for making war. 24 Therefore let us go up, Lord Holofer′nes, and they will be devoured by your vast army.”

Revenge of Nebuchadnezzar on the nations of the West

Following his victory, Nebuchadnezzar remembered his promise of revenge against the nations to his west, because they had disobeyed him in not helping him in his other war campaign. So Nebuchadnezzar plotted revenge with his second-in-command Holoferness. The strategy was a cruel invasion, plunder and explusion of the people in those nations to the west. Holoferness carried out his kings commands, and the passage records names of various places that have been conquered.



Judith 2 The Expedition against the West
In the eighteenth year, on the twenty-second day of the first month, there was talk in the palace of Nebuchadnez′zar king of the Assyrians about carrying out his revenge on the whole region, just as he said. 2 He called together all his officers and all his nobles and set forth to them his secret plan and recounted fully, with his own lips, all the wickedness of the region;[a] 3 and it was decided that every one who had not obeyed his command should be destroyed. 4 When he had finished setting forth his plan, Nebuchadnez′zar king of the Assyrians called Holofer′nes, the chief general of his army, second only to himself, and said to him,

5 “Thus says the Great King, the lord of the whole earth: When you leave my presence, take with you men confident in their strength, to the number of one hundred and twenty thousand foot soldiers and twelve thousand cavalry. 6 Go and attack the whole west country, because they disobeyed my orders. 7 Tell them to prepare earth and water, for I am coming against them in my anger, and will cover the whole face of the earth with the feet of my armies, and will hand them over to be plundered by my troops,[b] 8 till their wounded shall fill their valleys, and every brook and river shall be filled with their dead, and overflow; 9 and I will lead them away captive to the ends of the whole earth. 10 You shall go and seize all their territory for me in advance. They will yield themselves to you, and you shall hold them for me till the day of their punishment. 11 But if they refuse, your eye shall not spare and you shall hand them over to slaughter and plunder throughout your whole region. 12 For as I live, and by the power of my kingdom, what I have spoken my hand will execute. 13 And you—take care not to transgress any of your sovereign’s commands, but be sure to carry them out just as I have ordered you; and do not delay about it.”

Campaign of Holofernes
14 So Holofer′nes left the presence of his master, and called together all the commanders, generals, and officers of the Assyrian army, 15 and mustered the picked troops by divisions as his lord had ordered him to do, one hundred and twenty thousand of them, together with twelve thousand archers on horseback, 16 and he organized them as a great army is marshaled for a campaign. 17 He collected a vast number of camels and asses and mules for transport, and innumerable sheep and oxen and goats for provision; 18 also plenty of food for every man, and a huge amount of gold and silver from the royal palace. 19 So he set out with his whole army, to go ahead of King Nebuchadnez′zar and to cover the whole face of the earth to the west with their chariots and horsemen and picked troops of infantry. 20 Along with them went a mixed crowd like a swarm of locusts, like the dust of the earth—a multitude that could not be counted.

21 They marched for three days from Nin′eveh to the plain of Becti′leth, and camped opposite Becti′leth near the mountain which is to the north of Upper Cili′cia. 22 From there Holofer′nes[c] took his whole army, his infantry, cavalry, and chariots, and went up into the hill country 23 and ravaged Put and Lud, and plundered all the people of Rassis and the Ish′maelites who lived along the desert, south of the country of the Chel′leans. 24 Then he followed[d] the Euphra′tes and passed through Mesopota′mia and destroyed all the hilltop cities along the brook Abron, as far as the sea. 25 He also seized the territory of Cili′cia, and killed every one who resisted him, and came to the southern borders of Japheth, fronting toward Arabia. 26 He surrounded all the Mid′ianites, and burned their tents and plundered their sheepfolds. 27 Then he went down into the plain of Damas′cus during the wheat harvest, and burned all their fields and destroyed their flocks and herds and sacked their cities and ravaged their lands and put to death all their young men with the edge of the sword.

28 So fear and terror of him fell upon all the people who lived along the seacoast, at Sidon and Tyre, and those who lived in Sur and Oci′na and all who lived in Jam′nia. Those who lived in Azo′tus and As′calon feared him exceedingly.