Chapter 3

1 So they sent messengers to sue for peace, and said, 2 “Behold, we the servants of Nebuchadnezzar, the Great King, lie prostrate before you. Do with us whatever you will. 3 Behold, our buildings, and all our land, and all our wheat fields, and our flocks and herds, and all our sheepfolds with their tents, lie before you; do with them whatever you please. 4 Our cities also and their inhabitants are your slaves; come and deal with them in any way that seems good to you.”

5 The men came to Holofernes and told him all this. 6 Then he went down to the seacoast with his army and stationed garrisons in the hilltop cities and took picked men from them as his allies. 7 And these people and all in the country round about welcomed him with garlands and dances and tambourines. 8 And he demolished all their shrines and cut down their sacred groves; for it had been given to him to destroy all the gods of the land, so that all nations should worship Nebuchadnezzar only, and all their tongues and tribes should call upon him as god.

9 Then he came to the edge of Esdraelon, near Dothan, fronting the great ridge of Judea; 10 here he camped between Geba and Scythopolis, and remained for a whole month in order to assemble all the supplies for his army.