Judith - Chapter 1

¹ It was the twelfth year of Nebuchadnezzar who reigned over the Assyrians in the great city of Nineveh. Arphaxad was then reigning over the Medes in Ecbatana.

² He surrounded this city with walls of dressed stones three cubits thick and six cubits long, making the rampart seventy cubits high and fifty cubits wide.

³ At the gates he placed towers one hundred cubits high and, at the foundations, sixty cubits wide,

⁴ the gates themselves being seventy cubits high and forty wide to allow his forces to march out in a body and his infantry to parade freely.

⁵ About this time King Nebuchadnezzar gave battle to King Arphaxad in the great plain lying in the territory of Ragae.

⁶ Supporting him were all the peoples from the highlands, all from the Euphrates and Tigris and Hydaspes, and those from the plains who were subject to Arioch, king of the Elymaeans. Thus many nations had mustered to take part in the battle of the Cheleoudites.

⁷ Nebuchadnezzar king of the Assyrians sent a message to all the inhabitants of Persia, to all the inhabitants of the western countries, Cilicia, Damascus, Lebanon, Anti-Lebanon, to all those along the coast,

⁸ to the peoples of Carmel, Gilead, Upper Galilee, the great plain of Esdraelon,

⁹ to the people of Samaria and its outlying towns, to those beyond Jordan, as far away as Jerusalem, Bethany, Chelous, Kadesh, the river of Egypt, Tahpanhes, Rameses and the whole territory of Goshen,

¹⁰ beyond Tanis too and Memphis, and to all the inhabitants of Egypt as far as the frontiers of Ethiopia.

¹¹ But the inhabitants of these countries ignored the summons of Nebuchadnezzar king of the Assyrians and did not rally to him to make war. They were not afraid of him, since in their view he appeared isolated. Hence they sent his ambassadors back with nothing achieved and in disgrace.

¹² Nebuchadnezzar was furious with all these countries. He swore by his throne and kingdom to take revenge on all the territories of Cilicia, Damascus and Syria, of the Moabites and of the Ammonites, of Judaea and Egypt as far as the limits of the two seas, and to ravage them with the sword.

¹³ In the seventeenth year, he gave battle with his whole army to King Arphaxad and in this battle defeated him. He routed Arphaxad's entire army and all his cavalry and chariots;

¹⁴ he occupied his towns and advanced on Ecbatana; he seized its towers and plundered its market places, reducing its former magnificence to a mockery.

¹⁵ He later captured Arphaxad in the mountains of Ragae and, thrusting him through with his spears, destroyed him once and for all.

¹⁶ He then retired with his troops and all who had joined forces with him: a vast horde of armed men. Then he and his army gave themselves up to carefree feasting for a hundred and twenty days.

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