6
1 And when the tumult of the men that were about the council was ceased, Holofernes the chief captain of the host of Asshur said unto Achior and to all the children of * Moab before all the people of the aliens,
2 And who art thou, Achior, and the hirelings of † Ephraim, that thou hast prophesied among us as to-day, and hast said, that we should not make war with the race of Israel, because their God will defend them? And who is God but Nebuchadnezzar? 3 He shall send forth his might, and shall destroy them from the face of the earth, and their God shall not deliver them: but we his servants shall smite them as one man; and they shall not sustain the might of our horses. 4 For with them we shall burn them up, and their mountains shall be drunken with their blood, and their plains shall be filled with their dead bodies, and their footsteps shall not stand before us, but they shall surely perish, saith king Nebuchadnezzar, lord of all the earth: for he said, The words that ‡ I have spoken shall not be in vain. 5 But thou, Achior, hireling of Ammon, which hast spoken these words in the day of thine iniquity, shalt see my face no more from this day, until I shall be avenged of the race of those that came out of Egypt. 6 And then shall the sword of mine army, and the multitude of them that serve me, pass through thy sides, and thou shalt fall among their slain, when I shall return. 7 And my servants shall bring thee back into the hill country, and shall set thee in one of the cities of the ascents: 8 and thou shalt not perish, till thou be destroyed with them. 9 And if thou hopest in thy heart that they shall not be taken, let not thy countenance fall. I have spoken it, and none of my words shall fall to the ground. 10 And Holofernes commanded his servants, that waited in his tent, to take Achior, and bring him back to Bethulia, and deliver him into the hands of the children of Israel. 11 And his servants took him, and brought him out of the camp into the plain, and they removed from the midst of the plain country into the hill country, and came unto the fountains that were under Bethulia. 12 And when the men of the city saw them on the top of the hill, they took up their weapons, and went out of the city against them to the top of the hill: and every man that used a sling kept them from coming up, and cast stones against them. 13 And they gat them privily under the hill, and bound Achior, and cast him down, and left him at the foot of the hill, and went away unto their lord. 14 But the children of Israel descended from their city, and came upon him, and loosed him, and led him away into Bethulia, and presented him to the rulers of their city; 15 which were in those days Ozias the son of Micah, of the tribe of Simeon, and Chabris the son of Gothoniel, and Charmis the son of Melchiel. 16 And they called together all the elders of the city; and all their young men ran together, and their women, to the assembly; and they set Achior in the midst of all their people. And Ozias asked him of that which had happened: 17 and he answered and declared unto them the words of the council of Holofernes, and all the words that he had spoken in the midst of the princes of the children of Asshur, and all the great words that Holofernes had spoken against the house of Israel. 18 And the people fell down and worshipped God, and cried, saying, 19 O Lord God of heaven, behold their arrogance, and pity the low estate of our race, and look upon the face of those that are sanctified unto thee this day. 20 And they comforted Achior, and praised him exceedingly. 21 And Ozias took him out of the assembly into his house, and made a feast to the elders; and they called on the God of Israel for help all that night.
* 6:1 Some authorities read Ammon. Compare ver. 5. † 6:2 Some authorities read Ammon. Compare ver. 5. ‡ 6:4 Gr. he hath spoken.