1 And when the uproar from the men that were around the council had ceased, Holophernĕs the chief captain of the army of Ashshur said to Aḵior and all the Mo’aḇites before all the company of other nations,
2 “And who are you Aḵior, and the hired men of Ephrayim, that you have prophesied this against us today, and have said that we should not go to battle with the people of Yisra’ĕl because their Elohim shall defend them; and who is a mighty one but Neḇuḵaḏnetstsar?
3 “He shall send his power, and destroy them from the face of the earth, and their Elohim shall not deliver them! But we his servants shall destroy them as one man; for they are not able to sustain the might of our horses.
4 “For with them we shall trample them, and their mountains shall be drunk with their blood and their fields shall be filled with their dead bodies and their footprints shall not be able to stand before us, for they shall utterly perish, said sovereign Neḇuḵaḏnetstsar, master of all the earth! For he said, ‘None of my words shall come to naught.’
5 “And you, Aḵior, a hired man of Ammon, who has spoken these words on the day of your punishment, shall see my face no more from this day until I take vengeance on this nation that came out of Mitsrayim.
6 “And then the sword of my army and the number of those who serve me shall pierce your sides, and you shall fall among their slain when I return.
7 “Now therefore my servants shall take you back into the hill country, and shall place you in one of the cities of the passages;
8 and you shall not perish, till you are destroyed with them.
9 “And if you persuade yourself in your mind that they shall be taken, do not let your face fall. I have spoken it, and none of my words shall come to naught.”
10 Then Holophernĕs commanded his servants who waited on his tent, to take Aḵior and bring him to Bĕyth Yulia, and deliver him into the hands of the children of Yisra’ĕl.
11 So his servants took him, and brought him out of the camp into the plain, and they went from the midst of the plain into the hill country, and came to the springs below Bĕyth Yulia.
12 And when the men of the city saw them, they took up their weapons and went out of the city to the top of the hill; and every man that used a sling kept them from coming up by slinging stones against them.
13 However, having approached hidden below the hill, they bound Aḵior and threw him down and left him at the foot of the hill, and returned to their master.
14 But the Yisra’ĕlites descended from their city, and came to him, and released him, and brought him to Bĕyth Yulia, and presented him to the governors of the city,
15 who in those days were: Uzziyah the son of Miḵah, of the tribe of Shim’on, and Ḥaḇriyah the son Othni’ĕl, and Ḥeremyah the son Malki’ĕl.
16 And they called together all the elders of the city, and all their youth ran together and their women to the assembly, and they put Aḵior in the midst of all their people. Then Uzziyah asked him about what was done.
17 And he answered and related to them the words of the council of Holophernĕs, and all the words that he had spoken in the midst of the princes of Ashshur, and all that Holophernĕs had spoken proudly against the house of Yisra’ĕl.
18 Then the people fell down and worshipped Elohim, and cried out to Elohim saying,
19 “O 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 Elohim of the shamayim! See their pride and show favour on our humble nation, and look upon the face of those that are qadosh to you this day.”
20 Then they comforted Aḵior, and praised him greatly.
21 And Uzziyah took him out of the assembly to his house, and made a feast for the elders; and they called on the Elohim of Yisra’ĕl all that night for help.