1 So they sent ambassadors to him to entreat for peace, saying,
2 “See, we the servants of Neḇuḵaḏnetstsar the great sovereign lie before you; use us as is good in your eyes.
3 “Look, our houses and all our places and all our fields of wheat and flocks and herds, and all the camps of our tents lie before you; use them as it pleases you.
4 “See, even our cities and their inhabitants are your servants; come and deal with them as seems good to you.”
5 So the men came to Holophernĕs, and spoke to him after this manner.
6 Then he came down toward the seacoast, both he and his army, and appointed garrisons in the high cities, and took chosen men out of them for help.
7 So they and all the country round about received them with flowers, with dances, and with timbrels.
8 But he broke down their pillars and cut down their Ashĕrim; for he had decreed to destroy all the mighty ones of the land, that all nations should worship Neḇuḵaḏnetstsar only, and that all tongues and tribes should call upon him as a mighty one.
9 He also came opposite Yizre’ĕl near Yahuḏah, opposite the great ridge of Yahuḏah.
10 And he camped between Geḇa and Bĕyth She’an, and there he waited a whole month, that he might gather together all the supplies for his army.