Douay Rheims Original ↷

Judith

5:1

Judith 5 📜 📕 ↷

Holofernes Rages at Israel

1 AND it was told Holofernes the General of the wars of the Assyrians, that the children of Israel prepared themselves to resist, and had shut up the ways of the mountains,📜💬📚

2 and with exceeding fury he chased in great anger, & called all the Princes of Moab and dukes of Ammon,📜💬📚

3 and he said to them: Tell me what is this people which besetteth the mountains: or what, and of what sort, and how great their cities are: also what their power is, or what is their multitude: or who is the king of their warfare:📜💬📚

4 and why above all that dwell in the East, have these contemned us, & have not come forth to meet us, that they might receive us with peace?📜💬📚

5 Then Achior captain of all the children of Ammon answering, said: If thou vouchsafe my Lord to hear, I will tell the truth in thy sight, of this people, which dwelleth in the mountains, & there shall not a false word come forth of my mouth.📜💬📚

Israel's Chaldean Roots and Exodus

6 This people is of the progeny of the Chaldees.📜💬📚

7 The same dwelt first in Mesopotamia, because they would not follow the gods of their fathers, which were in the land of the Chaldees.📜💬📚

8 Forsaking therefore the ceremonies of their fathers, which were in multitude of gods,📜💬📚

9 they worshipped one God of heaven, who also commanded them that they should depart from thence, and should dwell in Charan. And when there was famine over all the land, they went down into AEgypt, and there for four hundred years were so multiplied, that the host of them could not be numbered.📜💬📚

10 And when the king of AEgypt oppressed them, and in the buildings of his cities had subdued them in brick and clay, they cried to their Lord, and he struck the whole Land of AEgypt with diverse plagues.📜💬📚

11 And when the AEgyptians had cast them out from them, and the plague had ceased from them, and they would take them again, and call them back to their service,📜💬📚

12 these flying away, the God of heaven opened the sea, so that the waters were consolidated as a wall, on either side, and they walking through the bottom of the sea passed dry-foot.📜💬📚

13 In which place whilst an innumerable army of the AEgyptians pursued them, they were so overwhelmed with the waters, that there was not one remaining, to tell the fact to posterity.📜💬📚

14 Also being past the red sea, they possessed the deserts of Mount Sinai, in which never man could dwell, or son of man rested.📜💬📚

Forty Years in Desert

15 There bitter fountains were made sweet for them to drink, and for forty years they received meat from heaven.📜💬📚

16 Wheresoever they entered without bow and arrow, and without shield and sword, their God fought for them, and overcame.📜💬📚

17 And there was not that did insult against this people, but when they departed from the worship of the Lord their God.📜💬📚

Israel's Cycles of Sin and Repentance

18 But as often as beside their own God they worshipped another, they were given to prey, and into the sword, and to reproach.📜💬📚

19 And as often as they were penitent for that they revolted from the worship of their God, the God of heaven gave them power to resist.📜💬📚

20 Finally the king of the Chanaaneites, and of the Jebuseites, and of the Pherezeites, and of the Hetheites, and of the Heveites, and of the Amorrheites, and all the mighty in Hesebon they overthrew, and they possessed their lands, and their cities:📜💬📚

21 and as long as they sinned not in the sight of their God, it was well with them, for their God hateth iniquity.📜💬📚

22 For these years also past when they had revolted from the way, which God had given them, that they should walk in it, they were destroyed in battles by many nations, and very many of them were led captive into a strange land.📜💬📚

23 But of late returning to the Lord their God, from the dispersion wherein they were dispersed, they are united and are come up into all these mountains, and possess Jerusalem again where their Holies are.📜💬📚

Link Between Israel's Sin and Military

24 Now therefore my Lord, search if there be any iniquity of theirs in the sight of their God: and let us go up to them, because their God delivering will deliver them to thee, and they shall be subdued under the yoke of thy power:📜💬📚

25 but if there be no offence of this people before their God, we can not resist them, because their God will defend them: and we shall be a reproach to the whole earth.📜💬📚

26 And it came to pass, when Achior had ceased to speak these words, all the great men of Holofernes were angry, and they thought to kill him, saying to each other:📜💬📚

27 who is this, that saith the children of Israel can resist king Nabuchodonosor, and his armies, men unarmed, and without force, and without skill of the feats of war?📜💬📚

28 That Achior therefore may know that he deceiveth us, let us go up into the mountains: and when their mighty ones shall be taken, then shall he with them be strucken through with the sword:📜💬📚

29 that every nation may know that Nabuchodonosor is god of the earth, and besides him there is none other.📜💬📚