Judith 3

So they sent messengers to him to talk about peace, and this is what they said:

1So they sent ambassadors unto him to treat of peace, saying,

Note"They" are the coastal peoples listed at the end of the previous chapter, from Sidon and Tyre down to Ascalon. To "treat of peace" in 1611 English meant to negotiate terms, not to discuss peace in the abstract; in practice an embassy like this one offered surrender before a siege began, hoping to be spared.

2"Look, we are the servants of Nabuchodonosor the great king, and we lie down before you. Use us in whatever way seems good to you.

2Behold, we the servants of Nabuchodonosor the great king lie before thee; use us as shall be good in thy sight.

NoteNabuchodonosor is the Greek form of the name spelled Nebuchadnezzar elsewhere in the King James Bible. "We lie before thee" describes a physical posture: envoys prostrated themselves face down before a conqueror, and the words are a formal declaration that the speakers keep no rights of their own. "Servants" here translates a word that covers everything from hired staff to slaves, and in a surrender speech it means subjects who own nothing the king cannot take.

3Look, our houses, and all our land, and all our wheat fields, and our flocks and herds, and all the animal pens beside our tents lie before your face. Use them however it pleases you.

3Behold, our houses, and all our places, and all our fields of wheat, and flocks, and herds, and all the lodges of our tents lie before thy face; use them as it pleaseth thee.

Note"The lodges of our tents" are sheepfolds, the walled or fenced pens where flocks were penned at night beside a herding family's encampment. The list of houses, land, grain, flocks and pens is a legal formula for total surrender: it names every category of property a community held, so that nothing is left unsurrendered.

4Look, even our cities and the people who live in them are your servants. Come and deal with them however it seems good to you."

4Behold, even our cities and the inhabitants thereof are thy servants; come and deal with them as seemeth good unto thee.

5So the men came to Holofernes and told him all of this, just as it is written here.

5So the men came to Holofernes, and declared unto him after this manner.

6Then he came down toward the sea coast, he and his army, and he placed groups of soldiers in the cities set high on the hills, and he took picked men out of those cities to fight alongside him.

6Then came he down toward the sea coast, both he and his army, and set garrisons in the high cities, and took out of them chosen men for aid.

NoteA garrison is a body of troops left permanently in a captured town to hold it. The "high cities" are the hill fortresses, the towns built on high ground that controlled the roads below. Taking "chosen men for aid" means conscripting the best local fighters into his own army, a standard practice that both reinforced the invader and removed the men most able to lead a revolt.

7They, and all the country around them, welcomed him with garlands of flowers, with dancing, and with hand drums.

7So they and all the country round about received them with garlands, with dances, and with timbrels.

NoteGarlands, dancing and hand drums were the customary public welcome for a victorious king entering a town. The timbrel was a small hand drum with a skin stretched over a hoop, played chiefly by women; "tambourine" is the nearest modern word, though the ancient instrument did not always have jingles.

8Even so, he tore down their borders and cut down their sacred groves. He had been given the task of destroying all the gods of the land, so that every nation would worship Nabuchodonosor and no one else, and so that people of every language and every tribe would call on him as a god.

8Yet he did cast down their frontiers, and cut down their groves: for he had decreed to destroy all the gods of the land, that all nations should worship Nabuchodonosor only, and that all tongues and tribes should call upon him as god.

Note"Frontiers" here are boundary markers, the stones and shrines that marked the edge of each people's territory; tearing them down erased the old political map. The "groves" are stands of trees, or wooden poles standing in for them, planted at local sanctuaries as part of the worship there. Requiring that a living king be honored as a god was a feature of several ancient empires, though no surviving record of the historical Nebuchadnezzar shows him demanding it.

9He also came to the place facing Esdraelon, near Dotaea, which lies across from the great ridge of Judea.

9Also he came over against Esdraelon near unto Judea, over against the great strait of Judea.

NoteEsdraelon is the Greek name for the broad plain of Jezreel, the flat valley that cuts across northern Israel and carried the main road inland. The Greek manuscripts differ here: some read Dotaea, the district around the town of Dothan, and others read Judea, which is what the King James translators followed. "Strait" in 1611 English meant a narrow place, a pass or a ridge line, and not a channel of water.

10He set up camp between Geba and Scythopolis, and he stayed there a whole month, so that he could gather together all the baggage of his army.

10And he pitched between Geba and Scythopolis, and there he tarried a whole month, that he might gather together all the carriages of his army.

NoteGeba and Scythopolis mark the eastern end of the plain. Scythopolis is the Greek name for Beth-shan, an old fortress town guarding the descent to the Jordan valley. "Carriages" in 1611 English meant the things carried, that is the baggage train: tents, food, siege gear and plunder, along with the animals and carts hauling them. Waiting a month for the baggage to catch up is what an army did before moving into difficult hill country.