Many submit themselves to Holofernes. He destroyeth their cities, and
their gods, that Nabuchodonosor only might be called God.
3:1. Then the kings and the princes of all the cities and provinces, of
Syria, Mesopotamia, and Syria Sobal, and Libya, and Cilicia sent their
ambassadors, who coming to Holofernes, said:
3:2. Let thy indignation towards us cease, for it is better for us to
live and serve Nabuchodonosor the great king, and be subject to thee,
than to die and to perish, or suffer the miseries of slavery.
3:3. All our cities and our possessions, all mountains and hills, and
fields, and herds of oxen, and flocks of sheep, and goats, and horses,
and camels, and all our goods, and families are in thy sight:
3:4. Let all we have be subject to thy law,
3:5. Both we and our children are thy servants.
3:6. Come to us a peaceable lord, and use our service as it shall please
thee,
3:7. Then he came down from the mountains with horsemen, in great power,
and made himself master of every city, and all the inhabitants of the
land.
3:8. And from all the cities he took auxiliaries valiant men, and chosen
for war,
3:9. And so great a fear lay upon all those provinces, that the
inhabitants of all the cities, both princes and nobles, as well as the
people, went out to meet him at his coming.
3:10. And received him with garlands, and lights, and dances, and
timbrels, and flutes.
3:11. And though they did these things, they could not for all that
mitigate the fierceness of his heart:
3:12. For he both destroyed their cities, and cut down their groves.
3:13. For Nabuchodonosor the king had commanded him to destroy all the
gods of the earth, that he only might be called God by those nations
which could be brought under him by the power of Holofernes.
3:14. And when he had passed through all Syria Sobal, and all Apamea,
and all Mesopotamia, he came to the Idumeans into the land of Gabaa,
3:15. And he took possession of their cities, and stayed there for
thirty days, in which days he commanded all the troops of his army to be
united.