13 And in the seventeenth year he took up arms with his army against king Arphaxad, and overcame him in battle, and put to flight all the army of Arphaxad, and all his cavalry, and all his chariots,

14 And he took the cities thereof, and came as far as Ecbatana, and occupied the fortifications, and laid waste the streets of the city, and turned its beauty to shame.

15 And he seized Arphaxad in the mountains of Ragau, and pierced him with his spear, and on the same day he destroyed him.

16 And he went back with his men to Nineveh, and he and all his allies, a great multitude of men of war; there he rested and feasted with his army for a hundred and twenty days.

2

1 In the eighteenth year, on the twenty-second day of the first month, there followed in the house of Nebuchadnezzar king of Assyria, a commandment to take vengeance, as he said, on all the land.

2 And having called together all his ministers and all his dignitaries, he made known to them the secret of his purpose, and by his own mouth he determined all evil in the land.

3 And they determined to destroy all those who did not obey the word of his mouth.

4 At the end of his conference, Nebuchadnezzar king of Assyria called the chief captain of his army, Holofernes, who was second to him, and said to him,

5 Thus saith the great king, lord of all the earth: Behold, thou shalt go from before me, and take with thee men confident in their strength, a hundred and twenty thousand foot, and a great number of horses with twelve thousand horsemen,

6 And thou shalt go out against all the earth in the west, because ye have not obeyed the word of my mouth.

7 And thou shalt tell them to prepare land and water, for I will come out against them with wrath, and will cover all the face of the earth with the feet of my army, and will deliver them to him to be plundered.

8 The valleys and streams shall be filled with their wounded, and the river choked with their carcasses shall be overflowing;

9 And their captives I will scatter to the ends of the whole earth.