12 Then they cried unto their God, and he smote all the land of Egypt with incurable plagues, and the Egyptians drove them out from before them.

13 God dried up the Red Sea before them

14 and led them by the way of Sina and Cadiz-barnea; they drove out all those who dwelt in this wilderness;

15 And they dwelt in the land of the Amorites, and by their own power destroyed all the Heshbonites, and crossed the Jordan, and inherited all the hill country

16 And having driven out from before them Canaanites, and Perizzites, and Jebusites, Shechem, and all the Gergashites, they dwelt in it many days.

17 And until they sinned against their God, happiness was with them, because God is with them, who hates unrighteousness.

18 But when they deviated from the way which he had bequeathed to them, they suffered very great defeats in many wars, and were taken captive into a foreign land, and the temple of their God was destroyed, and their cities were taken by the enemy.

19 But now, having turned to their God, they have returned from the dispersion in which they were, and have taken possession of Jerusalem, in which their sanctuary is, and have settled in the hill country, because it was desolate.

20 And now, lord lord, if there is a mistake in this people, and they sin against their God, and we notice that they have this stumbling, then we will go and overcome them.

21 And if there be no iniquity in this people, let my lord depart, lest the Lord protect them, and their God be for them, and then we shall be an object of reproach to all the earth.

22 And when Achior had finished this speech, all the people who were standing round about the tent murmured, and the nobles of Holofernes, and all who inhabited the seaside and the land of Moab, began to speak, 'Immediately he must be slain;

23 for we will not fear the children of Israel: they are a people who have neither army nor strength to make a strong army.

24 Come, therefore, lord Holofernes, and they shall become the prey of all thy army.

Chapter 6