A Council of War

¹Holofernes, the commander of the Assyrian army, was told that the people of Israel had prepared for battle by closing the mountain passes, fortifying all the high hilltops, and placing obstructions in the plains.

²Holofernes was very angry at this and called together all the princes of Moab, the commanders of Ammon, and all the governors of the coastlands.

³He asked them, “Tell me, you Canaanites, who are these people that occupy the hill country? What towns do they live in? How large is their army? What is the source of their power and strength? Who is the king that leads their army?

⁴Why is it that, of all the nations in this western region, they are the only ones who refuse to surrender to me?”

⁵Then Achior, leader of the Ammonites, answered, “My lord, if you wish, I will tell you the truth about these people who live in the hills nearby. I will not lie.

⁶The ancestors of these people were Chaldeans.

⁷For a time they settled in Mesopotamia because they refused to worship the gods their ancestors had worshiped in Chaldea.

⁸Since they had abandoned their ancestors’ ways and worshiped the God of heaven, the God they had come to know, their neighbors expelled them from the presence of their gods. So they fled to Mesopotamia, where they lived for a long time.

⁹Then their God commanded them to leave that place and go to the land of Canaan. They settled there and acquired great wealth in gold, silver, and livestock.

¹⁰“When a famine spread over the land of Canaan, they went down to Egypt and lived there as long as there was food. They became such a great multitude that their race could not be counted,

¹¹so the king of Egypt became hostile toward them. He exploited them by making them slaves who produced bricks for him.

¹²They cried out to their God, who punished all of Egypt with incurable plagues. So the Egyptians drove them out of their sight.

¹³Then God dried up the Red Sea before them,

¹⁴and he led them forward to Sinai and Kadesh-barnea. They drove out all the people living in the desert

¹⁵and settled in the land of the Amorites. With great force they destroyed all the inhabitants of Heshbon. Then they crossed over the Jordan River and took control of all the hill country.[#5:15 Greek inherited.]

¹⁶They drove out the Canaanites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Shechemites, and all the Girgashites. Then the Israelites lived there a long time.

¹⁷“As long as they did not sin against their God, they prospered, for the God who is with them hates sin.

¹⁸But when they disobeyed him, they were defeated in many battles and were taken captive to foreign lands. The Temple of their God was demolished, and their towns were taken by their enemies.

¹⁹But now they have returned to their God and have come back from the places where they were scattered. Some of them have occupied Jerusalem, the site of their Temple, while others settled in the unoccupied hill country.

²⁰“So now, master and lord, we must find out if these people have sinned against their God. If so, we can go up and defeat them.

²¹But if they are not guilty, my lord, you would do better to leave them alone and move on. For their Lord and God will protect them, and we would become the laughingstock of the whole world.”

²²When Achior had finished his talk, all the people standing around the tent began to disagree with him. Holofernes’ officers, together with the people from the coastal area and from Moab, insisted that Achior should be killed.

²³“Why should we be afraid of the Israelites?” they said. “They are weak and powerless, incapable of withstanding any sort of attack.

²⁴Let’s go ahead! Your great army, master Holofernes, will swallow them up!”