الإصحَاحُ
السَّادِسُ

Chapter 6

 

6:1
And when the tumult of men that were about the council was ceased, Holofernes
the chief captain of the army of Assur said unto Achior and all the Moabites
before all the company of other nations, 2 And who art thou, Achior, and the
hirelings of Ephraim, that thou hast prophesied against us as to day, and hast
said, that we should not make war with the people of Israel, because their God
will defend them? and who is God but Nabuchodonosor? 3 He will send his power,
and will destroy them from the face of the earth, and their God shall not
deliver them: but we his servants will destroy them as one man; for they are
not able to sustain the power of our horses. 4 For with them we will tread them
under foot, and their mountains shall be drunken with their blood, and their
fields shall be filled with their dead bodies, and their footsteps shall not be
able to stand before us, for they shall utterly perish, saith king
Nabuchodonosor, lord of all the earth: for he said, None of my words shall be
in vain.

 

5
And thou, Achior, an hireling of Ammon, which hast spoken these words in the
day of thine iniquity, shalt see my face no more from this day, until I take
vengeance of this nation that came out of Egypt. 6 And then shall the sword of
mine army, and the multitude of them that serve me, pass through thy sides, and
thou shalt fall among their slain, when I return. 7 Now therefore my servants
shall bring thee back into the hill country, and shall set thee in one of the
cities of the passages: 8 And thou shalt not perish, till thou be destroyed
with them. 9 And if thou persuade thyself in thy mind that they shall be taken,
let not thy countenance fall: I have spoken it, and none of my words shall be
in vain.

 

10
Then Holofernes commanded his servants, that waited in his tent, to take
Achior, and bring him to Bethulia, and deliver him into the hands of the
children of Israel. 11 So his servants took him, and brought him out of the
camp into the plain, and they went from the midst of the plain into the hill
country, and came unto the fountains that were under Bethulia. 12 And when the
men of the city saw them, they took up their weapons, and went out of the city
to the top of the hill: and every man that used a sling kept them from coming up
by casting of stones against them. 13 Nevertheless having gotten privily under
the hill, they bound Achior, and cast him down, and left him at the foot of the
hill, and returned to their lord.

 

14
But the Israelites descended from their city, and came unto him, and loosed
him, and brought him to Bethulia, and presented him to the governors of the
city: 15 Which were in those days Ozias the son of Micha, of the tribe of
Simeon, and Chabris the son of Gothoniel, and Charmis the son of Melchiel.

 

16
And they called together all the ancients of the city, and all their youth ran
together, and their women, to the assembly, and they set Achior in the midst of
all their people. Then Ozias asked him of that which was done. 17 And he
answered and declared unto them the words of the council of Holofernes, and all
the words that he had spoken in the midst of the princes of Assur, and
whatsoever Holofernes had spoken proudly against the house of Israel.

 

18
Then the people fell down and worshipped God, and cried unto God. saying, 19 O
Lord God of heaven, behold their pride, and pity the low estate of our nation,
and look upon the face of those that are sanctified unto thee this day.

 

20
Then they comforted Achior, and praised him greatly. 21 And Ozias took him out
of the assembly unto his house, and made a feast to the elders; and they called
on the God of Israel all that night for help.