1 So they sent Embassadours vnto him, to treat of peace, saying,

2 Behold, we the seruants of Nabuchodonosor the great king lie before thee; vse vs as shall be good in thy sight.

3 Behold, our houses, and all our places, and all our fieldes of wheat, and flockes, and heards, and all the lodges of our tents, lie before thy face: vse them as it pleaseth thee.

4 Behold, euen our cities and the inhabitants thereof are thy seruants, come and deale with them, as seemeth good vnto thee.

5 So the men came to Holofernes, & declared vnto him after this maner.

6 Then came hee downe toward the Sea coast, both hee and his armie, and set garisons in the high cities, and tooke out of them chosen men for aide.

7 So they and all the countrey round about, receiued them with garlands, with dances, and with timbrels.

8 Yet hee did cast downe their frontiers, and cut downe their groues: for hee had decreed to destroy all the gods of the land, that all nations should worship Nabuchodonosor onely, and that all tongues and tribes should call vpon him as God.

9 Also he came ouer against Esdraelon neere vnto Iudea, ouer against the great strait of Iudea.

10 And hee pitched betweene Geba, and Scythopolis, and there hee taried a whole moneth, that he might gather together all the cariages of his armie.