King James Version · Under Assyria
Judith 11
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1Then said unto her, Woman, be of good comfort, fear not in thine : for I never hurt any that was willing to , the king of all the earth. 2Now therefore, if thy people that dwelleth in the mountains had not set by me, I would not have lifted up my spear against them: but they have done these things to themselves. 3But now tell me wherefore thou art fled from them, and art come unto us: for thou art come for safeguard; be of good comfort, thou shalt live this night, and hereafter: 4For none shall hurt thee, but entreat thee well, as they do the servants of king my . 5Then said unto him, Receive the words of thy servant, and suffer thine handmaid to speak in thy , and I will declare no lie to my this night. 6And if thou wilt follow the words of thine handmaid, will bring the thing perfectly to pass by thee; and my shall not fail of his purposes. 7As king of all the earth liveth, and as his liveth, who hath sent thee for the upholding of every living thing: for not only men shall him by thee, but also the of the field, and the cattle, and the fowls of the air, shall live by thy under and all his house. 8For we have heard of thy and thy policies, and it is reported in all the earth, that thou only art excellent in all , and mighty in knowledge, and wonderful in feats of war. 9Now as concerning the matter, which did speak in thy council, we have heard his words; for the men of him, and he declared unto them all that he had spoken unto thee. 10Therefore, O and governor, respect not his word; but lay it up in thine , for it is true: for our nation shall not be punished, neither can prevail against them, except they against their . 11And now, that my be not defeated and frustrate of his purpose, even is now fallen upon them, and their hath overtaken them, wherewith they will provoke their to whensoever they shall do that which is not fit to be done: 12For their victuals fail them, and all their water is scant, and they have determined to lay hands upon their cattle, and purposed to consume all those things, that hath forbidden them to eat by his laws: 13And are resolved to spend the of the the tenths of and oil, which they had , and reserved for the priests that in before the of our ; the which things it is not lawful for any of the people so much as to touch with their hands. 14For they have sent some to , because they also that there have done the like, to bring them a licence from the senate. 15Now when they shall bring them word, they will forthwith do it, and they shall be given to thee to be destroyed the same day. 16Wherefore I thine handmaid, knowing all this, am fled from their ; and hath sent me to work things with thee, whereat all the earth shall be astonished, and whosoever shall hear it. 17For thy servant is religious, and serveth the of day and night: now therefore, my , I will with thee, and thy servant will go out by night into the valley, and I will unto , and he will tell me when they have committed their : 18And I will come and shew it unto thee: then thou shalt go forth with all thine army, and there shall be none of them that shall resist thee. 19And I will lead thee through the midst of , until thou come before ; and I will set thy in the midst thereof; and thou shalt drive them as sheep that have no , and a dog shall not so much as open his at thee: for these things were told me according to my foreknowledge, and they were declared unto me, and I am sent to tell thee. 20Then her words pleased and all his servants; and they marvelled at her , and said, 21There is not such a woman from one end of the earth to the other, both for beauty of , and of words. 22Likewise said unto her. hath done well to send thee before the people, that strength might be in our hands and upon them that lightly regard my . 23And now thou art both beautiful in thy countenance, and witty in thy words: surely if thou do as thou hast spoken thy shall be my , and thou shalt in the house of king , and shalt be renowned through the whole earth.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Under Assyria, 745 BC to 612 BC ›
Assyria at full stretch, deporting whole populations as policy. The northern kingdom is destroyed in 722 BC and Judah survives as a tribute-paying vassal.
- Assyria
- The first empire to run mass deportation as ordinary administration: move the leadership somewhere else, settle strangers in their place, and the province stops being a nation. It worked. Samaria fell in 722 BC and the northern tribes did not come back. Assyria also advertised its cruelty deliberately, carving flayings and impalements on palace walls where envoys would see them, because terror is cheaper than garrisons.
- Judah
- Survives by paying. Hezekiah rebels, Sennacherib takes forty-six Judean towns and besieges Jerusalem in 701 BC, and the city holds. The Assyrian account boasts of shutting Hezekiah up like a bird in a cage and pointedly does not claim to have taken the city, which is one of the more interesting silences in ancient records.
- Egypt
- The splintered reed of a staff that Assyria's field commander mocks Judah for leaning on. It promises help and cannot deliver, and Isaiah spends decades saying so. Assyria eventually invades and sacks Thebes.
- Further afield
- Greece is in its archaic period, founding colonies from Spain to the Black Sea. Rome is under kings. Assyria's own libraries are collecting the literature of Mesopotamia, which is how Gilgamesh survived to be read again in the nineteenth century.