King James Version · Under Assyria
Judith 7
Touch any underlined name to see who or where it is.
1The next day commanded all his army, and all his people which were come to take his part, that they should remove their camp against , to take aforehand the ascents of the hill country, and to make war against the . 2Then their strong men removed their camps in that day, and the army of the men of war was an hundred and seventy thousand footmen, and twelve thousand horsemen, beside the baggage, and other men that were afoot among them, a very great multitude. 3And they camped in the valley near unto , by the fountain, and they spread themselves in breadth over Dothaim even to Belmaim, and in length from unto Cynamon, which is over against Esdraelon. 4Now the , when they saw of them, were greatly troubled, and said every one to his neighbour, Now will these men lick up the of the earth; for neither the high mountains, nor the valleys, nor the hills, are able to bear their weight. 5Then every man took up his weapons of war, and when they had kindled fires upon their towers, they remained and watched all that night. 6But in the second day brought forth all his horsemen in the sight of the which were in , 7And viewed the passages up to the city, and came to the fountains of their waters, and took them, and set garrisons of men of war over them, and he himself removed toward his people. 8Then came unto him all the chief of the children of , and all the governors of the people of , and the captains of the sea coast, and said, 9Let our now hear a word, that there be not an overthrow in thine army. 10For this people of the do not in their spears, but in the height of the mountains wherein they , because it is not easy to come up to the tops of their mountains. 11Now therefore, my , fight not against them in battle array, and there shall not so much as one man of thy people . 12 in thy camp, and keep all the men of thine army, and let thy servants get into their hands the fountain of water, which issueth forth of the foot of the mountain: 13For all the inhabitants of have their water thence; so shall thirst kill them, and they shall give up their city, and we and our people shall go up to the tops of the mountains that are near, and will camp upon them, to watch that none go out of the city. 14So they and their wives and their children shall be consumed with , and before come against them, they shall be overthrown in the streets where they . 15Thus shalt thou render them an evil reward; because they rebelled, and met not thy person peaceably. 16And these words pleased and all his servants, and he appointed to do as they had spoken. 17So the camp of departed, and with them five thousand of the , and they pitched in the valley, and took the waters, and the fountains of the waters of the . 18Then the children of went up with , and camped in the hill country over against Dothaim: and they sent some of them toward the south, and toward the east over against Ekrebel, which is near unto Chusi, that is upon the brook Mochmur; and the rest of the army of the camped in the plain, and covered the of the whole land; and their tents and carriages were pitched to a very great multitude. 19Then the cried unto their , because their failed, for all their had compassed them round about, and there was no way to escape out from among them. 20Thus all the company of remained about them, both their footmen, chariots, and horsemen, four and thirty days, so that all their vessels of water failed all the inhabitants of . 21And the cisterns were emptied, and they had not water to drink their fill for one day; for they gave them drink by measure. 22Therefore their young children were out of , and their women and young men fainted for thirst, and fell down in the streets of the city, and by the passages of the , and there was no longer any strength in them. 23Then all the people assembled to , and to the chief of the city, both young men, and women, and children, and cried with a loud voice, and said before all the , 24 be judge between us and you: for ye have done us great injury, in that ye have not required peace of the children of . 25For now we have no helper: but hath sold us into their hands, that we should be thrown down before them with thirst and great . 26Now therefore call them unto you, and the whole city for a spoil to the people of , and to all his army. 27For it is better for us to be made a spoil unto them, than to for thirst: for we will be his servants, that our may live, and not see the of our infants before our eyes, nor our wives nor our children to . 28We take to against you the and the earth, and our and of our fathers, which punisheth us according to our and the of our fathers, that he do not according as we have said this day. 29Then there was great weeping with one consent in the midst of ; and they cried unto with a loud voice. 30Then said to them, Brethren, be of good courage, let us yet five days, in the which space our may turn his mercy toward us; for he will not forsake us utterly. 31And if these days pass, and there come no help unto us, I will do according to your word. 32And he dispersed the people, every one to their own charge; and they went unto the walls and towers of their city, and sent the women and children into their houses: and they were very low brought in the city.
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.