The Siege and the Cutting of the Water
1The next day Holofernes gave the order to his whole host and to all the people who had come to fight alongside him: break camp, move on Bethulia, seize the ascents into the hill country first, and make war on the Israelites. 2That same day every fighting man of theirs struck camp. Their force of warriors came to a hundred and seventy thousand on foot and twelve thousand on horseback, not counting the baggage train and the men marching on foot among them — an immense throng. 3They camped in the ravine near Bethulia, at the spring, and spread out in breadth from Dothan as far as Belbaim, and in length from Bethulia to Cyamon, which lies opposite Esdraelon. 4When the Israelites saw how many they were, they were badly shaken, and each man said to the one beside him: “Now they will lick the face of the whole land clean. Not the high mountains, not the ravines, not the hills can hold their weight.” 5Every man took up his gear of war; they lit fires on their towers and stayed awake on guard the whole of that night. 6On the second day Holofernes led out all his cavalry in full view of the Israelites who were in Bethulia. 7He surveyed the approaches up to their town, made the rounds of their water springs and seized them in advance, set detachments of fighting men over them, and went back to his own people. 8Then all the chiefs of the sons of Esau came to him, and all the leaders of Moab’s people, and the generals of the coastland, and they said: 9“Let our master hear a word, so that no break opens in your army. 10These people, the Israelites, put no trust in their spears; they trust the height of the mountains they live in, for climbing the summits of their mountains is no easy thing. 11So, master, do not fight them the way a pitched battle is fought, and not one man of your people will fall. 12Stay where you are in your camp, keeping every man of your force intact, and let your servants take control of the water spring that runs out of the mountain’s root. 13That is where every inhabitant of Bethulia draws water. Thirst will finish them off and they will give up their town. Meanwhile we and our people will climb the nearby summits and camp on them as a forward guard, so that not one man gets out of that town. 14They will waste away with hunger — they, their wives, and their children — and before ever a sword reaches them they will be laid out in the streets where they live. 15So you will repay them with evil for rebelling and for not coming out to meet you in peace.” 16Their words pleased Holofernes and pleased all his attendants, and he gave orders to do exactly as they had said. 17So the camp of the Ammonites moved out, and five thousand Assyrians with them. They camped in the ravine and seized the waters and the water springs of the Israelites. 18The sons of Esau and the Ammonites went up and pitched camp in the hill country facing Dothan, and they sent some of their own south and east, opposite Egrebel, which lies near Chous on the Mochmur ravine. The rest of the Assyrian host pitched camp on the plain and covered the entire face of the ground; their tents and their baggage were set down in a vast crowd, an enormous multitude. 19The Israelites cried out to their Lord and God, because their spirit had given way: every one of their enemies had closed a ring around them, and there was no slipping out through the middle of it. 20The whole camp of Asshur stayed around them — infantry, chariots, and cavalry — for thirty-four days, and every water jar belonging to the people of Bethulia gave out. 21The cisterns were emptying out, and there was not enough water for them to drink their fill for even one day, since what they drank was measured out to them. 22Their little ones lost heart; the women and the young men gave out from thirst and dropped where they stood, in the streets of the town and in the passages of the gates, with no strength left in them.
The People Turn on Uzziah
23Then the whole people crowded in on Uzziah and the rulers of the town — the young men, the women, the children — and they shouted at the top of their voices and said in front of all the elders: 24“Let God judge between you and us! You have done us a great wrong by not talking peace with the sons of Asshur. 25And now there is no one to help us. God has sold us into their hands, to be laid out flat in front of them by thirst and enormous ruin. 26So call them in now. Give the whole town over as plunder to Holofernes’ people and to his entire force. 27Better that we become plunder for them. We will be slaves, but we will stay alive, and we will not watch our little ones die before our eyes, or our wives and our children breathe out their lives. 28We call to witness against you heaven and earth and our God, the Lord of our fathers, who punishes us for our sins and for the sins of our fathers: let him not deal with us this day according to these words!” 29A great weeping broke out in the middle of the assembly, all of them together, and they cried out to the Lord God at the top of their voices. 30Uzziah said to them: “Courage, brothers. Let us hold out five days more. In that time the Lord our God will turn his mercy back on us; he will not abandon us for good. 31But if the five days go by and no help comes to us, I will do as you have said.” 32Then he scattered the people, each to his own post. They went off to the walls and the towers of their town, and sent the women and the children home; and the town lay sunk in deep humiliation.
