Judith 3

ASV Byzantine Text 23 include this book

1 And they sent unto him messengers with words of peace, saying,

2 Behold, we the servants of Nebuchadnezzar the great king lie before thee: use us as it is pleasing in thy sight.

3 Behold, our dwellings, and all our country, and all our fields of wheat, and our flocks and herds, and all the sheepcotes of our tents, lie before thy face: use them as it may please thee.

4 Behold, even our cities and they that dwell in them are thy servants: come and deal with them as it is good in thine eyes.

5 And the men came to Holofernes, and declared unto him according to these words.

6 And he came down toward the seacoast, he and his host, and set garrisons in the high cities, and took out of them chosen men for allies.

7 And they received him, they and all the country round about them, with garlands and dances and timbrels.

8 And he cast down all their borders, and cut down their groves: and it had been given unto him to destroy all the gods of the land, that all the nations should worship Nebuchadnezzar only, and that all their tongues and their tribes should call upon him as god.

9 And he came toward Esdraelon nigh unto Dothan, which is over against the great ridge of Judea.

10 And he encamped between Geba and Scythopolis, and he was there a whole month, that he might gather together all the baggage of his host.

Go deeper in Judith

Go deeper in Judith on Amazon

No place is named in this book. Shown instead is where it is thought to have been written.

Where this was written

Jerusalem disputed A Judean work of the Hasmonean period.

When this was written

The traditions broadly agree on this one.

Broad agreement: 150 BC–100 BC Anonymous
Written after the Maccabean revolt, using a deliberately unhistorical setting.

Elsewhere in the world

Events overlapping the period this book is dated to (150 BC–100 BC).

1070 BC–350 AD The kingdom of Kush Africa
A Nubian power on the upper Nile that ruled Egypt itself as its twenty-fifth dynasty.
500 BC–500 AD The Nazca lines South America
Vast figures drawn on the Peruvian desert, visible only from the surrounding hills.
280 BC–130 BC Hebrew scriptures translated into Greek Egypt
The Septuagint was produced in Alexandria, making the Hebrew scriptures readable across the Greek-speaking world.
264 BC–146 BC Punic wars Rome
Rome defeated Carthage in three wars, becoming the dominant western Mediterranean power.
206 BC–220 AD The Han dynasty China
Four centuries of Chinese rule contemporary with the whole of Roman expansion.
130 BC–100 BC The Silk Road opens Asia
Regular overland trade linked Han China to the Mediterranean, carrying goods, disease and ideas.
100 BC–550 AD Teotihuacan Mesoamerica
A city of perhaps a hundred thousand people in the valley of Mexico, with monumental pyramids.
150 BC–100 AD Roman concrete and the aqueducts Rome
Hydraulic concrete let Rome build harbours, domes and aqueducts that still stand.

Select a verse number to compare it across every translation.