Judith 1

1It was the twelfth year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, who reigned in the great city of Nineveh. In those days Arphaxad, who reigned over the Medes in Ecbatana,

2built a wall around Ecbatana of hewn stones which were three cubits wide and six cubits long. He made the wall seventy cubits high and fifty cubits wide.

3At its gates he set its towers, a hundred cubits high and sixty cubits wide at their foundations.

4And he made its gates raised to seventy cubits high and forty cubits wide, for the marching out of his mighty armies and his infantry in battle array.

5In those days King Nebuchadnezzar waged war against King Arphaxad in the great plain, the plain in the region of Ragau.

6And all those who inhabited the hill country and all those who lived along the Euphrates, the Tigris, and the Hydaspes rallied to him, including those from the plain of Arioch, king of the Elamites. Many nations of the sons of Chaldea gathered in battle array.

7Then Nebuchadnezzar, the Assyrian king, sent envoys to all those dwelling in Persia, to all living in the west, and to those who dwelled in Cilicia, Damascus, Lebanon, and Antilebanon, and to all those who lived on the seacoast,

8and those among the nations of Carmel and Gilead, and Upper Galilee and the great plain of Esdraelon,

9and to all those in Samaria and its cities, and beyond the Jordan as far as Jerusalem, Bethany, Chelous and Kadesh and the river of Egypt, and to Tahpanhes and Rameses and the whole land of Goshen,

10even beyond Tanis and Memphis and to all the inhabitants of Egypt as far as the boundaries of Ethiopia.

11But all who lived in that area scorned the summons of Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyrians, and refused to join with him in the war because they were not afraid of him. They regarded him as but one man, and they sent his messengers away empty-handed and dishonored.

12Then Nebuchadnezzar was extremely angry with all that land, and swore by his throne and his kingdom that he would take vengeance on all the regions of Cilicia and Damascus and Syria; that he would slay with the sword all the inhabitants of the land of Moab, and the sons of Ammon, and all Judea, and all those in Egypt as far as the borders of the two seas.

13So in his seventeenth year, he marched with his army against King Arphaxad and defeated him in battle. He routed the whole army of Arphaxad and all his cavalry and all his chariots;

14he ruled over his cities. Then he came to Ecbatana, and took over its towers and plundered its marketplaces and put its adornments to shame.

15He captured Arphaxad in the mountains of Ragau and ran him through with his spears, totally destroying him that day.

16Then he returned, he and all his sundry multitude of a great many warriors, and they rested there and feasted sumptuously for one hundred twenty days.