12
For as I live, and by the power of my kingdom, what I have spoken I will accomplish by my own hand.
13
And you—take care not to transgress any of your lord's commands, but carry them out exactly as I have ordered you; do it without delay."
14
So Holofernes left the presence of his lord, and summoned all the commanders, generals, and officers of the Assyrian army.
15
He mustered the picked troops by divisions as his lord had ordered him to do, one hundred twenty thousand of them, together with twelve thousand archers on horseback,
16
and he organized them as a great army is marshaled for a campaign.
17
He took along a vast number of camels and donkeys and mules for transport, and innumerable sheep and oxen and goats for food;
18
also ample rations for everyone, and a huge amount of gold and silver from the royal palace.
19
Then he set out with his whole army, to go ahead of King Nebuchadnezzar and to cover the whole face of the earth to the west with their chariots and cavalry and picked foot soldiers.
20
Along with them went a mixed crowd like a swarm of locusts, like the dust of the earth—a multitude that could not be counted.
21
They marched for three days from Nineveh to the plain of Bectileth, and camped opposite Bectileth near the mountain that is to the north of Upper Cilicia.
22
From there Holofernes took his whole army, the infantry, cavalry, and chariots, and went up into the hill country.