6
Then he and his army went down to the seacoast and placed guards in strategic cities and chose men from among them to form a reserve army.
7
Everyone in the surrounding countryside welcomed him with wreaths, dancing, and drums.
8
Yet he still demolished all their shrines and cut down their sacred groves. He had been commanded to destroy all the gods of the land so that all the nations would worship only Nebuchadnezzar, and so that those of every language and tribe would call upon him as their god.
9
Then Holofernes approached Esdraelon near Dothan, which is opposite the great ridge of Judea,