1
When Holofernes, the general of the Assyrian army, heard that the people of Israel had prepared for war and had closed the passes in the hills and fortified all the high hilltops and set up barricades in the plains,
2
he was very angry. So he called together all the princes of Moab and the commanders of Ammon and all the governors of the coastland,
3
and said to them, "Tell me, you Canaanites, what people is this that lives in the hill country? What cities do they inhabit? How large is their army, and in what does their power or strength consist? Who rules over them as king, leading their army?
4
And why have they alone, of all who live in the west, refused to come out and meet me?"
5
Then Achior, the leader of all the Ammonites, said to him, "Let my lord now hear a word from the mouth of your servant, and I will tell you the truth about this people that dwells in the nearby mountain district. No falsehood shall come from your servant's mouth.
6
This people is descended from the Chaldeans.
7
At one time they lived in Mesopotamia, because they would not follow the gods of their fathers who were in Chaldea.
8
For they had left the ways of their ancestors, and they worshiped the God of heaven, the God they had come to know; hence they drove them out from the presence of their gods; and they fled to Mesopotamia, and lived there for a long time.