23
Then all the people assembled to Uzziah and to the chief of the city, both young men and women and children, and cried with a loud voice and said before all the elders,
24
"God be judge between us and you! For ye have done us great injury, in that ye have not required peace with the children of Assyria.
25
For now we have no helper; but God hath sold us into their hands, that we should be thrown down before them with thirst and great destruction.
26
Now therefore call them unto you, and deliver the whole city as a spoil to the people of Holofernes and to all his army.
27
For it is better for us to be made a spoil unto them than to die of thirst; for we will be his servants, that our souls may live, and not see the death of our infants before our eyes, nor our wives nor our children to die.
28
We take as witness against you the heaven and the earth, and our God and Lord of our fathers, who punisheth us according to our sins and the sins of our fathers, that Holofernes do not according as we have said this day."
29
Then there was great weeping with one consent in the midst of the assembly; and they cried unto the Lord God with a loud voice.
30
Then said Uzziah to them, "Brethren, be of good courage. Let us yet endure five days, in which space the Lord our God may turn His mercy toward us; for He will not forsake us utterly.
31
And if these days pass and there come no help unto us, I will do according to your word."
32
And he dispersed the people, every one to their own charge; and they went unto the walls and towers of their city, and sent the women and children into their houses. And they were brought very low in the city.