25
For now we have no one to help us; God has sold us into their hands, to be strewn before them in thirst and exhaustion.
26
Now summon them and surrender the whole town as booty to the army of Holofernes and to all his forces.
27
For it would be better for us to be captured by them. We shall indeed become slaves, but our lives will be spared, and we shall not witness our little ones dying before our eyes, and our wives and children drawing their last breath.
28
We call to witness against you heaven and earth and our God, the Lord of our ancestors, who punishes us for our sins and the sins of our ancestors; do today the things that we have described!"
29
Then great and general lamentation arose throughout the assembly, and they cried out to the Lord God with a loud voice.
30
But Uzziah said to them, "Courage, my brothers and sisters! Let us hold out for five days more; by that time the Lord our God will turn his mercy to us again, for he will not forsake us utterly.
31
But if these days pass by, and no help comes for us, I will do as you say."
32
Then he dismissed the people to their various posts, and they went up on the walls and towers of their town. The women and children he sent home. In the town they were in great misery.