5
The men came to Holofernes and told him all this.
6
Then he went down to the seacoast with his army and stationed garrisons in the hilltop cities and took picked men from them as his allies.
7
And these people and all in the country round about welcomed him with garlands and dances and tambourines.
8
And he demolished all their shrines and cut down their sacred groves; for it had been given to him to destroy all the gods of the land, so that all nations should worship Nebuchadnezzar only, and all their tongues and tribes should call upon him as god.
9
Then he came to the edge of Esdraelon, near Dothan, fronting the great ridge of Judea;
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.