16
These words pleased Holofernes and all his servants, and he gave orders to do as they had said.
17
So the army of the Ammonites moved forward, together with five thousand Assyrians, and they encamped in the valley and seized the water supply and the springs of the Israelites.
18
And the sons of Esau and the sons of Ammon went up and encamped in the hill country opposite Dothan; and they sent some of their men toward the south and the east, toward Acraba, which is near Chusi beside the brook Mochmur. The rest of the Assyrian army encamped in the plain, and covered the whole face of the land, and their tents and supply trains spread out in great number, and they formed a vast multitude.
19
The people of Israel cried out to the Lord their God, for their courage failed, because all their enemies had surrounded them and there was no way of escape from them.
20
The whole Assyrian army, their infantry, chariots, and cavalry, surrounded them for thirty-four days, until all the vessels of water belonging to every inhabitant of Bethulia were empty;
21
their cisterns were going dry, and they did not have enough water to drink their fill for a single day, because it was measured out to them to drink.
22
Their children lost heart, and the women and young men fainted from thirst and fell down in the streets of the city and in the passages through the gates; there was no strength left in them any longer.
23
Then all the people, the young men, the women, and the children, gathered about Uzziah and the rulers of the city and cried out with a loud voice, and said before all the elders,
24
"God be judge between you and us! For you have done us a great injury in not making peace with the Assyrians.
25
For now we have no one to help us; God has sold us into their hands, to strew us on the ground before them with thirst and utter destruction.
26
Now call them in and surrender the whole city to the army of Holofernes and to all his forces, to be plundered.