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.
27
For it would be better for us to be captured by them; for we will be slaves, but our lives will be spared, and we shall not witness the death of our babes before our eyes, or see our wives and children draw their last breath.
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.