Font Size
Judith 2:19-21
New Catholic Bible
Judith 2:19-21
New Catholic Bible
19 Then, in advance of King Nebuchadnezzar, he set out with his whole army on the campaign to overrun the entire region to the west with their chariots, cavalry, and picked infantrymen. 20 Accompanying them was a motley crowd like a swarm of locusts or the dust particles of the earth—a multitude too numerous to count.
Devastation of the Fertile Crescent[a]
21 Stages of the Campaign. They set out from Nineveh, and after marching for three days they reached the plain of Bectileth. From Bectileth they moved ahead to encamp near the mountains that lie to the north of Upper Cilicia.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Judith 2:21 The forces of Holofernes arrive at the doors of Judea by outflanking the steppes of Syria from the north with a march that included a bizarre line of advance and stopping places, many of which are still unknown. This can only indicate that the author possessed little knowledge of local geography or had no interest in factual accuracy. The ultimate purpose of the conquistador is to demand from all the conquered peoples divine honors for his sovereign. Indeed, in Nebuchadnezzar, we see profiled the person of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the second century B.C. persecutor of the Jews, who sought to impose his cult on them (Dan 11:36-37). The Assyrian and Babylonian kings did not demand divine honors; it all started with Alexander the Great.
