The Book of Judith

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- Chapter 1 -

Nabuchodonosor king of the Assyrians overcomes Arphaxad king of the Medes.

And so Arphaxad, king of the Medes, subjugated many nations under his authority, and he built a very powerful city, which he called Ecbatana.(a)

From stones, cut and squared, he made its walls: seventy cubits in height and thirty cubits in breadth. And, in truth, he set its towers one hundred cubits in height.(b)

In fact, at its corners, each side was extended for the space of twenty feet. And he set its gates according to the height of the towers.(c)

And he glorified it, in its power, with the force of his army and with the glory of his chariots.

Thereafter, in the twelfth year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyrians, who reigned in Nineveh the great city, fought against Arphaxad and prevailed over him:(d)

in the great plain, which is called Ragae, near the Euphrates, and the Tigris, and the Hydaspes, at the encampment of Arioch, king of the Elymaeans.

Then the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar was exalted, and his heart was elevated. And he sent to all who dwelt in Cilicia, and Damascus, and Lebanon,

and to the nations that are in Carmel and Kedar, and to the inhabitants of Galilee, in the great plain of Esdrelon,

and to all who were in Samaria and across the river Jordan, even to Jerusalem and to all the land of Jesse, until one passes through to the borders of Ethiopia.

To all these, Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyrians, sent messengers:

whom they all with one mind contradicted, and they sent them back empty, and they rejected them without honor.

Then king Nebuchadnezzar, being indignant against all that land, swore by his throne and his kingdom that he would defend himself against all those regions.(e)

Footnotes

(a)1:1 Arphaxad:He was probably the same as is called Dejoces by Herodotus; to whom he attributes the building of Ecbatana, the capital city of Media.(Challoner)

(b)1:2 Some translations have the 70 cubits as its width, but this is clearly not what the Latin text says. The text does not specify width, as this would be irrelevant to the strength of the wall. Only the height and thickness of the wall is relevant to its strength. The width would be whatever was necessary to encompass the area.(Conte)

(c)1:3 Although in Biblical times they did not have the English unit of measure called a foot (12 inches), this passage calls the distance twenty ‘foot,’ meaning literally twenty times the length of a man’s foot.(Conte)

(d)1:5 Nabuchodonosor:Not the king of Babylon, who took and destroyed Jerusalem, but another of the same name, who reigned in Ninive: and is called by profane historians Saosduchin. He succeeded Asarhaddan in the kingdom of the Assyrians, and was contemporary with Manasses king of Juda.(Challoner)

(e)1:12 The word ‘defenderet’ does not refer to revenge; the king thought of this offense against his messengers as an attack against his honor, which he would then defend against.(Conte)

Nabuchodonosor king of the Assyrians overcomes Arphaxad king of the Medes.

In the twelfth year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, who reigned over the Assyrians in Nineveh, the great city, in the days of Arphaxad, who reigned over the Medes in Ecbatana,

and built around Ecbatana walls of hewn stones three cubits broad and six cubits long, and made the height of the wall seventy cubits, and its breadth fifty cubits,

and set its towers at its gates one hundred cubits high, and its breadth in the foundation was sixty cubits,

and made its gates, even gates that were raised to the height of seventy cubits, and their breadth forty cubits, for his mighty army to go out of, and the setting in array of his footmen—

in those days King Nebuchadnezzar made war with King Arphaxad in the great plain. This plain is on the borders of Ragau.

There came to meet him all that lived in the hill country, and all that lived by Euphrates, Tigris, and Hydaspes, and in the plain of Arioch the king of the Elymaeans. Many nations of the sons of Chelod assembled themselves to the battle.

And Nebuchadnezzar king of the Assyrians sent to all who lived in Persia, and to all who lived westward, to those who lived in Cilicia, Damascus, Libanus, Antilibanus, and to all who lived along the sea coast,

and to those among the nations that were of Carmel and Gilead, and to the higher Galilee and the great plain of Esdraelon,

and to all who were in Samaria and its cities, and beyond Jordan to Jerusalem, Betane, Chellus, Kadesh, the river of Egypt, Tahpanhes, Rameses, and all the land of Goshen,

until you come above Tanis and Memphis, and to all that lived in Egypt, until you come to the borders of Ethiopia.

All those who lived in all the land made light of the commandment of Nebuchadnezzar king of the Assyrians, and didn’t go with him to the war; for they were not afraid of him, but he was before them as one man. They turned away his messengers from their presence without effect, and with disgrace.

And Nebuchadnezzar was exceedingly angry with all this land, and he swore by his throne and kingdom that he would surely be avenged upon all the coasts of Cilicia, Damascus, and Syria, that he would kill with his sword all the inhabitants of the land of Moab, the children of Ammon, all Judea, and all who were in Egypt, until you come to the borders of the two seas.

And he set the battle in array with his army against King Arphaxad in the seventeenth year; and he prevailed in his battle, and turned to flight all the army of Arphaxad, with all his horses and all his chariots.

He took possession of his cities. He came to Ecbatana and took the towers, plundered its streets, and turned its beauty into shame.

He took Arphaxad in the mountains of Ragau, struck him through with his darts, and utterly destroyed him to this day.

He returned with them to Nineveh, he and all his company of sundry nations—an exceedingly great multitude of men of war. There he took his ease and banqueted, he and his army, for one hundred twenty days.