So they sent ambassadors to him to treat of peace, saying,
Look, we the servants of Nebuchadnezzar the great king lie before you; use us as shall be good in your sight.
Look, our houses, and all our places, and all our fields of wheat, and flocks, and herds, and all the lodges of our tents lie before your face; use them as it pleases you.
Look, even our cities and its inhabitants are your servants; come and deal with them as seems good to you.
So the men came to Holofernes, and declared to him after this manner.
Then came he down toward the sea coast, both he and his army, and set garrisons in the high cities, and took out of them chosen men for aid.
So they and all the surrounding country received them with garlands, with dances, and with tambourines.
Yet he did cast down their frontiers, and cut down their Asherah poles: for he had decreed to destroy all the gods of the land, that all nations should worship Nebuchadnezzar only, and that all tongues and tribes should call upon him as god.
Also he came over against Esdraelon near to Judea, over against the great strait of Judea.
And he pitched between Geba and Scythopolis, and there he stayed a whole month, that he might gather together all the carriages of his army.