1. In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, on the 22nd day of the first month of that year, he and his advisers decided to carry out his threat to take revenge on all those countries that had refused to help him.
2-3. The king called his general staff and senior officers together and reported in detail how those countries had betrayed him. He and his officers agreed that everyone who had refused to help him in the war should be put to death. Then he described to them his plan of attack.
4. At the close of the meeting, Nebuchadnezzar gave the following command to Holofernes, who was the general in command of his armies and second in command to the king:
5. “I, Nebuchadnezzar, the great king and ruler of all the earth, command you to choose some experienced soldiers: 120,000 infantry and 12,000 cavalry.