15. Just as the king had ordered, he chose 120,000 of the best infantrymen and 12,000 of the best mounted archers
16. and arranged them in battle formation.
17. He also took along a very large number of camels, donkeys, and mules to carry the equipment, as well as many sheep, cattle, and goats for food.
18. Every soldier received plenty of rations and a large payment of gold and silver from the royal treasury.
19. Then Holofernes and his entire army set out, advancing ahead of King Nebuchadnezzar. The chariots, the cavalry, and the infantry marched out to overrun the entire western region.
20. Other troops went with them. There were so many that it was impossible to count them — they were like a swarm of locusts or like grains of sand in the desert.
21. Three days after they had left the city of Nineveh, they reached the plains round Bectileth near the mountains north of Cilicia, where they set up camp.
22. From there Holofernes advanced into the hill-country with his entire army, his infantry, cavalry, and chariots.
23. He totally destroyed the countries of Libya and Lydia, then plundered all the people of Rassis and the Ishmaelites who lived on the edge of the desert, south of the land of the Chelleans.
24. Then Holofernes crossed the River Euphrates and marched through the land of Mesopotamia, completely destroying all the walled towns along the River Abron as far as the sea.
25. He seized the territory of Cilicia, killing everyone who resisted him, and went as far as the southern borders of the land of Japheth, near Arabia.
26. He surrounded the Midianites, burnt down their tents, and slaughtered their sheep.
27. Holofernes went down into the plains round Damascus during the wheat harvest, burnt all the fields, slaughtered the flocks and herds, looted the towns, devastated the entire countryside, and killed all the young men.
28. Panic seized all the people who lived along the Mediterranean Sea, and they shook with fear. Everyone in the towns of Tyre, Sidon, Sur, Ocina, Jamnia, Ashdod, and Ashkelon was terrified.