6. Holofernes led Nebuchadnezzar's army down to the Mediterranean coast. He stationed guards in all the walled towns and selected certain local men in each of the towns as reserve troops.
7. The people in the towns and in the surrounding countryside welcomed Holofernes by wearing wreaths of flowers and dancing to the beat of drums.
8. But Holofernes destroyed all their places of worship and cut down their sacred trees. He had been ordered to destroy all the gods of the land so that all the nations and tribes would worship only Nebuchadnezzar and pray to him as a god.
9. Then Holofernes passed through the Valley of Jezreel near Dothan, which faces the main ridge of the mountains of Judah,