14. They have sent messengers to Jerusalem to bring back permission from the senate, for even there people have done these things.
15. On the very day when the response reaches them and they act upon it, they will be handed over to you for destruction.
16. “As soon as I, your servant, learned all this, I fled from them. God has sent me to perform with you such deeds as will astonish people throughout the whole earth who hear of them.
17. Your servant is, indeed, a God-fearing woman, serving the God of heaven night and day. Now I will remain with you, my lord; but each night your servant will go out into the valley and pray to God. He will tell me when they have committed their offenses.
18. Then I will come and let you know, so that you may march out with all your forces, and not one of them will be able to withstand you.
19. I will lead you through the heart of Judea until you come to Jerusalem, and there in its center I will set up your throne. You will drive them like sheep that have no shepherd, and not even a dog will growl at you. This was told to me in advance and announced to me, and I have been sent to tell you.”
20. Her words pleased Holofernes and all his attendants. They marveled at her wisdom and exclaimed,
21. “No other woman from one end of the earth to the other looks so beautiful and speaks so wisely!”
22. Then Holofernes said to her: “God has done well in sending you ahead of your people, to bring victory to our hands, and destruction to those who have despised my lord.
23. You are not only beautiful in appearance, but you are also eloquent. If you do as you have said, your God will be my God; you will live in the palace of King Nebuchadnezzar and be renowned throughout the whole earth.”