2. “Who are you, Achior and the mercenaries of Ephraim, to prophesy among us as you have done today, and to tell us not to fight against the people of Israel because their God shields them? Who is God beside Nebuchadnezzar? He will send his force and destroy them from the face of the earth. Their God will not save them;
3. but we, the servants of Nebuchadnezzar, will strike them down with one blow, for they will be unable to withstand the force of our cavalry.
4. We will overwhelm them with it, and their mountains shall be drunk with their blood, and their plains filled with their corpses. Not a trace of them shall survive our attack; they will utterly perish. So says King Nebuchadnezzar, lord of all the earth. For he has spoken, and his words will not be in vain.
5. As for you, Achior, you Ammonite mercenary, for saying these things in a moment of perversity, you will not see my face after today, until I have taken revenge on this people that came out of Egypt.
6. Then at my return, the sword of my army or the spear of my attendants will pierce your sides, and you will fall among their wounded.
7. My servants will now conduct you to the hill country, and leave you at one of the cities beside the passes.
8. You will not die until you are destroyed together with them.
9. If you still harbor the hope that they will not be taken, then there is no need for you to be downcast. I have spoken, and not one of my words will fail to be fulfilled.”
10. Then Holofernes ordered the servants who were standing by in his tent to seize Achior, conduct him to Bethulia, and hand him over to the Israelites.
11. So the servants seized him and took him out of the camp into the plain. From the plain they led him up into the hill country until they reached the springs below Bethulia.
12. When the men of the city saw them, they seized their weapons and ran out of the city to the top of the hill, and all the slingers kept them from coming up by hurling stones at them.
13. So, taking cover below the hill, they bound Achior and left him lying at the foot of the hill; then they returned to their lord.
14. The Israelites came down from their city and found him, untied him, and brought him into Bethulia. They placed him before the rulers of the city,