1. Then he called Hermon, who had charge of the elephants. Full of rage, altogether fixed in his furious design,
2. he commanded him, with a quantity of unmixed wine and handfuls of incense infused to drug the elephants early on the following day. These five hundred elephants were, when infuriated by the copious draughts of frankincense, to be led up to the execution of death upon the Jews.
3. The king, after issuing these orders, went to his feasting, and gathered together all those of his friends and of the army who hated the Jews the most.
4. The master of the elephants, Hermon, fulfilled his commission punctually.