Judith 3

How to read these pages: the text itself comes first, verse by verse, in the volume's own translation. Beneath each verse stands its Meaning — a rendering of what the passage's terms name in the inner life, drawn from the correspondences the text itself uses. The text is never altered; the meaning is offered, not imposed.

King James Version

1So they sent ambassadors unto him to treat of peace, saying,

So they sent ambassadors unto him to treat of peace, saying — the coasts sending their submission ahead of his arrival, that surrender might buy what resistance could not.

2Behold, we the servants of Nabuchodonosor the great king lie before thee; use us as shall be good in thy sight.

Behold, we the servants of Nabuchodonosor the great king lie before thee; use us as shall be good in thy sight — servitude offered in the empire's own vocabulary: the states naming themselves servants before they are made so.

3Behold, our houses, and all our places, and all our fields of wheat, and flocks, and herds, and all the lodges of our tents lie before thy face; use them as it pleaseth thee.

Behold, our houses, and all our places, and all our fields of wheat, and flocks, and herds, and all the lodges of our tents lie before thy face; use them as it pleaseth thee — everything itemised and laid at the captain's face: house, field, flock, and tent surrendered in a list.

4Behold, even our cities and the inhabitants thereof are thy servants; come and deal with them as seemeth good unto thee.

Behold, even our cities and the inhabitants thereof are thy servants; come and deal with them as seemeth good unto thee — the surrender completed: not only goods but persons, not only persons but the judgment over them.

5So the men came to Holofernes, and declared unto him after this manner.

So the men came to Holofernes, and declared unto him after this manner — the embassy arriving as it was sent, word for word.

6Then came he down toward the sea coast, both he and his army, and set garrisons in the high cities, and took out of them chosen men for aid.

Then came he down toward the sea coast, both he and his army, and set garrisons in the high cities, and took out of them chosen men for aid — submission answered with occupation: the surrendered cities garrisoned, and their chosen men absorbed into the host that received their surrender.

7So they and all the country round about received them with garlands, with dances, and with timbrels.

So they and all the country round about received them with garlands, with dances, and with timbrels — the conquered feasting their conqueror: the outer states performing joy at their own subjection.

8Yet he did cast down their frontiers, and cut down their groves: for he had decreed to destroy all the gods of the land, that all nations should worship Nabuchodonosor only, and that all tongues and tribes should call upon him as god.

Yet he did cast down their frontiers, and cut down their groves; for he had decreed to destroy all the gods of the land, that all nations should worship Nabuchodonosor only, and that all tongues and tribes should call upon him as god — the true aim disclosed: every formed image of the land destroyed, not that worship might cease, but that one formed image — the ruling state itself — might be worshipped in the Source's place. Idolatry abolishing idols to enthrone itself.

9Also he came over against Esdraelon near unto Judea, over against the great strait of Judea.

Also he came over against Esdraelon near unto Judea — Judah, Praise — over against the great strait of Judea: the host arriving at the border of the praise-state, where the story's true ground begins.

10And he pitched between Geba and Scythopolis, and there he tarried a whole month, that he might gather together all the carriages of his army.

And he pitched between Geba and Scythopolis, and there he tarried a whole month, that he might gather together all the carriages of his army — the empire pausing a whole month at the edge of the land of praise, gathering its weight for the blow.

Companion volume to The Why Bible — the King James Apocrypha, rendered in its spiritual meanings. First final edition, October 2026.