nd he saw his children's children to the fifth
generation.

14:16. And after he had lived ninety-nine years in the fear of the Lord,
with joy they buried him.

14:17. And all his kindred, and all his generation continued in good
life, and in holy conversation, so that they were acceptable both to
God, and to men, and to all that dwelt in the land.

THE BOOK OF JUDITH

The sacred writer of this Book is generally believed to be the high
priest Eliachim (called also Joachim). The transactions herein related,
most probably happened in his days, and in the reign of Manasses, after
his repentance and return from captivity. It takes its name from that
illustrious woman, by whose virtue and fortitude, and armed with prayer,
the children of Israel were preserved from the destruction threatened
them by Holofernes and his great army. It finishes with her canticle of
thanksgiving to God.

Judith Chapter 1

Nabuchodonosor king of the Assyrians overcometh Arphaxad king of the
Medes.

1:1. Now Arphaxad king of the Medes had brought many nations under his
dominions, and he built a very strong city, which he called Ecbatana,

Arphaxad... He was probably the same as is called Dejoces by Herodotus;
to whom he attributes the building of Ecbatana, the capital city of
Media.

1:2. Of stones squared and hewed: he made the walls thereof seventy
cubits broad, and thirty cubits high, and the towers thereof he made a
hundred cubits high. But on the square of them, each side was extended
the space of twenty feet.

1:3. And he made the gates thereof according to the height of the
towers:

1:4. And he gloried as a mighty one in the force of his army and in the
glory of his chariots.

1:5. Now in the twelfth year of his reign, Nabuchodonosor king of the
Assyrians, who reigned in Ninive the great city, fought against Arphaxad
and overcame him,

Nabuchodonosor... Not the king of Babylon, who took and destroyed
Jerusalem, but another of the same name, who reigned in Ninive: and is
called by profane historians Saosduchin. He succeeded Asarhaddan in the
kingdom of the Assyrians, and was contemporary with Manasses king of
Juda.

1:6. In the great plain which is called Ragua, about the Euphrates, and
the Tigris, and the Jadason, in the plain of Erioch the king of the
Elicians.

1:7. Then was the kingdom of Nabuchodonosor exalted, and his heart was
elevated: and he sent to all that dwelt in Cilicia and Damascus, and
Libanus