place where they met for prayer.

Judith Chapter 7

Holofernes besiegeth Bethulia. The distress of the besieged.

7:1. But Holofernes on the next day gave orders to his army, to go up
against Bethulia.

7:2. Now there were in his troops a hundred and twenty thousand footmen,
and two and twenty thousand horsemen, besides the preparations of those
men who had been taken, and who had been brought away out of the
provinces and cities of all the youth.

7:3. All these prepared themselves together to fight against the
children of Israel, and they came by the hillside to the top, which
looketh toward Dothain, from the place which is called Belma, unto
Chelmon, which is over against Esdrelon.

7:4. But the children of Israel, when they saw the multitude of them,
prostrated themselves upon the ground, putting ashes upon their heads,
praying with one accord, that the God of Israel would shew his mercy
upon his people.

7:5. And taking their arms of war, they posted themselves at the places,
which by a narrow pathway lead directly between the mountains, and they
guarded them all day and night.

7:6. Now Holofernes, in going round about, found that the fountain which
supplied them with water, ran through an aqueduct without the city on
the south side: and he commanded their aqueduct to be cut off.

7:7. Nevertheless there were springs not far from the walls, out of
which they were seen secretly to draw water, to refresh themselves a
little rather than to drink their fill.

7:8. But the children of Ammon and Moab came to Holofernes, saying: The
children of Israel trust not in their spears, nor in their arrows, but
the mountains are their defence, and the steep hills and precipices
guard them.

7:9. Wherefore that thou mayst overcome them without joining battle, set
guards at the springs that they may not draw water out of them, and thou
shalt destroy them without sword, or at least being wearied out they
will yield up their city, which they suppose, because it is situate in
the mountains, to be impregnable.

7:10. And these words pleased Holofernes, and his officers, and he
placed all round about a hundred men at every spring.

7:11. And when they had kept this watch for full twenty days, the
cisterns, and the reserve of waters failed among all the inhabitants of
Bethulia, so that there was not within the city, enough to satisfy them,
no not for one day, for water was daily given out to the people by
measure.

7:1