Judith 4
The Israelites, upon hearing of the enemy's conquests, were filled with fear and took defensive measures, fortifying their villages and gathering grain in preparation for battle. They also sent out a call to hold the mountain passes and narrow passages to prevent the enemy from reaching Jerusalem. The people cried out to the Lord in urgency, fasting and praying, and the priests clothed themselves in haircloths and prostrated themselves before the temple. Eliachim, the high priest, exhorted the people to persevere in their fastings and prayers, assuring them that the Lord would heed their prayers and overcome their enemies.
1Then, upon hearing these things, the sons of Israel, who dwelt in the land of Judah, were very afraid before his face2Trembling and horror invaded their senses, lest he should do the same thing to Jerusalem and to the temple of the Lord that he had done to other cities and their temples3And they sent into all of Samaria, and by an indirect route even to Jericho, and they seized in advance all the tops of the mountains4And they surrounded their villages with walls, and they gathered together grain in preparation for the fight5And then Eliachim the priest wrote to all who were opposite Esdrelon, which is opposite the face of the great plain near Dothain, and to all whom he would be able to reach through a passable way6that they should hold the ascents of the mountains, through which there might be any passage able to reach Jerusalem, and that they should keep watch where the passage was narrow, wherever possible, between the mountains7And the sons of Israel did just as Eliachim, the priest of the Lord, had appointed them8And all the people cried out to the Lord with great urgency, and they humbled their souls with fastings, and prayers, both they and their wives9And the priests clothed themselves with haircloths, and they prostrated the little children opposite the face of the temple of the Lord, and they covered the altar of the Lord with haircloth10And they cried out to the Lord God of Israel with one accord, lest their children should be given over as prey, and their wives into distribution, and their cities into extermination, and their holy things into defilement, and so that they might not become the disgrace of the Gentiles11Then Eliachim, the high priest of the Lord, traveled all around Israel, and he was talking to them12saying: "Know that the Lord will heed your prayers, if you continue to persevere in fastings and prayers in the sight of the Lord13Recall that Moses, the servant of the Lord, overcame Amalek, who trusted in his own strength, and in his power, and in his army, and in his bronze shields, and in his swift chariots, and in his horsemen. He overcame him, not by fighting with iron, but by pleading with holy prayers14So will it be with all the enemies of Israel, if you persevere in this work that you have begun.15Therefore, by this exhortation and his prayer to the Lord, they continued in the sight of the Lord16so that even those who offered holocausts to the Lord, offered the sacrifices to the Lord girded with haircloths, and there were ashes upon their heads17And they all begged God with their whole heart, that he would visit his people Israel
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