HOLY BIBLE: Judith 1 (original) (raw)

1 ἔτους δωδεκάτου τῆς βασιλείας Ναβουχοδονοσορ ὃς ἐβασίλευσεν Ἀσσυρίων ἐν Νινευη τῇ πόλει τῇ μεγάλῃ ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις Αρφαξαδ ὃς ἐβασίλευσεν Μήδων ἐν Ἐκβατάνοις 2 καὶ ᾠκοδόμησεν ἐ{P'} Ἐκβατάνων κύκλῳ τείχη ἐκ λίθων λελαξευμένων εἰς πλάτος πηχῶν τριῶν καὶ εἰς μῆκος πηχῶν ἓξ καὶ ἐποίησεν τὸ ὕψος τοῦ τείχους πηχῶν ἑβδομήκοντα καὶ τὸ πλάτος αὐτοῦ πηχῶν πεντήκοντα 3 καὶ τοὺς πύργους αὐτοῦ ἔστησεν ἐπὶ ταῖς πύλαις αὐτῆς πηχῶν ἑκατὸν καὶ τὸ πλάτος αὐτῆς ἐθεμελίωσεν εἰς πήχεις ἑξήκοντα 4 καὶ ἐποίησεν τὰς πύλας αὐτῆς πύλας διεγειρομένας εἰς ὕψος πηχῶν ἑβδομήκοντα καὶ τὸ πλάτος αὐτῆς πήχεις τεσσαράκοντα εἰς ἐξόδους δυνάμεως δυνατῶν αὐτοῦ καὶ διατάξεις τῶν πεζῶν αὐτοῦ 5 καὶ ἐποίησεν πόλεμον ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις ὁ βασιλεὺς Ναβουχοδονοσορ πρὸς βασιλέα Αρφαξαδ ἐν τῷ πεδίῳ τῷ μεγάλῳ τοῦτό ἐστιν πεδίον ἐν τοῖς ὁρίοις Ραγαυ 6 καὶ συνήντησαν πρὸς αὐτὸν πάντες οἱ κατοικοῦντες τὴν ὀρεινὴν καὶ πάντες οἱ κατοικοῦντες τὸν Εὐφράτην καὶ τὸν Τίγριν καὶ τὸν Ὑδάσπην καὶ πεδία Αριωχ βασιλέως Ἐλυμαίων καὶ συνῆλθον ἔθνη πολλὰ εἰς παράταξιν υἱῶν Χελεουδ

1 Arphaxad, king of Media, the conqueror of many nations, built a princely city, which he called Ecbatana. 2 Of stones cut and squared he built it, with walls seventy cubits thick and thirty cubits high, and towers reaching the height of a hundred cubits. Each of these towers was twenty feet square, 3 and at the foot of them he set gates to match their height.[1] 4 And he boasted much of his great army, of his fine chariots; 5 till at last war was levied upon him by the Assyrian king Nabuchodonosor,[2] then in the twelfth year of his reign, with his capital at Nineve. This Nabuchodonosor defeated him 6 in the great plain called Ragua, where Euphrates flows, and Tigris, and Jadason, in the lowland country belonging to Erioch, king of the Elici.

1 Arphaxad itaque, rex Medorum, subjugaverat multas gentes imperio suo, et ipse ædificavit civitatem potentissimam, quam appellavit Ecbatanis, 2 ex lapidibus quadratis et sectis: fecit muros ejus in altitudinem cubitorum septuaginta, et in latitudinem cubitorum triginta: turres vero ejus posuit in altitudinem cubitorum centum. 3 Per quadrum vero earum latus utrumque vicenorum pedum spatio tendebatur, posuitque portas ejus in altitudinem turrium: 4 et gloriabatur quasi potens in potentia exercitus sui, et in gloria quadrigarum suarum. 5 Anno igitur duodecimo regni sui, Nabuchodonosor rex Assyriorum, qui regnabat in Ninive civitate magna, pugnavit contra Arphaxad, et obtinuit eum 6 in campo magno qui appellatur Ragau, circa Euphraten, et Tigrin, et Jadason, in campo Erioch regis Elicorum.

[1] The measurements here are uncertain, since the Greek gives a different account of them.

[2] No Nabuchodonosor king of Assyria is known from other sources. Probably the story relates to some conqueror known to history under another name, but there is no agreement among scholars about his identity. We cannot, there fore, be certain what is the period in which the action of the book takes place.

[3] ‘Gessen’; this is given in the Vulgate as ‘Jesse’, probably through a copyist’s error; Gessen is mentioned in the Septuagint Greek.

[4] Here and in the following chapters the story is told in different language and at somewhat greater length in the Septuagint Greek.

Knox Translation Copyright © 2013 Westminster Diocese
Nihil Obstat. Father Anton Cowan, Censor.
Imprimatur. +Most Rev. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. 8th January 2012.
Re-typeset and published in 2012 by Baronius Press Ltd