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of the desolation." But lest the desolation be thought by the Jews to be temporary, as if their city would be rebuilt again and the temple raised up, as has happened very often at other times with both the temple and the city, he added, "and until the consummation of time, a consummation shall be given upon the desolation," that is, the desolation will remain until the age is consummated, and then there will be an end to it, when there is no longer an opportunity for either the city or the temple to rise again. These things Daniel has seen and has been initiated into concerning his own people. But he also saw other visions and dreams, through which was revealed to him from God the future change of worldly affairs. And he was initiated not only into the foreknowledge of the change, but he was also taught the times in which each of them would be accomplished; which anyone who wishes will certainly know more completely by going through the book of the prophet's visions, and would gain from it a firm grasp that nothing is unprovided for nor carried along randomly and as it happened, but that all things are both governed and conducted by divine providence. These things, then, are so and are believed by the pious; but we must not omit the things concerning the woman of manly spirit, Judith, who destroyed Holofernes and saved her city and the entire nation. The story concerning her is as follows. In the twelfth year of his reign, the leader of the Assyrians, 1.212 Nebuchadnezzar, began a war against Arphaxad, the king of the Medes, and he summoned the surrounding nations to an alliance with him. But when many others and the Jews did not accept the summons and refused to be his allies, Nebuchadnezzar was enraged, and swore that after finishing the war against the Medes, he would indeed go against Cilicia and Damascus and Syria and Judea and Egypt and lay them waste and sack them and bring them to desolation. Therefore, having arrayed himself against Arphaxad the Mede and having prevailed over him by force, having taken control of his other cities and of Ecbatana itself, where Arphaxad had his palace, and having captured and killed him, he summoned the chief general of his own army, Holofernes, and commanded him to fulfill the oath which he had sworn, and to march with a heavy force against those who had been unwilling to ally with him when he went against the Medes, and to preserve as many as submitted themselves to him and to leave their cities unsacked, but not to spare those who disobeyed, but to put the men to the sword, and to give up their cities to plunder and to destruction. So Nebuchadnezzar gave such commands to his chief satrap, and Holofernes, having marched out and come upon the nations against whom he had been sent, dealt with the others according to his orders, but when he was about to march against the Israelites and take up arms against them, for they did not come to him nor submit, he asked who these people were and in what they trusted that they resisted. And Achior, the leader of the sons of Ammon, told him their genealogy, and how they had been settled in those 1.213 cities from the beginning, and the strength of their God. Then he added, "Now therefore we must consider: and if they are sinning against their God, we will go up and make war on them, but if this is not so, let my lord pass by, lest their God defend them and we be defeated." When Achior said these things, Holofernes, seized with anger, ordered those standing by him to bind Achior and lead him away and hand him over to the sons of Israel, so that, being taken with them, he might be punished. And those who seized the man led him away to Bethulia, and the men of the city were pelting those who approached with slings and arrows. And they threw the bound Achior at the foot of the mountain, and returned. But the men of the city came down, unbound Achior and led him into their city, and they asked what had happened; and he recounted everything to them. And they called upon God for help. On the next day Holofernes led the army against Bethulia, thousands

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τῆς ἐρημώσεως." ινα δὲ μὴ νομίζηται τοῖς ̓Ιουδαίοις πρόσκαιρος ἡ ἐρήμωσις, ὡς αυθις τῆς πόλεως αὐτοῖς ἀνοικοδομηθησομένης καὶ τοῦ ἱεροῦ ἀνεγερθησομένου, οια καὶ αλλοτε πλειστάκις συμβέβηκεν ἐπί τε τῷ ναῷ καὶ τῇ πόλει, ἐπήγαγε "καὶ εως συντελείας καιροῦ συντέλεια δοθήσεται ἐπὶ τὴν ἐρήμωσιν," τοῦτ' εστιν, εως συντελεσθῆ ὁ αἰὼν μενεῖ καὶ ἡ ἐρήμωσις, καὶ τότε καὶ ταύτῃ τέλος εσται οτε οὐκέτι καιρὸς η τὴν πόλιν ἀναστῆναι η τὸν ναόν. Ταῦθ' ὁ ∆ανιὴλ περὶ τῶν ὁμοφύλων αὐτοῦ τεθέαται καὶ μεμύηται. ἀλλὰ καὶ ἑτέρας ὀπτασίας ἑώρακε καὶ ἐνύπνια, θεόθεν αὐτῷ προδηλουμένης δι' αὐτῶν τῆς μελλούσης εσεσθαι τῶν κοσμικῶν πραγμάτων μεταβολῆς. καὶ οὐ τῆς ἀλλοιώσεως μόνης ἐμυεῖτο τὴν πρόγνωσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοὺς καιροὺς καθ' ους ἀποτελεσθήσεται εκαστον αὐτῶν ἐδιδάσκετο· α γνώσεται πάντως ὁ βουλόμενος τελεώτερον ἐπιὼν τὴν βίβλον τῶν τοῦ προφήτου ὁράσεων, καὶ βεβαίαν σχοίη κατάληψιν ἐντεῦθεν ὡς οὐδὲν ἀπρονόητον οὐδ' εἰκῇ φερόμενον καὶ ὡς ετυχεν, ἀλλὰ πάντα τῇ θείᾳ προνοίᾳ καὶ κυβερνῶνται καὶ διεξάγονται. Ταῦτα μὲν ουν ουτως εχουσι καὶ τοῖς εὐσεβέσι δοξάζονται· ἡμῖν δὲ μηδὲ τὰ κατὰ τὴν ἀρρενόφρονα παραλειπτέον γυναῖκα τὴν ̓Ιουδήθ, η τὸν ̓Ολοφέρνην ὠλόθρευσε καὶ τὴν πόλιν αὐτῆς καὶ τὸ εθνος απαν διέσωσεν. εχει δ' ουτω τὰ κατ' αὐτήν. ἐν ετει δωδεκάτῳ τῆς βασιλείας αὐτοῦ ὁ τῶν ̓Ασσυρίων ἀρχηγὸς 1.212 Ναβουχοδονόσορ πρὸς ̓Αρφαξὰδ τὸν βασιλέα Μήδων ηρατο πόλεμον, καὶ τὰ πέριξ εθνη πρὸς συμμαχίαν αὐτοῦ μετεκέκλητο. πολλῶν δ' ἑτέρων καὶ τῶν ̓Ιουδαίων τὴν πρόσκλησιν μὴ καταδεξαμένων καὶ τὸ συμμαχῆσαί οἱ ἀπειπαμένων, ὁ Ναβουχοδονόσορ ἐξώργιστο, καὶ ωμοσεν η μὴν τὸν πρὸς τοὺς Μήδους ἀνύσας πόλεμον ἐπελθεῖν κατά τε Κιλικίας καὶ ∆αμασκοῦ καὶ Συρίας καὶ ̓Ιουδαίας καὶ τῆς Αἰγύπτου καὶ δῃῶσαι αὐτὰς καὶ ἐκπορθῆσαι καὶ εἰς ἐρήμωσιν ἀγαγεῖν. ἀντιταξάμενος ουν πρὸς ̓Αρφαξὰδ τὸν Μῆδον καὶ κατὰ κράτος τούτου περιγενόμενος, τῶν αλλων τε πόλεων αὐτοῦ κρατήσας καὶ τῶν ̓Εκβατάνων αὐτῶν, ενθα ησαν τῷ ̓Αρφαξὰδ τὰ βασίλεια, κἀκεῖνον ἑλών τε καὶ ἀνελών, τὸν ἀρχιστράτηγον τῆς οἰκείας δυνάμεως καλέσας ̓Ολοφέρνην ἐνετείλατό οἱ τὸν ορκον ον ωμοσεν ἐκπληρῶσαι, καὶ κατὰ τῶν μὴ θελησάντων συμμαχῆσαι αὐτῷ ἐπιόντι κατὰ τῶν Μήδων ἐκστρατεῦσαι μετὰ βαρείας δυνάμεως, καὶ τοὺς μὲν οσοι ἑαυτοὺς αὐτῷ ὑποτάσσουσι διατηρῆσαι καὶ τὰς πόλεις αὐτῶν ἀπορθήτους ἐᾶσαι, τῶν δ' ἀπειθούντων μὴ φείσασθαι, ἀλλὰ τοὺς μὲν ἀνθρώπους τῷ ξίφει ὑπαγαγεῖν, τὰς δὲ πόλεις αὐτῶν ἐκδοῦναι εἰς διαρπαγὴν καὶ εἰς ολεθρον. ̔Ο μὲν ουν Ναβουχοδονόσορ τοιαῦτα τῷ ἀρχισατράπῃ αὐτοῦ ἐνετείλατο, ̓Ολοφέρνης δὲ ἐκστρατεύσας καὶ τοῖς εθνεσι καθ' ων ἀπέσταλτο ἐπελθὼν τοὺς μὲν αλλους κατὰ τὰ ἐντεταλμένα διέθετο, ἐπὶ δὲ τοὺς ̓Ισραηλίτας μέλλων στρατεύειν καὶ οπλα κατ' αὐτῶν αιρειν, οὐ γὰρ προσῄεσαν αὐτῷ οὐδ' ὑπέκυπτον, ηρετο τίνες ουτοι καὶ οτῳ θαρροῦντες ἀνθίστανται. καὶ ειπεν αὐτῷ ̓Αχιὼρ ὁ τῶν υἱῶν ̓Αμμὼν ἀρχηγὸς τήν τε γενεαλογίαν αὐτῶν, καὶ οπως εἰς τὰς πόλεις 1.213 ἐκείνας ἐξ ἀρχῆς κατῳκίσθησαν, καὶ τοῦ σφῶν θεοῦ τὴν ἰσχύν. ειτα ἐπήγαγε "νῦν ουν σκεπτέον· καὶ εἰ μὲν εἰς τὸν θεὸν αὐτῶν ἁμαρτάνουσιν, ἀναβησόμεθα καὶ ἐκπολεμήσομεν αὐτούς, εἰ δ' οὐ τοῦτο, παρελθέτω ὁ κύριός μου μήποτε ὑπερασπίσῃ αὐτῶν ὁ θεὸς αὐτῶν καὶ ἡττηθῶμεν." ταῦτα τοῦ ̓Αχιὼρ εἰπόντος ὁ ̓Ολοφέρνης θυμῷ ληφθεὶς ἐκέλευσε τοῖς παρεστηκόσιν αὐτῷ δῆσαι τὸν ̓Αχιὼρ καὶ ἀπαγαγεῖν καὶ παραδοῦναι τοῖς υἱοῖς ̓Ισραήλ, ινα σὺν ἐκείνοις ληφθεὶς κολασθῇ. οἱ δὲ συλλαβόντες τὸν ανδρα ἀπήγαγον εἰς Βαιτουλούα, καὶ οἱ τῆς πόλεως σφενδόναις τοὺς προσιόντας καὶ βέλεσιν εβαλλον. κἀκεῖνοι τὸν ̓Αχιὼρ δεδεμένον ερριψαν ὑπὸ τὴν ὑπώρειαν, καὶ ὑπέστρεψαν. οἱ δὲ τῆς πόλεως ανδρες καταβάντες ελυσαν τὸν ̓Αχιὼρ καὶ εἰς τὴν σφετέραν πόλιν ἀπήγαγον, καὶ τί τὸ συμβεβηκὸς ἐπυνθάνοντο· καὶ ος αὐτοῖς απαντα διηγήσατο. οἱ δὲ τὸν θεὸν ἐκάλουν εἰς αμυναν. τῇ δ' ἑξῆς ̓Ολοφέρνης ηγεν ἐπὶ Βαιτουλούα τὴν στρατιάν, χιλιάδας