OZIAS (_to the soldiers_). Loose him. (_To_ Achior.) And how come you
here? Speak the truth--and fear.
ACHIOR. My mouth shall say truth, but I will not fear.
OZIAS. My hand is terrible.
ACHIOR. Thus it happened. When the children of Israel had shut up the
passages of the hill country and had fortified all the tops of the high
hills, Holofernes was very angry. And he called the captains of Ammon
and said to them: Tell me now, ye sons of Chanaan, who these Israelites
are that dwell in the hill country, and wherein is their power and
strength, and why they have determined not to come and meet me, more
than all the inhabitants of the west? And I, Achior, answered the
question of Holofernes.
OZIAS. And what answer gave you?
ACHIOR. I said to Holofernes: This people is descended of the Chaldeans.
But they left the way of their ancestors and would not follow the gods
of their fathers; and they worshipped the God of heaven. So they were
cast out from the face of the gods of Chaldea, and they fled into
Mesopotamia. And they came to Chanaan. But when a famine covered all the
land of Chanaan they went down into Egypt, and the king of Egypt brought
them low with labouring in brick and made them slaves.
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