18 He took enough food for everyone, as well as a large quantity of gold and silver from the king’s palace.
19 Then he and his whole army set out ahead of King Nebuchadnezzar to cover the whole face of the earth to the west with their chariots, cavalry, and chosen infantry.
20 Joining them was an assorted group of people, so many that they couldn’t be numbered. They were like swarms of locusts, like the dust of the earth.
21 After marching for three days from Nineveh to the plain of Bectileth, they camped across from Bectileth near the mountain to the north of Upper Cilicia.
22 From there Holofernes took his whole army—the infantry, the cavalry, and his chariots—and he went up into the highlands.
23 He cut through Put and Lud, and looted all the people of Rassis and the Ishmaelites along the edge of the desert to the south of the Chelleans.
24 He traveled along the Euphrates, passing through Mesopotamia, and destroyed every strategic city along the brook of Abron until he reached the sea.