Judith 7:26-28

New Catholic Bible

²⁶ Therefore, surrender to them even now. Deliver the entire town as booty to the army of Holofernes and to all his forces. ²⁷ For it would be preferable for us to be conquered by them. Even though we would become their slaves, at least we would be alive and not have to witness our little ones dying before our eyes, and our wives and children gasping their last breath. ²⁸ By heaven and earth, and by our God, the Lord of our ancestors, who is punishing us for our own sins and those of our ancestors, we adjure you to do this very day what we have proposed.”