Judith 7:22-24

New Catholic Bible

²² Their children fainted away, and the women and young men grew weak with thirst. They collapsed in the streets and the gateways of the town, for they had no strength left.

²³ Then all the people, including the young men, women, and children, gathered around Uzziah and the rulers of the town. They raised a great clamor of protest and said in the presence of all the elders: ²⁴ “May God judge between you and us. You have perpetrated a grave injustice on us by refusing to sue for terms of peace with the Assyrians.