He ordered him to drug all the elephants—five hundred in number—with heaping handfuls of frankincense and much unmixed wine on the following day. When the abundant quantity of drink had driven them wild, Hermon was to bring them in so that the Jews might meet their doom.

Now when Hermon had made the savage elephants drunk so that they were full of a great quantity of wine and drugged with frankincense, he came to the palace courtyard early in the morning to report to the king.

So the king, with a savagery worse than the tyrant Phalaris, said that the Jews could be grateful for today’s sleep, but “Tomorrow,” he said, “without delay, prepare the elephants in the same way for the destruction of the unseemly Jews.”

Equip the elephants yet again for the destruction of the Jews tomorrow.”

The Jews saw the dust cloud created by the elephants going out at the gate, the armed force following them, and the marching of the crowd, and they heard the noisy ruckus.

The elephants turned back on the armed forces that were following them, and they began to trample and destroy them.