At a great assemblage of the Israelites for the worship of Moloch the priests demand the children of Manasseh for sacrifice. The king, overborne by the frenzy of the crowd, acquiesces. The priests go to the king's palace and take the children from their mother, and bring them down into the Valley of Hinnom to sacrifice them. Judith endeavours to save the children and is near being sacrificed herself by the furious worshippers, but is saved by the coming of the Assyrian host, who lay Jerusalem in ruins, and take Manasseh prisoner to Babylon.