So fear and terror of him fell upon all the people: Good News Translation is a good model for this clause, saying “Panic seized … and they shook with fear.” Another way to say this is “All the people living along the Mediterranean Sea were so terrified that they shook [or, trembled].”

Who live along the seacoast …: Seacoast here clearly means the eastern Mediterranean, as Good News Translation tells us. Sidon and Tyre were the important Phoenician cities on the coast, north of Palestine, west of Damascus. Sur and Ocina are unknown. Jamnia, Azotus, and Ascalon were towns on the southern coast of Palestine. Azotus and Ascalon were two of the ancient Philistine cities. The last two cities are spelled “Ashdod” and “Ashkelon” by Good News Translation, as elsewhere in the Old Testament. We suggest that translators follow this, using whatever names have been used in Josh 13.3, for example. Two points need to be made about the cities named in this verse. First, they are not named one right after the other, as in Good News Translation. The Greek text (given literally in Revised Standard Version) contains pauses to slow down the progress, creating the impression of Holofernes hitting one town, then another, then another. Moore calls these “pregnant pauses,” and to keep them is worth considering. Second, there are seven cities named in the general area of Palestine, which is where the rest of this story is going to unfold. Naming seven, the traditional biblical number symbolic of completeness, may be the author’s way of underscoring the total terror Holofernes has laid on the region.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Judith. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.