God has sold us into their hands: “Put us in their power” (Good News Translation) renders the literal idiom sold us into their hands. Had Good News Translation left out the next two words and joined the two sentences it would be closer to the meaning of the text: “God has put us in their power, exhausted, and dying of thirst.” In Greek “exhausted and dying of thirst” is not a separate statement, it is the people’s description of themselves in the Assyrian presence.

To strew us on the ground (which translates only a verb in Greek) is missing from Good News Translation. A way of working it in would be “God has put us in their power, exhausted, lying everywhere dead of thirst.” Revised English Bible renders the last part of this verse “they will find us struck down, all dead of thirst.” This is a good functional equivalent.

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.