O Lord God of my father Simeon, to whom …: Lord God may also be expressed “Lord [or, Master] our God [or, the God we serve].” For a note on the translation of Lord God, see Tob 3.2. Simeon was an “ancestor,” not her actual father (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version). Good News Translation uses “remember…” after Judith addresses God. She is not calling on God to remember anything he has forgotten, nor does the verb “remember” occur in the Greek text. Good News Translation uses it to avoid the liturgical relative pronoun whom. A simpler way to do this is to start a new sentence; for example, “O Lord God, whom my ancestor Simeon worshiped. You gave him a sword…” (compare New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible).

Thou gavest a sword: While the Genesis 34 story is critical of Simeon for his deceptive act, Judith praises her ancestor and attributes his action to God’s help. God’s assistance to Simeon is in focus rather than the sword. So in cultures where “swords” are not used for warfare, one may say “You helped him [Simeon] take revenge on….”

To take revenge on the strangers: For revenge see 1.12. Neither strangers nor “foreigners” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version) is an appropriate term for the Shechemites of Gen 34, to whom Judith refers here. They were hardly foreigners; they were native to the land and had been there much longer than Jacob’s family. They may not even have been strangers to Jacob’s family, but even if they were, that is not the point. The Greek word means “another people.” “Non-Jews” or even “non-Israelites” would be anachronistic, although the author of Judith would probably have approved of it. One could say “local people,” “people of Shechem,” or even “neighboring peoples who didn’t worship God.” Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version introduce the name “Dinah,” though she is not named in the Greek text. Even better is “his younger sister Dinah.” An alternative translation model for this clause along with the previous one is: “You helped him take revenge on the people of Shechem who had seized his younger sister Dinah.”

Who had loosed the girdle of a virgin to defile her, and uncovered her thigh to put her to shame, and polluted her womb to disgrace her: In this context defile means to have sex with the woman so that she is no longer a virgin; shame refers to humiliating her by removing her clothing; polluted refers to the semen entering the womb in an act of violent and wicked sex; disgrace refers to the result of this activity on the violated woman. The strong terms defile and polluted are near synonyms. They are used since in ancient times raping a woman would render her unfit for marriage.

There is a textual difficulty in this part of the verse. It will help to see it in its literal context:

… who loosed the womb [?] of a virgin unto defilement,
and exposed her thigh unto shame,
and polluted her womb unto dishonor.

The problem is that the first occurrence of the word “womb” does not fit the context well. Although there is some dissent (Moore), virtually all scholars agree that a simple error was made early. The word for a belt or headband (mitra in Greek) was confused with the word for womb (metra in Greek). So the Revised Standard Version has girdle. The Good News Translation reading of the above lines is:

… who seized Dinah, who was a virgin, tore off her clothes, and defiled her; they stripped her naked and shamed her; they raped her and disgraced her.

Good News Translation takes “loosed her belt/headband” to mean “tore off her clothes.” It describes three stages in the act of rape (“tore off her clothes,” “stripped her naked,” and “raped her”). Although this is the usual solution, one does not have to emend the text. “Belt/headband” is a guess; there is no manuscript evidence for it. One can understand “loosed” as “broke” or “violated”; for example, “The foreigners violated her womb and defiled [or, disgraced] her.” Then the last two actions describe the rape itself.

Note that each of the three actions (verbs) is matched with a noun: “loosed” with “defilement,” “exposed” with “shame,” and “polluted” with “dishonor.” Revised Standard Version translates all these nouns as verbs: to defile, to put to … shame, and to disgrace (similarly Good News Translation). The words defile and polluted will be used effectively in 9.8 with reference to the temple, where they refer to violent and wicked acts being committed which make the temple unfit for use.

For thou hast said, ‘It shall not be done’—yet they did it: This last sentence in the verse contains a direct quotation, which Good News Translation expresses in the content of one verb: “you had forbidden.” The quotation gives force to God’s prohibition, but it sounds awkward in English. An adverb could help in Good News Translation; for example, “you had absolutely forbidden.”

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.