She rose from where she lay prostrate: Here we are reminded of Judith’s position in prayer. She had her face to the ground; we were told this in 9.1. Good News Translation trusts the reader to remember this; “she stood up” (Good News Translation) could suggest she had been sitting. Translators may want to ensure against this misunderstanding by including she lay prostrate; for example, “she rose from the floor, where she had been lying prostrate.” Good News Translation presumably is avoiding the use of what is the somewhat difficult word prostrate in English. One must also avoid a trap that New American Bible has fallen into with “she rose from the ground.” She is not on the ground. She is on her rooftop. Chapter 9 did not tell us that, but 10.2 makes it clear that she was in the rooftop shelter mentioned in 8.5.

Her maid was her “slave girl” (see the note at 8.10).

Went down into the house where she lived on sabbaths and on her feast days: Good News Translation does not have it quite right with “went down into the house as she always did on Sabbaths….” The text does not say that she would go down into the house on Sabbaths; it says she stayed downstairs on Sabbaths. Since we are not informed until this point that the praying of chapter 9 was done on the roof, the translator may want to build this information in, as inconspicuously as possible; for example, “she went down from the roof into the house, where she always stayed on Sabbaths….” For sabbath see 8.6. Her feast days refers to Israelite religious festivals [or, fiestas] that Judith observed.

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.