The fourth day refers to “the fourth day of Judith’s stay in the camp,” as Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version helpfully expand.

Holofernes held a banquet for his slaves only: This is the second banquet in this book. In 6.21 Uzziah held a banquet for the city elders. There is quite a contrast, however. Uzziah’s banquet (really a simple meal) led to a prayer for help. Holofernes’ banquet (see “dinner” below) is intended to lead to getting Judith into bed with him, but will in fact end with his death. The same Greek word is used in both these contexts.

The real problem in this verse is the identity of the people invited and not invited to the banquet. Those invited are called by the Greek word for slaves. This word is used numerous times in Judith, sometimes for Holofernes’ personal attendants (6.10), and sometimes to refer scornfully to the Israelites (5.11; 14.13). Never is it used in such a way as to refer to the “highest ranking officers,” as in Good News Translation. Most scholars are satisfied that the personal attendants of Holofernes are the group favored by the banquet.

Did not invite any of his officers: More problematic are those who are not invited. They are described by a phrase so difficult it is practically meaningless. The arguments narrow down to three possibilities. Either he excludes his most intimate advisers, or he excludes his officers, or he excludes the officers on duty. The following lineup illustrates the range of ideas:

• invited

• not invited
RSV

• his slaves

• his officers
NRSV

• his personal attendants

• his officers
TEV

• his highest ranking officers

• officers who were on duty
CEV

• his personal servants

• his military officers
NAB

• his servants

• his officers
NEB

• his personal servants

• army officers
NJB

• his own staff

• the other officers
Moore

• his retinue

• his commanders

It must be noted that whoever the invited ones are, they are not heard of until they discreetly withdraw in 13.1. This is one of those cases where the narrative flow gives more aid to the translator than the text itself, and one should attempt to translate by recreating a believable situation that does not obviously run counter to the text. In reviewing the chart above, one will see that Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation present the least believable scenario. In the case of Revised Standard Version, Holofernes holds a banquet for his slaves, but doesn’t invite his officers. This is a contradictory situation. In Good News Translation, he gives a banquet for the very highest ranking officers, except for those on (guard?) duty—an odd detail. But these important guests play no other part in the narrative until they leave, which raises the question of why they are ever mentioned. Surely it makes better sense for Holofernes to scheme with Bagoas (who shows up in the next verse and in 13.1) to have what is essentially a private party with Judith, with servants on hand to see to their needs. For what Holofernes has in mind he can use people to serve food and wine, but he certainly doesn’t need or want his officers present as observers. This will mean that in 13.1 the “slaves” and “attendants” are the same people (as New English Bible and Moore make clear).

Part of the problem may be the word banquet, which suggests a large number of guests. The Greek word does not imply that. For instance in Gen 19.3, there is one held for two guests. Perhaps one could resolve the problems in some such way as this: “On the fourth day of Judith’s stay in the camp, Holofernes gave a dinner, but he invited none of his officers. Only his servants were in attendance.”

This sentence, however translated, could well stand alone as a separate paragraph since verses 11-15 describe preparations for the banquet. The dinner is not actually given until verse 16.

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.