He opened it: “He drew the curtain aside” (Good News Translation) is an accurate description of how he opened it; the parting of curtains is implied in the Greek verb used.

And went into the bedchamber: It is not necessary for Good News Translation to mention the bedchamber at this point since Good News Translation established in verse 14 that Bagoas was standing outside the “sleeping quarters.” Consequently “went in” is all that is necessary to describe his action here.

Found him thrown down on the platform dead, with his head cut off and missing: “Sprawled” (Good News Translation) is a good translation of the verb Revised Standard Version renders thrown down. The noun translated platform or “footstool” (Good News Translation; New American Bible “on the floor”; Gonzáles and Alonso-Schöckel “at the entrance”; New Jerusalem Bible “on the threshold”) is a problem. It is a common word, meaning “turtle.” Some scholars speculate there was an actual tortoise shell, or something shaped like one, beside the bed. Perhaps it functioned as a footstool of some kind. It’s as good a guess as anything; there is obviously something here we don’t know about. The notion that it means “threshold” comes from the fourth century commentator, Hesychius, who may well have been guessing himself. If it were clear what the object was, he would not have tried to explain it. Probably “sprawled out [or, lying] on the floor” is as reasonable a solution as one could hope for. After all, in 13.9 Judith did roll the body off the bed. Good News Translation does not include the text’s statement that the body is dead. It goes without saying that a “headless body” is dead, but this would have been obvious to the ancient reader as well. The fact that the author tells us this headless body was dead is emphatic (compare Jdg 5.27), and the translator may want to go along with the author and insist on it; for example, “… found his dead body [or, corpse]—with the head missing—sprawled out on the floor” (compare verse 18). An alternative model is “he found the headless corpse of Holofernes lying on the floor.”

It is interesting that in this description (14.15-16) of the discovery of the body, there is a quick cascade of verbs as in 13.8-9, where Judith cuts the head off.

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.