God has done well: In Greek this is almost the same phrase used in 10.16 and 11.4 (“will treat you well”). It may be reading in too much, but perhaps the author is using his gift of irony to let us know that Judith is in truth going to be treated well, but by God, not by Assyrian soldiers of any rank. Such a subtlety would not be beyond this skillful writer.
To send you before the people: Before the people is not clear at all. Most interpreters take the people to be the people of Bethulia, Judith’s people, in which case it is still not clear. Does it mean she comes “ahead of the people” (New Revised Standard Version; New American Bible and New Jerusalem Bible similar)? But what does that mean? Are the people of Bethulia supposed to come along later? Perhaps it could mean she comes as a representative of her people (New English Bible “sending you out from your people”). But the Greek word here translated people is often used in this book to refer to the Assyrian army (see 7.1, 7, 11, 26). Especially interesting is 7.13. There Revised Standard Version uses the word “people” twice, once for the people of Bethulia and once for the soldiers of the allied armies. The word in question is used in that verse for the soldiers; the “people of Bethulia” are referred to by another expression. If Holofernes is using the word here to refer to his own army—the detachment who found her, the men in the camp, and his staff in the tent—the expression before the people really makes better sense. So the first clause of Holofernes’ speech may be rendered “Your God did well to send you to us.” Good News Translation has adopted this interpretation: “It’s a good thing that God has sent you here.” Contemporary English Version is similar with “God was right in sending you to tell us these things.” It will be more correct in this context, however, to say “your god” since Holofernes thinks of Judith’s God as just one god among many; for example, “Your god was right in sending you to us.”
To lend strength to our hands may be rendered “so that we can defeat” (Contemporary English Version).
To bring destruction upon those who have slighted my lord: Slighted means “insulted” (Good News Translation) or “dishonored” (Contemporary English Version). When Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version translate my lord as “King Nebuchadnezzar,” they miss an ironic point. Judith has been sent by God for the very purpose Holofernes states: to bring destruction on those who have slighted his lord. He is thinking of Nebuchadnezzar, of course, but his lord is in fact God.
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.