He captured Arphaxad in the mountains of Ragae and struck him down with hunting spears: Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version‘s account of Arphaxad’s death is pale and understated. The Greek paints a grisly, gory picture. The spear is a sharp pointed metal blade with a long shaft or pole. Hunting spears (notice the plural) is Revised Standard Version‘s translation of a single Greek word. Translators should not be misled by the word hunting. We are dealing simply with the spears or javelins used in warfare. Struck him down does not do justice to the violence of the original text. He didn’t knock him over with spears, as struck him down suggests; he ran him through, pierced his body, stabbed him. Few translations take notice that the Greek actually has Nebuchadnezzar run his enemy through with “his spears,” perhaps because it is not clear whose spears they are. Presumably they are Nebuchadnezzar’s spears or javelins.

He utterly destroyed him, to this day: The last clause of the verse should not be reduced to “After Arphaxad’s death” (Good News Translation). It is an emphatic statement that Nebuchadnezzar put a decisive end to this man’s life. An idiomatic expression would fit here. New Jerusalem Bible “destroyed him once and for all” conveys the tone.

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• King Nebuchadnezzar captured Arphaxad in the mountains around Ragae. Then he took his own hunting spears and destroyed Arphaxad finally [or, once and for all] by stabbing him with them.

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.