The eunuch who had charge of all his personal affairs: Eunuchs were men who had been castrated in youth. They were often used as royal servants, sometimes even in positions of high state authority (compare Acts 8.27). They were often in charge of harems. Here Bagoas appears as a trusted servant who is entrusted with seeing to Judith’s needs, and the focus is on his elevated position, not his sexual status. If a language does not have a term for this kind of person, one may say “the trusted head of his servants,” and we may translate this first sentence as “He said to Bagoas, the trusted servant in charge of his servants” or “Bagoas was the trusted servant in charge of his personal business. Holofernes said to him…” (similarly Contemporary English Version).

Go now and persuade the Hebrew woman who is in your care: Contemporary English Version has a helpful alternative translation: “Since you are the one taking care of the Hebrew woman, I want you to talk her into coming to the banquet.” In this verse we learn, almost incidentally, that Judith has been placed in the care of Bagoas.

Join us and eat and drink with us: The use of the first person plural here does not rule out the idea that this is really a private party. In the next verse the first person plural continues, but there it is quite obvious that Holofernes is talking of himself and himself only. Good News Translation and Gonzáles and Alonso-Schöckel render this usage plural in this verse, but switch to singular in verse 12. The only reason for doing this is that they have established that a good many guests will be present. Holofernes is using the plural to refer to himself as a person in authority, and in a number of languages this will need to be a singular pronoun.

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.