She returned clean and stayed in the tent: Once again, “she would return … remain” (Good News Translation) gets the idea of the repeated action. Clean certainly has reference to being “ritually pure” (Good News Translation) rather than to being physically clean, though one would suppose that after bathing she was that too. Contemporary English Version‘s “returned to her tent, completely clean, and stayed there” is a helpful alternative model.

She ate her food toward evening: There is disagreement as to the meaning of the Greek verb translated she ate. The word is regularly used in this form to refer to the partaking of a meal. But it can be interpreted as a passive form that means “she was brought” her food by either her maid or by others. Enslin insists that this usage is “quite foreign to Greek diction,” but several translations go this way. Good News Translation simply refers to “the evening meal,” so it avoids the problem quite cleverly. By saying “until after the evening meal,” it also avoids raising the question as to whether she left the tent between the evening meal and going to sleep. Surely the author intends us to picture Judith modestly in her own tent all day. She comes out only for her nightly excursion into the valley.

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.