King Nebuchadnezzar made war against King Arphaxad: Good News Translation “went to war” (also Contemporary English Version) is preferable to made war, since this action takes place in Nebuchadnezzar’s twelfth year of rule, while it will not be until his seventeenth year (1.13) that the war is concluded. “Went to war” focuses on the beginning of the action and helps the reader over the difficulty at 1.13. This phrase may also be expressed as “went out to fight against.” If it sounds like Nebuchadnezzar is going alone, one may say “Nebuchadnezzar and his soldiers went to fight against….”

In the great plain which is on the borders of Ragae: The spelling of Ragae in Revised Standard Version and New American Bible is the traditional spelling in English. New Revised Standard Version and New English Bible use “Ragau,” which is closer to the Greek text used here. “Rages,” as the name appears in Good News Translation, standardizes it with the form used in Tobit. One must realize that the form “Rages” is the name of an ancient city, and not the English word of the same spelling. This is supposedly the same city Rages that is mentioned in the book of Tobit (see Tob 1.14). One difference is that Judith seems to be speaking more of a region than a city. Here we have a great plain … on the borders of Ragae. It sounds odd to have an expansive plain on the city limits. Enslin translates “a plain in which Ragau lies.” Verse 15 will speak of “the mountains of Ragae,” which again sounds more like a region. Nevertheless, most commentators assume that Ragae is a city, the same as mentioned in the book of Tobit. This city is now in ruins, a few miles from modern Teheran. From a practical standpoint, however, unless translators go out of their way to identify this place as a city (as Good News Translation), the reader will probably assume it to be a region. There is good authority for this assumption, so translators are urged to designate Ragae as a region or territory rather than a city. Great plain may also be expressed as “wide flat area” (so also Tob 5.6).

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• In the twelfth year that King Nebuchadnezzar ruled over the Assyrians, he led his soldiers out to fight against King Arphaxad in the large plain on the borders of the region of Ragae.

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.