The sons of maidservants have pierced them through: There is bitter and effective irony in this verse that is a challenge to capture in translation. On one hand, there is reference to the insulting way the Assyrians referred to the Israelites as “slaves” in 14.13, 18. Judith mocks the fallen enemy by saying that the children—not even slaves—of slave women (the sons of maidservants) killed them (pierced them through). Moore tries to get the flavor by translating “Mere boys,” but this misses both the reference to the Assyrian opinion of Israelites as mere slaves, as well as the important reference to females—since Judith is a woman. There is also contrast here between the “sons of the Titans” (verse 7), who did not smite the Assyrians, and these “sons of slave women,” who did.

They were wounded like the children of fugitives is a problem in its own right. Interpretation can go in three directions:

1. There is the literal direction with the following sense: The Assyrians were wounded as easily as one could catch the children of deserters.
2. Some manuscripts change children of fugitives to “runaway slaves.” This slight textual change makes good sense as follows: The Assyrians, who regarded the Israelites as no more than slaves, met their end as they were running for their lives. They were cut down like runaway slaves.
3. Traduction œcuménique de la Bible suggests a rather sophisticated, but compelling, approach, which also requires a small textual change. It supposes that the “slave women” of the first line and the fugitives of this line are the same people. The first two lines read: “Like the sons of slave women, they are pierced, and like the children of fugitives, they are wounded.” Compare the Greek (not the Hebrew) of 1 Sam 20.30, where Saul insults his son Jonathan by calling him “Son of runaway slave women.”

All in all, the second interpretation seems the most likely. Good News Translation phrases this verse in the first person plural rather than the third person in order to identify The sons of maidservants as the Israelites, and this is helpful. So a possible model for the verse is:

• Our enemies turned and ran!
We are descended from slave women,
but our soldiers killed them as if they were runaway slaves.
The army of the Lord has destroyed them.

This reveals the irony of the runaways killed by descendants of runaways; “slave” is used in a mocking way, and “slave women” keeps the female reference, which is important for Judith. The contrast with the “sons of the Titans” in verse 7 will be harder to make evident unless a word such as “descendants” has been used in both verses.

An alternative translation model for the whole verse in the active voice is the following:

• We, the descendants of runaway slave women, wounded and killed the Assyrians.
We are the soldiers of the Lord and we destroyed 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.