Behold, our buildings … lie before you: Behold will be rendered in some languages as “look” or “please take notice.” For wheat see 2.27. Our flocks and herds is rendered “our livestock” in both Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version. However, in some languages “our animals” will be a natural translation (compare 2.27). All our sheepfolds with their tents (literally “all the sheepfolds of our tents”) is better rendered in New Revised Standard Version as “all our encampments.” It refers to places where herders might make camp while seeing to the herds. Good News Translation‘s “our tents” is marginally acceptable, though the reference is not to the stuff the tents are made of. We suggest “all the camps of our herders [or, shepherds].” Lie before you is a shortened form of the same Greek expression “lie prostrate before you” in verse 2. Here lie before you is obviously figurative. All the possessions of the overrun towns are now offered to Holofernes as spoils of war. Good News Translation‘s “are at your disposal” is an effective equivalent. Contemporary English Version combines the last two clauses into “are yours.”

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.