They were therefore greatly terrified at his approach, and were alarmed: When the people of Judah heard what Holofernes had done to the Gentile temples, their faith wavered. Maybe the same plunder and destruction could even happen to their God’s temple since it happened before (see Jer 9.11; 26.6; Micah 3.12; contrast with 2 Sam 7.13-16; Psa 46; 48). A connector like therefore is needed to stress that their fear is the result of hearing what had happened to the others; for example, “So they were terribly afraid….” Terrified … alarmed is a weak statement. In the Greek text the people are frantic with terror at the prospect of his coming their way. Another way to show this is: “their hearts were full of fear and their bodies shook with terror.” At his approach means “when they heard that Holofernes was coming.”

Temple of the Lord their God: This phrase can also be expressed “the place where they worshiped the Lord their God.” For a comment on the translation of Lord, see Tob 3.2.

There is a chiastic structure in the verse. It begins and ends with strong passive verbs expressing fear. In the middle of the chiasmus that fear focuses inward on Holofernes’ coming, and what that might mean for the holy sites. The chiasmus can be diagramed as follows:

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.