Good News Translation does well to use this verse to end the paragraph beginning with verse 6 rather than to open a new paragraph, as in Revised Standard Version.

So the Israelites did … had given order: The connector So is not necessary here. Good News Translation‘s model is preferable here with “The Israelites carried out the orders given to them.”

Senate of the whole people of Israel: Senate refers to a ruling council of elders. No such Israelite body is known before the second century B.C. See 1 Macc 12.6. This may be the body known as the Sanhedrin in the New Testament, but one cannot be certain. Good News Translation‘s “Council” is acceptable, but it does omit the idea of leadership by elders, as well as the idea in the text that it was of the whole people of Israel. Contemporary English Version is better than Good News Translation with “the other leaders of Israel.”

In session at Jerusalem may be translated “who were meeting at that time in Jerusalem.”

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.