O Lord God of heaven: For Lord see Tob 3.2; for God of heaven see Jdt 5.8.
Behold their arrogance: Behold is often used only to gain someone’s attention, but here it is actually asking God to “look at,” “pay attention” to the arrogant behavior of the Assyrians. Good News Translation has translated the noun arrogance with the adjective “boastful,” so that it modifies “enemies” for clarity; the Greek simply says their arrogance. Arrogance will sometimes be translated “full of big words,” so the first part of the verse may be expressed “O Lord God of heaven, see how these proud Assyrians speak big words….”
Have pity on the humiliation of our people, and look this day upon the faces of those who are consecrated: It will be good to put have pity in a final sentence, as Good News Translation has done (see also the alternative model below). Here the humiliation of the Israelites is mentioned in contrast to the arrogance of the enemy (compare Psa 138.6). The noun humiliation is translated by Good News Translation with the verb “humiliated.” In some languages this will be rendered “have made … lose great face” or “have made … feel terribly ashamed.” Good News Translation‘s “your people” for the Greek our people may not be quite as wise; it makes it sound like the people are showing God how humiliated he has become. Good News Translation‘s reasoning is probably to let “your people” correspond to those who are consecrated to thee, and to let “us” represent our people. Compare New English Bible “pity our people … show favour … to those who are thy own,” in which “thy own” (Revised English Bible “your own people”) expresses the idea of consecrated to thee. The Greek verb consecrated means “made holy,” but this is not a claim on the people’s part that they are holy or sanctified, but that they are members of the covenant community (compare the use of the word in Exo 19.14; Deut 33.3). By membership among those so consecrated, they become God’s people. Good News Translation, New English Bible, and Revised English Bible thus express the effective, if not the literal, meaning of the phrase. Good News Translation has, however, omitted the phrase this day, perhaps thinking it superfluous. The translator must be careful with this phrase, so that it is not taken as modifying consecrated. The people are not consecrating themselves to God this day, but rather they are asking God to help them this day. So this day means “in our hour of need.” “Help” (Good News Translation) is the meaning of the literal look upon the faces. In some languages the third person references our people and those who are consecrated to thee will need to be translated in the first person since they are the ones speaking; for example, “look how our enemies have humiliated us [or, us your people] … those of us who are consecrated to you.”
An alternative translation model for this verse is:
• “O Lord God of heaven, see how these proud Assyrians speak big words and humiliate us. Have pity and be kind to us, for we are your people.”
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.