We call to witness against you heaven and earth may be rendered “Heaven and earth are witnesses against you” (Good News Translation) or “We ask heaven and earth to see what you are doing.” See also the note above on 7.24.
Our God, the Lord of our fathers may be translated “the Lord God our ancestors worshiped” (Contemporary English Version).
Who punishes us according to our sins and the sins of our fathers: Two understandings of the present tense here are possible. It can be a timeless present; for example, “God whose practice it is to punish….” Far more likely it describes the immediate situation; for example, “God … who is punishing us for their sins [our ancestors’ sins] as well as ours” (Good News Translation) or “he is punishing us because they [our ancestors] sinned against him and because we have done the same thing.”
Let him not do this day the things which we have described: There is a complicated textual problem at the end of this verse. Good News Translation and Revised Standard Version are translating the same standard text. The Greek text does not make as good sense as either translation suggests. A more literal rendering would be “… that/in order that he not do according to these words/things on this day.” With this rendering, at least four points are not clear:
(1) Is the Greek conjunction to be understood as introducing a purpose clause (in order that) or a noun clause (that)? Both Good News Translation and Revised Standard Version seem to opt for the latter.
(2) Is the subject of the clause “he” (him)? The Greek verb do is a second person singular form, in which case the people are addressing Uzziah. How the statement would then be translated depends on the solution given to textual question 1 below.
(3) If it is third person, who is “he?” God or Holofernes? Presumably God, but it is not clear.
(4) What are the “words/things” referred to? The final useless resistance referred to in verse 24? The surrender proposed in verse 26? It is presumably not the terrible conditions described in 25 since these conditions already existed.
These questions defy solution.
Even though the Good News Translation text and the translation in the Good News Translation footnote are very different, the textual problem itself involves only two words of Greek. There are basically two questions:
(1) Does the negative not in Let him not belong here or not? Some manuscripts, including one important one, lack it, as do several versions. Omitting it virtually forces one to assume that the verb is second person, whether singular or plural.
(2) Should the verb form be second person plural? There is textual evidence for this as well both in Greek texts and in versions. If this is assumed, two possibilities open:
(a) If not is actually in the text, “words/things” leans toward “things” and refers to the policy of resistance mentioned in verse 24: “We call on heaven … to witness … that you [leaders] not continue these policies.”
(b) If not is omitted, “words/things” then refers to the words being spoken, the wishes of the protesting people, the surrender urged in verse 26: “We call on heaven … to witness … that you do these things we ask of you today.” This seems to be confirmed by 8.9, where “the wicked words spoken by the people against the ruler” are referred to.
The problems that come with translating the received text are impossible to solve. By far the simplest approach is to emend the text by omitting not and by translating the verb as second person plural. This is the direction taken by New Revised Standard Version, New Jerusalem Bible, Gonzáles and Alonso-Schöckel, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, as well as the Good News Translation footnote. Moore omits not, but prefers to keep the verb as it is, identifying it as second person singular. This is clever, yet possible. In verse 31 Uzziah certainly replies in the first person singular. No Latin evidence supports this however; in Latin the distinction would be clear.
This Handbook suggests that translators follow the solution used in Good News Translation‘s footnote, so a possible model for this verse is:
• We ask heaven and earth, and our God the Lord whom our ancestors worshiped, to witness against you. He is punishing us for our sins and the sins of our ancestors. We demand that you surrender, as we have asked you to do today.”
A footnote at the end of the verse would be appropriate: “We demand … today; some manuscripts have May God not do today the things we have described.”
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.