Do not try to bind the purposes of the Lord our God: The Greek text begins with an emphatic “You.” It may be rendered “As for you….” Try to does not reflect a Greek verb meaning “try.” But since humans cannot in fact bind God’s purposes, the addition try to is fitting. Also the form of the verb bind is like the form of “provoke” in verse 14, so the leaders are told to stop doing what they are already doing: “Stop trying to bind….” The verb bind in Greek works with an interesting metaphor. She is saying “do not take God’s counsels in pledge, do not hold God’s will as if it were an object in a pawn shop.” Good News Translation‘s “you must not lay down conditions for the Lord our God” and Contemporary English Version‘s “Don’t put limits on what the Lord our God can do” are reasonably close to the meaning of the metaphor. New Jerusalem Bible may come closer: “You have no right to demand guarantees where the designs of the Lord our God are concerned.”

For God is not like man, to be threatened …: The rest of this verse is an obvious paraphrase of Num 23.19. New American Bible actually sets this verse apart from the rest of the text as if it were a quotation. It is said that God is unlike a human being (Good News Translation “one of us”) in two ways. They are represented in two Greek verbs. The first of these is that God cannot be threatened; that is, “You cannot threaten God” or “Do not think you can use strong words to force God.”

Nor like a human being, to be won over by pleading: This second way in which God is not like “one of us” is not as clear. Won over by pleading can possibly mean “forced to give a prompt decision” or “coaxed, cajoled.” The second possibility can be rendered, as in New English Bible, “God will not … be bargained with.” Good News Translation seems to be using both these possibilities for the second verb and not using the first verb threatened at all. It is difficult to see the idea of “threaten” present in Good News Translation‘s word “bargain.” Of the two options for won over by pleading, “forced to give a prompt decision” is slightly more defensible than “coaxed, cajoled.” Following Good News Translation‘s restructuring at the end of the verse, a more satisfactory rendering would be:

• Don’t put limitations on what the Lord our God can do. God is not a mere human. Do you think you can threaten him or force him to make a decision on the spot?

“On the spot,” meaning “instantly,” is added here to avoid the impression that we are trying to get God to make a decision because he is indecisive.

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.