She was beautiful in appearance … very lovely face: These two clauses are used to describe Judith’s beauty. Beautiful in appearance is the same clause used to describe Rachel in the Greek of Gen 29.17. Good News Translation combines the two clauses into “very beautiful woman.” Translators should use language to describe Judith that is natural in the receptor language.

Her husband Manasseh had left her gold and silver …: The estate Manasseh left his wife is described in three pairs of nouns:

gold and silver
male and female slaves
livestock and fields

The second pair states that there were slaves of both sexes, not that there were “servants and slaves” (Good News Translation). The usual Greek word for “slave” is not used here. Contemporary English Version brings out what is implicit here: “she was … rich.” It translates the second sentence “And she was also very rich, because her husband had left her a lot of gold and silver, as well as male and female servants, property and livestock.”

She maintained this estate is literally “she remained on/over them.” Some take the preposition in the sense of “on,” and interpret this to mean that she continued to live on her estate. But this limits the reference of “on them” to the fields only. Most assume that this means she remained “over” all six items mentioned, that is, in charge of managing the money, the servants, and the farm. In this way she would be like the wife of Pro 31.10-31, competent in many ways. Note, however, that 8.10 speaks of a slave woman who managed Judith’s business affairs.

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.