Make my deceitful words to be their wound and stripe: For deceitful words see the comment on “deceit of my lips” at verse 10. Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version gain force by changing the nouns wound and stripe to verbs. They become “wound and kill,” though “kill” is overstatement. “Bruise” is closer to the meaning.

They have planned cruel things against thy covenant: This clause means “they have planned to do evil things against your Covenant Box.” Covenant probably does not refer to the “agreement” between God and his people, but to the actual “ark” or “Covenant Box” in the temple along with its contents. Translators will most likely have translated the Pentateuch and have a suitable term for the Covenant Box (see Exo 25.10-22).

Thy consecrated house is the temple; Good News Translation renders consecrated by calling the temple “your holy Temple.”

The top of Zion: A number of translations (Good News Translation, New Revised Standard Version, New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, Gonzáles and Alonso-Schöckel) consider top of Zion redundant, and simply refer to “Mount Zion.”

Good News Translation takes the house possessed by thy children to mean the land. Notice how Good News Translation‘s sequence in this verse progresses from small to great, as in verse 12: Covenant (the ark and its contents) … the Temple … the city of Jerusalem … the land of Israel. One must note that some versions take the house to refer to the homes of the people (see New American Bible), but this interpretation fits the context less well.

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• Please help me carry out my deceitful plan to wound and bruise our enemies who have planned to do terrible [or, cruel] things against your Covenant Box, against your temple, and against Mount Zion and the land of Israel.

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.