So thou gavest up their rulers to be slain may be rendered “That is why you let their leaders be killed” (Good News Translation) or “That is the reason you let them [Simeon and the others] kill the leaders of the Shechemites.” Thou gavest means that what follows was done with God’s permission or in obedience to his command. See also verse 4.

Their bed, which was ashamed of the deceit they had practiced, to be stained with blood: The Good News Translation notes that the Greek is unclear here. This is only being fair with the reader, but it is somewhat of an understatement. The Greek text is exceptionally difficult and makes little sense. It reads literally “their bed, which was ashamed of their deceived deceit, to blood.” There are numerous textual variants in the manuscripts, and scholars have made various guesses. The only real option offered by the manuscripts is the omission of two words, “their deceit.” This has the effect of making the Greek feminine participle “deceived,” refer not to the bed, but to the girl who was seduced, Dinah. If “their deceit” is omitted, the first half of the verse would read “you gave their rulers to murder, and you gave their bed, which blushed for shame for the girl who had been raped on it, to blood.” The rulers would be Hamor and Shechem. They were killed, presumably in bed, by Simeon and Levi. “Murder” and “blood” refer to this act; see Gen 34.25-26. Moore and Enslin make this emendation. If the text is not emended, the participle “deceived” refers to the bed.

No doubt part of the difficulty with this text has arisen because of the peculiarity of having a bed feel the emotion of shame. Yet the personification of inanimate objects is not unknown in the Old Testament; compare Lev 18.25; Jer 2.12; Hab 2.11. A way to express this personification without emending the text is:

You allowed their rulers to be murdered,
and their bed [ashamed of the deceit they had practiced there] to be a scene of bloodshed.

Notice that these are two parallel lines, with the parallelism interrupted by the parenthesis. Some scholars believe, therefore, that the expression in parentheses, which constitutes the problem, is in fact a later scribal addition.

Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, and Gonzáles and Alonso-Schöckel solve the problem differently by essentially saying “and their bed, debased by their deceit, to be the scene of a bloody deceit.” The bed had already been debased/dishonored by the way the Shechemites had deceived Dinah, but now it became the place where they were deceived—and killed—by Dinah’s brothers (Traduction œcuménique de la Bible note). Describing the bed as debased/dishonored/defiled rather than ashamed/embarrassed is helpful. This approach also has the advantage of spelling out a bit more clearly the reference to the Genesis scene, but without a lot of extra words.

It should be noticed that the word deceit will be used in 9.10, with reference to the deceit Judith plans.

With the above discussion in mind, an alternative translation model for the first part of this verse is:

• That is why you let their leaders be killed, and their bed, already dishonored by their deceit, be the place where they would be dishonored.

In languages that do not have the passive voice, one alternative is:

• That is why you let them kill the Shechemite leaders. They died on the bed that they had already dishonored with their deceit. It became the place where they would also receive dishonor [or, where they would lose face].

Thou didst strike down slaves along with princes, and princes on their thrones: New Jerusalem Bible and New American Bible make a textual emendation at the end of the verse by changing thrones to “servants/slaves,” so New American Bible reads “You smote the slaves together with their princes, and the princes together with their servants.” This is tempting, since (a) the text as it stands requires the Greek preposition epi to be used in two different senses (along with and on) even though it occurs in parallel constructions, and (b) “slave/prince … prince/slave” is exactly what we have in 9.10. It is a conjecture, however; there is no manuscript support. Translators are urged to follow Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation‘s interpretation. An alternative model is the following: “You destroyed all their slaves, their princes [or, sons of the kings/high chiefs] and their kings [or, high chiefs].”

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.