Then he returned with them to Nineveh: The connector Then means that “After Arphaxad’s death, he returned….” By being literal, Revised Standard Version evades the question of who or what is meant by them. Some translations evade it by ignoring it. It probably refers to loot (possessions) taken from the defeated enemy. Good News Translation, New English Bible, and Contemporary English Version say so, and translators are urged to follow these translations.

He and all his combined forces, a vast body of troops: This phrase raises another problem. The word translated combined may have the connotation of being randomly mingled, mixed up. New American Bible and Moore translate “motley.” New Jerusalem Bible offers an attractive alternative to both the problems in this verse. It takes with them to refer, not to spoils, but “his troops,” and then interprets the word combined to mean “all who had joined forces with him,” presumably the allies mentioned in verse 6. But this assumes, as New Jerusalem Bible and most do, that these nations are allied with Nebuchadnezzar and not with Arphaxad; compare the note on 1.6. To combine the phrases all his combined forces and a vast body of troops into “his entire army” with Good News Translation is too weak. An alternative translation model is: “Nebuchadnezzar, along with a huge number of soldiers, returned to Nineveh. They brought with them all the loot….”

For one hundred and twenty days: Good News Translation translates this literal expression with “four months.” Compare Est 1.4.

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.