They drove out before them the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Jebusites and the Shechemites and all the Gergesites: They drove out before them means “forced … to leave.” In a number of languages the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Jebusites … will be expressed as “the people of Canaan, the people called ‘Perizzites,’ the people of Jebus” and so on. Most of these same people are referred to in Deut 7.1, and translators will want to treat them consistently in both places. The Perizzites were a people native to the central highlands of Palestine. The Jebusites came from Jebus, a Canaanite town in central Palestine. The Shechemites were people of the city of Shechem. The Gergesites were a Canaanite tribe, but their home territory is not known. The Gergesites are the same as “the Girgashites” in Deut 7.1, and the same spelling should be used here (as Good News Translation does).

Lived there for a long time: Lived employs the Greek word for permanent settlement; compare the note on settled in 5.9. Good News Translation has “The Israelites have now lived in these mountains for a long time” (similarly Contemporary English Version). This implies a continuous occupation, which the next paragraph will deny. They were in fact removed from their home, later to return (see verse 19). The simpler lived there a long time leads the reader to expect some break in occupation, and is in fact all the text says.

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.