At that time Judith heard about these things: This clause carries the story forward, but the rest of the verse along with the next seven verses identify Judith by backtracking in time. At verse 9 the narrative is resumed. The translator must introduce Judith at verse 1, and as gracefully as possible go into the long flashback, beginning with the genealogy that occupies most of verse 1. A creative approach is suggested by New English Bible: “News of what was happening reached Judith, daughter of….” Contemporary English Version is similar with “A widow named Judith lived in Bethulia and knew everything that was happening. She was the daughter of….” The first part of the sentence acts like an arrow pointing to Judith, calling appropriate attention to her as new information. Then the genealogy is cut off into a second sentence, as Good News Translation has done. A poor solution to the flashback here is exhibited by New American Bible. It begins with “Judith” as the subject of the sentence, and inserts the entire genealogy before closing the sentence with “heard of this.” This solution is not recommended for translators.

The people in the genealogy are unknown, except that Salamiel, son of Sarasadai may be “Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai,” the leader of the tribe of Simeon in Num 1.6; 2.12; 7.36, 41; 10.19. Zurishaddai is not said to be the son of Simeon, nor is he listed as a son of Simeon in Gen 46.10. He was certainly not one of the twelve sons of Israel (Jacob). Something seems to be missing, therefore. A few manuscripts insert “son of Simeon” as a generation between Sarasadai and Israel. New American Bible and Gonzáles and Alonso-Schöckel adopt this. A few others say “son of Israel of the tribe of Simeon.” Both of these readings are probably scribal attempts to mend an apparent gap in the genealogy. We know from 9.2 that Judith is of the tribe of Simeon, but for whatever reason, it is not said here. In the absence of any convincing textual authority for adding to the text, it is better to let it stand.

Good News Translation‘s use of “daughter … granddaughter … great-granddaughter” is an attempt to make the genealogy more manageable by using familiar English kinship terms as far back as one usually takes them. Good News Translation also eliminates the necessity for repeating son of by stopping the chain with Joseph and saying “Joseph’s ancestors were….” See Tob 1.1 for other ways to list genealogies.

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.