Stand at the city gate tonight, and I will go out with my maid: The Greek text gives no reason for the leaders’ being present at the city gate, but presumably it is to allow Judith and her maid to pass through unnoticed. Good News Translation (and New American Bible) makes this specific: “so that my slave woman and I can leave the town.” Contemporary English Version is even more specific: “so that my servant woman and I can leave safely.” The maid was in reality a “slave” (see the note at 8.10).

Within the days after which you have promised to surrender: This is more clearly expressed by Good News Translation “before the day comes on which you have promised to surrender.” Or one may say “before the day you have agreed to surrender.”

The Lord will deliver Israel by my hand: Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version have “the Lord will use me to rescue the people of Israel.” “By the hand of…” is a common Hebrew idiom that is often best reworded in translation. However, the writer of Judith may have given particular significance to the word hand. The word is used 19 times in the book, and ten of these have reference to Judith (see especially 9.10 and 16.6). Patrick Skehan points out that in Exodus the hand of Moses (Exo 4.2; 10.21-22) was the hand of God (Exo 3.19-20; 13.9). In Judith the hands of a widow, weak hands indeed, will be the means of deliverance.

Contemporary English Version restructures these verses in a helpful way:

• The Lord will use me to rescue the people of Israel before the day that you agreed to surrender to the Assyrians.
I want the three of you to stand guard at the town gate tonight, so that my servant woman and I can leave safely. Don’t try to figure out what I’m doing. I will tell you everything after I have finished.

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.