For every sacrifice as a fragrant offering is a small thing: This means “No sacrifice can smell sweet enough to please you” or “Sacrifices, however sweet their smell, amount to very little.”

All fat for burnt offerings becomes “all the choice meat on the altar” in Good News Translation, which is certainly the meaning of the phrase. Fat means “choice meat,” and burnt offerings is a technical term for a certain type of offering. See 4.14 for burnt offerings. But referring to a specific type of offering is not necessary to make the point here. The point is that fearing God—obeying God—is more important than any kind of sacrificial offering, and a person’s real greatness is measured not by offerings made but by that person’s fear of God. In certain languages the one who makes the sacrifice must be made clear. It is “people.”

He who fears the Lord shall be great for ever: Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version bring the third line of this verse forward to the beginning. It joins very nicely with the “obey” theme of the last line of verse 15. However, Good News Translation changes the original relationships by making the Lord the subject. Refer to Contemporary English Version below for a better model. Again fears means “obeys.” Good News Translation expresses being great for ever as earning the Lord’s pleasure. The idea is that offering sacrifices is of small importance compared to obeying the Lord. That is the greatest thing one can ever do.

Contemporary English Version provides a good model for this verse:

• It is much better
to obey the Lord
than to offer
sweet-smelling sacrifices
or the fat of choice meat.

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.