So the Lord heard their prayers and looked upon their afflictions: If this sentence were not here, we would never miss it. The rest of this verse through the end of the chapter continues the theme of verses 9-12, repeating much of it. The sentence stands out so starkly against its context that it must be intentional on our author’s part. We are suddenly removed from the noisy, smelly, frantic scene in Jerusalem and lifted to God’s calm abode, where we are told that God has taken notice. We may assume that God is going to act, but we aren’t told that. We are immediately put right back down to earth, where we must wait for God’s action, and for the narrator’s pleasure in telling us of it. Translations show their discomfort with this sentence by the paragraphing. Some make it the concluding sentence of the preceding paragraph (Contemporary English Version, Revised English Bible). Others make it the opening sentence of a new paragraph (New American Bible, New Revised Standard Version). Neither Good News Translation nor Revised Standard Version break at all. It would not be too much to make a separate paragraph of this one sentence. This Handbook advises translators to do so. This is the only sentence in the book in which the narrator, rather than a character, uses the Lord as the acting subject of a sentence. Contemporary English Version translates “The Lord heard their prayers and saw how much they were suffering.”

For the people fasted many days: The conjunction for (also in Contemporary English Version and New American Bible) does not appear in Greek, and has no important function. It is better to let the previous statement about God’s hearing the people stand alone. This will support how the author handles the verb fasted. Fasted is a special construction with two verbs used in Greek. Good News Translation expresses it well with “continued their fast,” but Moore is even better with “kept on fasting.” The point is that we, the readers, know that God has taken notice of all this concern, but the people on the scene do not know. So they continue their praying and fasting. Fasted may also be expressed as “went without eating” (Contemporary English Version). Another possible model is “went without eating for a designated period of time.”

Before the sanctuary of the Lord Almighty: The sanctuary means “the Temple” (Good News Translation) or “the place where they worshiped the Lord.” Lord Almighty is used in the Greek Old Testament to translate both “God Almighty” and “Lord of hosts.” One cannot know which one the author is translating here. Another way to express this is “Lord who is all-powerful.” However, in languages that translate Lord as “Master” or “Ruler,” one may say “the Ruler who is all-powerful” or “the Ruler who is greater than all other rulers,” or even “God who is greater than all other rulers/chiefs.”

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.