Then the people fell down and worshiped God, and cried out to him, and said: The reaction of the people to Achior’s report is not clear. Verses 20-21 sound as if they are confident, but their action here, and their prayer in verse 19, suggest fear, if not panic. They do three things in this verse: fall down on their knees, worship, and cry out. The three are related. Although one would ordinarily worship in a standing position, these people knelt down on the ground in a desperate approach to God, crying out. Worshiped does not do justice to the situation or to the Greek verb; it sounds too much as if the people are offering thanks. Here it means “threw themselves on God’s mercy, did obeisance to God.” Good News Translation combines cried out to him, and said into “They prayed” as the beginning of a new sentence.

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• When the people heard this they knelt down on the ground and called on God. They prayed loudly, saying….

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.