The scene shifts to the whole assembly weeping, so Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, and Contemporary English Version begin a new paragraph.

Then great and general lamentation arose throughout the assembly, and they cried … with a loud voice: Just as in 7.22 it is desirable that the translation produce a vivid picture, a mental image of a scene, here one wants to create the mental image of sound. Great and general lamentation fails to do this. Good News Translation‘s “began to weep loudly and to pray” is weaker than necessary. These people are wailing, shouting; it is a noisy scene. “Wail” is probably better than “weep,” and “cry out” better than “pray.” So we may say “Everyone began wailing loudly and crying out to the Lord God.”

It is a fine point, but the Greek reads the Lord God rather than “the Lord their God” (Good News Translation).

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.