A new paragraph (Revised Standard Version) is not necessary here since Judith continues to discuss God’s power.

Thy power depends not upon numbers, nor thy might upon men of strength: These two clauses are identical in meaning (power/ might, numbers/ men of strength), so Good News Translation does well to combine them. One may also combine them with “Your power does not depend on large numbers of soldiers or weapons” or “You are very powerful and do not depend….”

Thou art God of the lowly, helper of the oppressed, upholder of the weak, protector of the forlorn, savior of those without hope: Once again there may be references to the song of Moses; the titles helper, protector, and savior are ascribed to God in the Greek of Exo 15.2 (interestingly, in the same order). Toni Craven (1977) points out that there is a neat arrangement of divine titles in verses 11-12, five on either side of the plea “hear me”:

God of the lowly — “God of my father”
helper of the oppressed — “God of the inheritance of Israel”
upholder of the weak — “Lord of heaven and earth”
protector of the forlorn — “Creator of the waters”
savior of those without hope — “King of all creation”

If this scheme appeals to translators, they may wish to avoid the restructuring used in Good News Translation in the last two sentences of verse 11.

In the list of titles above on the left, only the first one does not describe God with a noun derived from a verb. Good News Translation makes verbs of all these nouns (helper, upholder, protector, and savior), and provides a verb (“cares for”) to go with the first title. Ordinarily verbs convey more energy and power than nouns, which is why Good News Translation makes this change, but there is much to be said for the hammer-stroke blows of the numerous nouns in quick succession: helper, upholder, protector, and savior, matched by God, Lord, Creator, and King in the next series.

Lowly in God of the lowly refers to people who have low social status and are thus helpless against the powerful. It has a meaning similar to oppressed. Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, as well as other translations, do not translate oppressed correctly. It literally means “the lesser ones,” so Enslin suggests “the underdogs.” Weak does not mean physical weaklings, but people who cannot defend themselves against powerful enemies, and are thus helpless. The meaning of forlorn is not really “helpless,” but rather “discouraged.” Again the text reflects the use of parallelism in Hebrew poetry, where lowly/ weak and oppressed/ forlorn have similar meanings.

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• You are very powerful and do not depend on large numbers of soldiers or weapons. You are a God who cares for people of low social class [or, social underdogs] and helps those people who are discouraged. You protect those who are helpless and rescue those who have lost all hope.

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.