Behold now: For Behold see 3.2.
The Assyrians are increased in their might: There is some ambiguity here; it is not clear whether the writer is thinking of the Assyrians as “stronger than ever” (Good News Translation) or, more specifically, as more numerous than ever (Moore with “greatly reinforced,” where “greatly” translates in their might). The Greek allows either, so this means that the Assyrians are not only more numerous, but they also have acquired more weapons. So alternative models are “the Assyrian army now has more soldiers and weapons than before” and “there are now more Assyrian soldiers than before and they have many more weapons.”
They are exalted, with their horses and riders; they glory in the strength of their foot soldiers; they trust in shield and spear, in bow and sling: Good News Translation combines they are exalted and they glory into “they take pride in.” This softens Judith’s description. “Take pride in” usually has positive connotations, but Judith is describing their pride in negative terms. They are arrogant, boasting, bragging, so one may translate “they are so proud of their horses….” Good News Translation has also combined horses and riders into “cavalry” and shield, spear, bow and sling into “weapons.” The shield was a protective device held by the soldier in front of his body to protect him against swords, spears, and arrows. A bow was a flexible strip of wood strung with string or some other material that was bent by the soldier to shoot arrows. For spear see 1.15; for sling see 6.12. Translators may feel that it is too drastic to combine all these terms since using specific terms to describe the enemy army and arms adds to the effect. An alternative translation model is:
• They constantly brag [or, boast] about their great numbers of horse soldiers and foot soldiers, who are sure that their swords, shields, bows, and slings will help them defeat the enemy.
Know not that thou art the Lord that crushest wars: For the Lord that crushest wars, see also 16.3. It is hard to see where Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version find “warrior” in the text. The author of Judith is quoting Exo 15.3 from the song of Moses. The Hebrew text of Exo 15.3 describes the Lord as a warrior, but the Greek text, which the author of Judith is quoting here, does not. The Greek of Exo 15.3 reads “The Lord is a breaker of wars; the Lord is his name.” The only major difference is that Judith uses second person to refer to the Lord. Interestingly, where the Hebrew of Isa 42.13 refers to God as a warrior, the Greek again describes him as a breaker of wars—the same idiom used here. Elsewhere the Hebrew Bible depicts God as breaking the arms of combatants (Job 38.15; Psa 10.15) or as breaking weapons (Psa 46.9; 76.3; Hos 2.18). Verse 8 sheds some light on how to translate this clause. Contemporary English Version talks about God using his “strength to completely destroy” the Assyrian army. So here in the present verse we may translate as follows: “But they do not know that you are the Lord [or, the Ruler] who destroys the enemy soldiers.”
The Lord is thy name: Lord (kurios in Greek) is the equivalent of the Hebrew word ʾadonai, meaning “one who rules” or “Master.” These terms were used instead of the divine name Yahweh, which was considered too holy to utter. This presents a problem for translators in the present passage. Lord will not be a name in most languages, but rather a title. In such cases it will be better to say “You are the great Ruler” or to combine the final two clauses into “Lord [or, Master], you rule over all things and destroy the enemy soldiers.”
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.