Before you do all this may be rendered “before you do any of these things.”

Bring Achior the Ammonite to me: Bring is literally “call.” In the next verse Achior is called. For some reason he did not join the general rush to greet Judith. “Have Achior the Ammonite come to me” would satisfy the text without raising questions about why he was not present to begin with.

Let him see and recognize the man who despised the house of Israel: Good News Translation may miss the point with “I want to see if he recognizes Holofernes, the man….” It sounds as if she were not sure she had beheaded the right man, or as if she somehow doubted his story. The point is that of all the people in Bethulia, Achior is the only one who can really verify that the head belongs to Holofernes. One may translate “I want him to look at this head and verify that this is the man who insulted the people of Israel.” Holofernes is not actually named here. Whereas Judith named him in 13.15, where she was glorifying her achievement, she may here be making him less than human by depriving him of a name as she speaks of him in contempt.

And sent him to us as if to his death: Good News Translation does well in the rest of this verse with “and sent Achior to us, thinking he would be killed along with the rest of us.” Achior must be named to clarify the pronoun him, unless of course it is clear from the previous two clauses that Achior is being referred to. Good News Translation‘s expansion of as if to his death is reminding the reader of Holofernes’ threat against Achior in 6.7-8.

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• But before you do any of these things, have Achior the Ammonite come to me. I want him to look at this head and verify that it is the head of the man who insulted the people of Israel and sent him [Achior] to us, expecting him to be killed along with the rest of us.

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.