The interpretation timeline

Jdt 16:5

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

Jdt 16:5 · Douay-Rheims
“The Assyrians came out of the mountains from the north in the multitude of his strength: his multitude stopped up the torrents, and their horses covered the valleys.”
Post-Reformation c. 1650 – 1900
1849
A.D.
1774–1849
“Mountains of Cilicia, and through the defiles of Libanus and Hermon, on the north of Palestine, by which road they were forced to come. The desert Arabia was impassable for a large army. (Calmet) — North, inclining to the east. (Haydock) (Isaias xiv. 13., Jeremias i. 13., and Ezechiel i. 4.) — Torrents, drinking them up, as Sennacherib boasted; (4 Kings xix. 24.) and the Greeks assert the same of the army of Xerxes. (Herodotus vii. 108.) —–Epotaque flumina Medo Prandente.—– (Juvenal x.) The Greek seems to insinuate that the Assyrians “stopped up the springs,” to distress the country, as Philopator did. (Calmet) — Valleys. Greek, “hills.””
Source
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.