Many of the people, every one who forsook the law, joined them: This verse refers to the renegade Jews. New English Bible has a good approach here, saying “People thronged to their side in large numbers, every one of them a traitor to the law.” Revised English Bible is similar with “Those of the people who were ready to betray the law all thronged to their side in large numbers.” Either of these models is more satisfying than the one in Good News Bible. Another possible model is “Many of the people obeyed King Antiochus and stopped obeying the Law [of Moses].”

And they did evil in the land: Evil is literally “evil things.” Good News Bible introduces a difficult concept, “defiled the land,” in an attempt to deal with the phrase in the land. (Where else would they do this evil?) But the writer is speaking of the Holy Land, the Promised Land; to the original readers the phrase was not repetitive. It may not be going too far actually to translate the whole clause as “and they did evil things in the Holy Land [or, the land of the One in Heaven].” New English Bible has an interesting solution; it joins this clause to the next verse: “Their wicked conduct throughout the land 53 drove Israel into hiding….” But this may be stated more simply as “The evil things they did in the Holy Land 53 forced true Israelites to hide….”

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on 1-2 Maccabees. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.