He pursued them to the gate of Ptolemais: The city of Ptolemais was the nearest of the three cities named in verse 15. Simon and his soldiers didn’t enter the city, but defeated the Gentiles outside the city gates (see verse 55). An alternative model for this clause is “He and his army pursued the Gentiles all the way to the gates of the city of Ptolemais.”

And as many as three thousand of the Gentiles fell: Good News Bible expresses this clause clearly with “killing about 3,000 of them,” and so does Contemporary English Version with “where they killed about three thousand Gentiles.”

And he despoiled them means that Simon and his soldiers took the weapons and any articles of value from the dead Gentile soldiers. We may say “and they took all their valuable possessions.”

An alternative model for this verse is:

• He and his soldiers pursued [or, chased after] the Gentiles all the way to the city of Ptolemais. There they killed about 3,000 [or, three thousand] of them, and took all their valuable possessions.

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.