Translators should begin a new paragraph at this point; the scene changes to what the priests did after Nicanor’s tirade.

Then the priests went in and stood before the altar and the temple: Good News Bible explains this situation well. The priests (supposedly those who had not been defiled by being spit upon) returned to the Temple courtyard, and stood facing the altar and the Temple sanctuary beyond it (compare Joel 2.17). Went in is better translated “returned to” (Contemporary English Version).

And they wept and said: Said refers to praying as the next verse indicates. Good News Bible renders this clause well with “They started weeping and prayed.”

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.