He encouraged them, saying: Good News Bible says “and tried to encourage them by saying,” which is a legitimate way of interpreting this clause. We may also translate “and he gave the people new hope by saying.”

You yourselves know what great things I and my brothers and the house of my father have done for the laws and the sanctuary: You yourselves reflects an emphatic construction in Greek, but in this context it is a bit out of place in English. Good News Bible and some other versions do not try to express the emphasis, but Revised English Bible reflects it by translating You yourselves know as “I do not need to remind you.” Another approach is “I am sure you know.” My brothers refers to Judas and Jonathan. The house of my father refers to the whole Maccabean family: the father Mattathias and all his sons (1Macc see 2.1-5). Good News Bible moves the pronoun I to the end of the series for naturalness in English: “my father’s family, my brothers, and I.” Translators may place the pronoun wherever it is natural in their language. The laws refers to “the Law of Moses” (Good News Bible), the Torah, the Jewish Law. The sanctuary is of course the Temple (see the comments on 1Macc 1.21).

You know also the wars and the difficulties which we have seen: The pronoun we refers back to Simon and his brothers. The verb seen refers to experiencing the wars and the difficulties, and translators may need to use a different verb with each of the nouns, as Good News Bible does by saying “the wars we have fought and the troubles we have had.” For the whole sentence we may also say “You also know [or, have heard about] how my brothers and I have suffered as we fought against our enemies.”

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.