We have received the gold crown and the palm branch which you sent: The king speaks of himself in the first person plural We throughout the letter. Good News Bible uses the singular “I.” Translators should use a pronoun style that is natural in their language. The pronoun you, here and throughout the rest of the letter, is plural. The gold crown symbolized submission to the king, and the palm branch may have meant the same (compare 2Macc 14.4). It is not clear whether the palm branch was an object made of gold, as Good News Bible and Contemporary English Version have it. Some scholars think it was a scepter shaped like a palm branch, but others think it was an actual branch of a palm tree, used here as a symbol of submission or perhaps of Judea. Later the palm tree became a symbol for Judea, and was used on its coins. The men whom Simon had sent to negotiate terms with Demetrius brought the crown and palm branch as gifts.

And we are ready to make a general peace with you and to write to our officials to grant you release from tribute: A general peace is literally “a great peace.” Goldstein says “a full state of peace,” and New American Bible has “most peaceful terms.” This idea is missing in Good News Bible. We prefer “a lasting peace” (New English Bible, Contemporary English Version) or “a permanent peace.” To grant you release from tribute may be rendered “to stop collecting taxes from you” (Contemporary English Version). We suggest the following model for this last half of the verse: “I am prepared [or, willing] to agree to a lasting peace [with your people], and I will instruct my tax officers to collect no more taxes from you [or, to stop collecting taxes from you].”

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.