Early in the morning they arose and marched into the plain: The verb arose here probably has the literal meaning of getting up from a night’s sleep, so it may be rendered “awoke.” The plain would be the place where armies would meet for battle, rather than in a hilly terrain. For comments on plain, see 1Macc 3.24. An alternative model for the first half of this verse is “Then early the next morning John and his soldiers awoke and marched out into the plain.”

And behold, a large force of infantry and horsemen was coming to meet them: And behold translates a Hebrew idiom indicating a new direction in the narrative. New American Bible expresses the force of the idiom well by translating this whole clause as “There, facing them, was an immense army of foot soldiers and horsemen.”

And a stream lay between them: Since the presence of the stream on the battlefield presents a problem to the troops in verse 6, Good News Bible does well to translate the connector and as “but.” For the Greek word rendered stream, see the comments on 1Macc 5.37. The text does not specifically indicate whether there was water flowing in this stream, but since John’s soldiers were afraid to cross it (verse 6), it must have been swollen with seasonal rain. Since “river” (Good News Bible) suggests a wide body of water, it is better to say “stream-bed” (New Jerusalem Bible) or “gully” (New English Bible). It was a narrow gully with swiftly moving water. Between them indicates that the stream was between John’s army and the army of Cendebeus.

An alternative model for this verse is:

• Then early the next morning John and his soldiers awoke and marched out into the plain. There they saw many foot soldiers and horse soldiers coming toward them. But there was a gully of rushing water between the two armies.

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.