And they sounded the trumpets, and Cendebeus and his army were put to flight, and many of them were wounded and fell: For trumpets see the comments on 1Macc 3.54. It is not clear which side sounded the war trumpets, but it was probably the Jewish army. In English it is not necessary to specify this; for example, Good News Bible renders And they sounded the trumpets as “The trumpets sounded the attack,” that is, the trumpets gave the signal for the troops to attack. But in many languages the people who sounded the trumpets must be specified; for example, “Then the Jews blew their trumpets.” The sound of the trumpets gave the signal to the rest of the Jewish soldiers to attack, and Cendebeus and his army were forced to retreat. An alternative model for this whole sentence is “Then the Jewish soldiers blew their war trumpets and attacked Cendebeus and his army. His soldiers ran away [or, retreated]. Many of them were killed or wounded.”

The rest fled into the stronghold: The text does not say where this stronghold was, but it was surely at Kedron (see verse 9 and 1Macc 15.41). Good News Bible is justified in building this into the translation: “The rest ran back to their fortress at Kedron.”

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.