Two young men also appeared to him, remarkably strong, gloriously beautiful and splendidly dressed: The text does not say that anyone saw the young men other than Heliodorus, so Good News Bible begins this verse well with “Heliodorus also saw two unusually strong and handsome young men….” For splendidly dressed, Good News Bible has “wearing very fine clothes,” which is a little weak. A better model is “wearing beautiful [or, expensive] clothes.” Good News Bible renders the first half of this verse as a separate sentence, which may be helpful in other languages.

Who stood on each side of him means one young man was on one side of Heliodorus and the other young man was on his other side.

And scourged him continually, inflicting many blows on him means the young men were whipping him severely, using a lash or whip, which was probably a long thin strip of leather. Heliodorus was standing when this happened, but he fell because of the beating (see the next verse). Contemporary English Version says “and beat him severely with whips.” Another possible model is “and used whips to beat him severely.” The last half of this verse may be rendered “They stood on both sides of him, and used lashes [or, whips] to beat him over and over [or, again and again].”

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.