And leave to the young a noble example of how to die a good death willingly and nobly for the revered and holy laws: The idea of a good death is missing in Good News Bible, but it is in the Greek verb rendered to die a good death. Speakers of English may have a problem with this idea; translators working in other languages may not. Eleazar is talking about an honorable way to die. Other ways to render and leave to the young a noble example of how to die a good death are “I will also be leaving our young people an example of a good and honorable way to die,” “I also will be showing our young people how to die in a good and honorable way,” and even “And my death will set a good example for our young people” (Contemporary English Version). Translators may combine revered and holy, but we prefer to keep both ideas by rendering the revered and holy laws as “the holy laws that we value so highly.” This model may sound like a strange speech to be putting in the mouth of a man about to sacrifice his life, but that is really the way the writer has it—flowery and elaborate. An alternative model for the end of Eleazar’s speech is “I will also be leaving our young people an example of a good, honorable way to die. I will die willingly and heroically to uphold the holy laws that we value so highly.”

When he had said this, he went at once to the rack: It is appropriate to begin a new paragraph here (so Revised Standard Version, Good News Bible). We suggest ignoring the textual footnote in Revised Standard Version and Good News Bible. There is hardly any doubt that went, not “was dragged,” is the correct text. For rack see the comments on verse 19. An alternative model for this sentence is “When Eleazar had finished speaking, he went immediately to the place of torture [or, the place where they would torture him].”

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.