At the command of the leader, they set out from there immediately: Since Judas is the leader, and since they set out is literally “he set out,” it makes good sense to translate this clause as Good News Bible has done, making Judas the subject. Good News Bible omits from there, which refers to Jerusalem. A better model for this whole clause is “Then Judas, their leader, gave the orders, and they immediately marched from Jerusalem.”
And engaged them in battle at a village called Dessau: The pronoun them refers to Nicanor’s army, so Good News Bible says “the enemy,” which is helpful. Revised Standard Version has a serious problem with pronouns in this verse. The name of the village here is a problem. It occurs in the Greek manuscripts in several different forms, indicating a lack of certainty on the part of the scribes. However, none of the manuscripts have “Adasa” (Good News Bible). It is a widely accepted conjecture that Dessau is a scribal error for Adasa, which was the site of Nicanor’s last battle (see 1Macc 7.40). Since some manuscripts read “Lessau” or some variation, the conjecture is also made that it is an error for the town of Laish. We are not convinced that either of these conjectures has much merit, but we are convinced that Dessau is wrong. Consequently, we suggest that translators follow Good News Bible with “Adasa.” There is at least a chance that it is right. However, those who wish to follow Revised Standard Version may certainly do so without apology.
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.
The Geneva bible has better translation, thou maccabees 2 is written long after because it mentions “in the time before we were mixing with the gentiles”. Proving christian theology was already in their culture and this had been writen later than stated.
Anyway, their version says “when the leader gave his commands they straightway left out of there, and joined battle at Lessau”. This name looks so much like “lesous” and “Essau” that both versions of the name could be Essau or “jesus” . Essau is the only name of OT that was never translated but left as is, yet no vowels in hebrew which would mean his name was just an S. A lot of the names in maccabees are the same people of NT, just edited to be “40 years-150 years” difference. Maccabees were the fulfillment of all of the isaiah and “messiah” prophecies.
The geneva bible uses Lessau and “he” the commander. The name is too much like “lesous” and “essau “. The name essau has never been translated, left as is. Both sound exactly like “jesus” and essau. Hebrew had no vowels so the name wouldve been an S. All names of maccabees are exactly the same as NT, all fulfilled isaiah and messiah prophecies which many scholars have found the timings of the histories are off. The entire maccabees is the NT, even when you read flavus joseohus which also was edited by Christians. The 2nd maccabees was writen “as told by jason”, and also long after “the times when there was no mingling with gentiles” proving it was after the Christian era and of the descendants that followed Jason (aka “jesus” before he changed his name) and Onias. The stories of 1 maccabees is the completion of the messianic prophecies of Isaiah! The true heros. Their graves were still worshiped and honored by “christians” as late as 200ce, proof found at the modi’in excavation!