The entire race was to be registered individually: The name of every single Jew was to be written down (compare 3 Macc 2.28-29). According to verse 17, scribes wrote down the names of the Jews. Scribes are men whose job it is to write, especially in the sense of writing for another person or copying other writings. Contemporary English Version renders this clause as “The name of every Jew was to be written in government records,” which is a helpful model. However, for languages that cannot use a passive verb here, another possible model is “He [or, The king] ordered scribes to write down the names of every Jew.”

Not for the hard labor that has been briefly mentioned before may be rendered “not so that they could work as slaves, as was mentioned before.” See 3 Macc 2.28.

But to be tortured with the outrages that he had ordered may be expressed as “but so that they would suffer horrible tortures that the king had ordered,” “but the king planned to have them violently tortured” (similarly Contemporary English Version), or even “but the king planned to have his men torture them violently.” See 3 Macc 3.25-28.

And at the end to be destroyed in the space of a single day: In the space of a single day refers to the length of time for killing the prisoners, not for recording their names. As explained in the next verse, the scribes spent forty days recording the Jewish names, and did not finish even then. So we may translate this clause as “Then, after all this, be killed in one day” or “Then after all this, to kill them in one day.”

Here are alternative models for this verse:

• He ordered scribes to write down the name of every Jew. Not so that they would work as slaves, as mentioned earlier. But the king planned to have them violently tortured and then be killed—all within a single day’s time.

• … But the king planned to have his men torture them violently. Then after all this, to kill them in one day.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on 3-4 Maccabees. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2018. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.