In Gbaya, the notion of confusion or dismay is emphasized in the referenced verses with yelem, an ideophone that expresses becoming confused, not knowing what to think.

Note that for 1 Maccabees 10:74 the Gbaya translators interpreted along the lines of the French Traduction œcuménique de la Bible which has “he was completely shaken by it” ( il en fut tout ébranlé) instead of the New Revised Standard Version, updated edition‘s “his spirit was aroused.”

Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)